Wednesday 16 May 2012

Reality Check

India, the seventh largest country on the globe and the second most populous, currently lies just outside the top-ten list of countries ranked by GDP. India boasts of one of the earliest civilizations on the planet - Mohenjo-daro and Harappa dating back to around 3000 BCE, but I'm sure you know all these things... And I'm positive it's not something you will miss telling your foreigner pals while hanging out in a bar. I am also certain that you say it with so much pride, you are almost taking credit for establishing the Indus Valley Civilization! There's nothing wrong with that, of course... Every nation must be proud of its history.

But it doesn't end there, does it? You inevitably mention a few more fabulous aspects about the nation hoping to leave your differently skinned friends reeling in awe. Let me give you a few examples: (1) The Republic of India has the third largest military force in the world. (2) Along with Pakistan, Sri Lanka and a few other tidbits, India forms the only subcontinent in the world - replete with every fathomable geographical feature; mountains, plains, marshes, plateaus, deserts, rivers, lakes and seas - we've got the lot. (3) We have the third largest pool of qualified engineers in the world! (yes, I bet you didn't know that) (4) And we're one of those elite few with nuclear power - wait, Pakistan's got that too, no? Okay, we've gone to Space. Ha ha, take that!

I suppose we're also the world's largest producer of wheat and the second largest producer of rice... but since we eat all of it, it mustn't count. The only things which get out of the country, unconsumed by the billion people, are cotton, textiles, diamonds and jewelry; not much else. Anyway, all this doesn't matter. Because I'm going to tell you today how all these stories are well-worded 'feel-good' statements which mask the ugly truths which lie underneath.

Listed really high in the National GDP chart, India does really poorly on the per capita basis. Well, you knew that... And I knew that. But I didn't know it was this bad: $1389/capita-year according to the IMF puts us in the 140th place in a list of 182 countries. It only gets worse as the Rupee continues its plunge towards 60 to a Dollar.

Let's talk about the military forces now: most of us start feeling secure listening to the 'third largest military force' quip time and again. However, it must be known that as soon as you divide this number by the number of people inhabiting the country, we end up with the following ratio: 1.1 Active soldiers per thousand citizens, which is incidentally ranked 149th in the world. Alright, we don't have to be North Korea which has nearly 50 per thousand, but this extreme is equally crazy.

Long gone are the days when the subcontinent was protected from foreign invaders by a wall of high mountains in the north and the mighty seas in the south. No longer can the way the earth is sculpted be considered a serious security measure, but these geographical features offer us a plethora of other opportunities - all of which we have failed to grasp. Tourism and agriculture are two activities we have ceaselessly contrived to fail at - and we've done it in style!

Most credible tourism companies don't even give India a rank when it comes to international visitors! Despite being one of the oldest continuously inhabited places, having some of the most picturesque places and boasting of some of the most evolved cultures known to man, India manages a paltry five million international tourists every year. Contrast that with China which sees over fifty-three million visitors annually; no, we must stop comparing ourselves with the Chinese. All those India-China surveys are lies - and we're not catching up.

Agriculture and allied sectors like forestry, logging and fishing accounted for 15.7% of the GDP in 2009–10, employed 52.1% of the total workforce; all this with the most naturally fertile land in the world. When we talk about revolutions in the sector which employs more than half of the people in India, we shouldn't have to quote MS Swaminathan's Green Revolution (1963) as the last good thing that happened. Actually, Dr. Swaminathan, with all due respect was only responsible for implementing the methods of Dr. Norman Borlaug, an American agronomist, who was actually responsible for the revolution.

So what exactly are these one billion Indians achieving? Becoming engineers in hordes, I suppose. Third largest squad of engineers in the world... and what have we got to show for it? The foremost institutions in the country, the IITs, are completely unknown once you exit the borders. And why should they be known? It's not like they're doing any remarkable research or transforming India into an engineering superpower. Mostly, engineering institutions across the nation are producing unambitious people who just want to do management or worse, who join one of those companies which outsource work from the United States and allied countries. Well, the Outsourcing industry does contribute around 28% of our total GDP, but isn't it a very temporary solution? I don't think a country's development can be based entirely on how much work it can do for another. We need to start producing things. Ourselves.

And now that we've established that we've got a surplus of farmers and engineers, how're the other professions doing? According to a recent survey, there are around 50 physicians per 100,000 Indians and I shouldn't have to tell you how bad that is. According to the World Health Organisation, 900,000 Indians die each year from drinking contaminated water or breathing polluted air. And why wouldn't they die?

So, you see, it's not a case of excelling in one field and thus failing in another. We're sucking across the whole gamut, with the exception of Bollywood, which the world knows for its colours and dance routines and Cricket, which is followed closely by a few people in 12 different countries.

File:World Map Index of perception of corruption 2010.svg
This is not a time for incremental change - it is time for a full scale revolution. And we, as a people, are more than capable of making it happen. We've achieved far more difficult things in the past and there is no reason this revolution will not come. Sixty years ago, there was no tangible connection between the different people who inhabited this country - no common language, no common origin, not even the same religion - yet, we have survived. Not just survived, we have grown... without any major civil war! That's a credible achievement to say the least. In 1950, the world was worried about leaving such a large country completely in the hands of a few people who had never known the meaning of freedom until then. Today, we can look back proudly and say we've made it. This is a real achievement and no one can take anything away from it.

The fact that we're doing so poorly on so many fronts must not deter us one bit! Every thing we are lagging at is a serious business opportunity. No longer must we rely on governments bringing legislation to improve the condition of the people, only to be completely undone by the subsequent government. True, legislation is the easiest and most successful way to bring about change. But we shouldn't sit on our backsides and hope that change will come! Scams will happen, corruption will continue and red-tape will make things very difficult for the common man. But there is still a way. Sleep six hours instead of eight. Forget about that extra one million rupees in profits and do something for the country. And don't wait for the goddamned government to bring the revolution. You must do it yourself.

As M.K.Gandhi said, "Be the change you want to see in the world."


17 comments:

  1. Loved the labels- Senti-Posts and Dissatisfaction! and specifically 2 lines- "Every thing we are lagging at is a serious business opportunity" and "Sleep six hours instead of eight". I would have said 5 hrs instead of 7/8 but then... This is your blog post.. and as always have written it very aptly!

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  2. :) This is also probably the longest I've taken to pen a post on this blog! Authentic data does that to you...

    In retrospect, I think 5 would be more apt. But you get the idea, right?

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  3. And in case the 'Corruption' picture doesn't make sense, I'm just saying that corruption shouldn't be such a big concern now. We've got enough problems to worry about, otherwise.

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  4. I get similar feelings every time I go abroad and talk to foreigners. In my opinion every Indian should be given an opportunity to talk on a one to one basis with someone from a foreign country. Only this will make them realize the sorry state of affairs that we are in.

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  5. excellent post with great insight! the last was the best!

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  6. Pinky,

    I completely agree. We say Americans know nothing about the world because of the kind of information they're being supplied with by their media (read: Fox News and CNN) when we don't even know the right stuff about our own country!

    We need to stop the 'India and China will be the next superpowers' quip right now. It's almost laughable.

    Saahith,

    (bows) Thank you! And it's not often you'll see me quoting Gandhi.

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  7. All it takes for a civilization to fall, is for its good men to do nothing
    We all are equally responsible for the current scenario.

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  8. True, man. Which is why I'm utterly dissatisfied with the way things are. Each one of us can make a difference. Instead, we choose not to.

    P.S. This post is partly a result of that hookah-lounge discussion we had a few days back. I suppose you guess that already though.

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  9. Quite similar to what I would have to say, if I had a way with words. Nice post!

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  10. We can surely have those discussions an a regular basis.
    At least we get to know more possible avenues to think about.

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  11. Completely agree with your views and as usual, you have expressed your arguments tersely and convincingly.
    I would like to add to your post by expressing my views as well. The 3 areas that need immediate attention, according to me, are:

    1. Manufacturing: Considering the sheer size of the country, population and abundance of certain mineral resources, one can't help but express surprise at the abysmal state of manufacturing in the country. It’s true that we definitely excel in certain manufacturing industries like steel, pharmaceuticals, automobile parts, refined oil and petrochemicals to name a few. We rank 6th in the world in oil refining capacity and are a major exporter of refined products. But the fact that 80% of the refinery industry depends on imported crude, the supply of which is as mercurial as the whims of the hegemons and religious fanatics, exposes this industry to enormous risks.
    Moreover, all the major manufacturing industries are either PSUs or owned by large industrial houses. Small scale distributed manufacturing which eventually adds up to a huge total is a practice that is absent in India. Also, the technology used by almost every manufacturing industry is imported. And one particular manufacturing sector about which we should keep our nationalist mouths tightly shut is Defence Manufacturing. Sshhh…I am not even talking about it.

    You have rightly mentioned “I don't think a country's development can be based entirely on how much work it can do for another. We need to start producing things. Ourselves.” That sums it up.

    2.Research: It surely is a cliched cliché to talk about how poorly India fares in Research. That said, one wonders why is it so that with passing years, passing decades and passing governments, no one ever really cared to do something about it? Bam comes the reply –No money. And I agree.
    Manufacturing and research are so deeply interlinked that its not a surprise if one is not doing well in the country, the other follows. With no hope of a future application in manufacturing, there would be no research and with no research, there would be no indigenous manufacturing. The government pushed research in Space, Missile Tech and Nuclear Weaponry and we definitely feel a little complacent when we think about the relative position of India in these sectors. But what about investing in other hundreds of research fields?

    3. Health: Let’s see India’s ranking in the world in certain sectors pertaining to health : 1st in no. of malnourished kids, 1st in no. of TB patients, 1st in infant mortality rate, 1st in diarrhoea deaths among children, 3rd in AIDS deaths, 3rd in low birth weight babies, 53rd in access to sanitation…just to name a few. With “50 physicians per 100,000 Indians”, one really can’t expect much, when ironically, we have a strong presence in pharmaceuticals manufacturing.

    Unless we do something about at least these 3 sectors, how can we even think of being a superpower? When the rate at which diseases kill Indians is disproportionately more than the rate at which any war has or will ever kill, do we really have to be complacent about having the 3rd largest military force in the world?

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  12. I guess that's too long a comment. Couldn't really resist once I started writing that. Blame your brilliant expression of the pertinent issues that made it impossible for me to refrain from expressing myself at a highly pragmatic platform. :)

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  13. Devesh,
    Agreed.

    Arun,
    I read your comment, don't worry :P And I think everyone will agree with what you've just said. I think education is also still very neglected.

    We keep reading about how our cities are growing... But people who are saying that the growth of Indian cities is akin to the growth of India as a nation are telling white lies.

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  14. Frankly speaking, this post comes as a surprise...
    Flustered with your insight.
    Good work here kondy.
    As for sorry state of affairs..well, i would say population factor is the most important issue. If consumption decreases the manufacturing capacity, per capita income...etc will all increase...ofcourse too simple a solution but dont you think it would work in long run?
    Anyways kudos for ur efforts..

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  15. very well written!! Amarty Sen says, for india the greatest asset is the young population. we need to invest in education to make this asset productive. otherwise, we wont be able to generate equal opportunities for all, and in its absence, poverty would persist to trouble us. its sad, the work for which Amartya Sen received the nobel prize, has not been implemented in india because of incapable leaders ruling leaders!

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  16. There is another problem Kondy....who is this blog addressed to? We all know the problems (even if not all of them, we know at least the major ones), but what do we do? What do WE do? Society is nothing but each one of us together.
    And its funny that a Chemical engineer is commenting on another Chemical engineer's blog, and writing about manufacturing and refinery industry. And a Production and Industrial engineer, working for a Consulting company, says that he feels the same way. Two Metallurgical engineers comment (including me) but are not doing anything....anything at all, to improve the sorry state of affairs.
    I'm not blaming anybody.... its equally my fault. And we don't need to talk to somebody from another country to burst that balloon of false pride. Go to a slum, travel in the general class of a train, take the bus with the cheapest fares, talk to the janitor in your office....thats more than enough to make us 'realize', but we still won't do anything. 6 hours sleep - that we can do...maybe if our company pays us overtime. Otherwise, we don't lose our sleep over anything.

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