We have been talking about India’s growth story and the strong fundamentals behind it. The key drivers for our growth being the huge talent pool, cheap labor, huge domestic demand and a decent government support. All these factors put together made a great decade which attracted huge foreign Investments and created lot of employment opportunities. Our economy achieved a staggering growth during this period. In spite of the current crisis we are still holding good at a growth rate of 9.1% for last fiscal and 7.6% for Q2 FY09. We seem to have moved into a comfort zone by our growth story and the future of it on the basis of the above mentioned economic drivers. However, one thing we have never considered while singing our growth story is the socio-economic conditions prevailing in India and how it could play an important role in our future prospects. Religious violence, terrorism, naxalism, caste related violence, regional imbalance, poverty, unemployment etc are some of the common issue socio-economic issues we often fail to look upon while analyzing our journey ahead. Issues like poverty, unemployment and lack of human rights has given rise to religion, caste, region wise acrimony between people. We seem to have never moved on when it comes to our approach towards these issues. Incidents like the Khalistan movement, Ayodhya debate, Bombay Riots, 1993 Bombay bombings, 2002 Gujarat violence, Islamic terrorism, violence in Orissa, anti-Christian violence and the recent terror attack on Mumbai is a clear indication of our shallow mindset and hatred boiling within the country. Over years we have just kept playing the blame game on each other and the government on these issues. When will we wake up to the fact that the real growth is dependent on the growth of our people and not on the external factors? When will we realize that communal hatred doesn’t lead us anywhere? How can we spread education and learning to those deprived from it? What can be done to decrease the rich poor divide?
The recent attack on Mumbai should be a wake up call for all of us to get together and fight against the evil within us. The Precision with which the recent attack was carried out is possible only when information and help was rendered to terrorists by people within the country. Socio-economic problem is the main reason why people take the path of aggression and resort to terror activities. This will have a direct effect on our countries growth. In terms of business, travel and tourism, hotel industry, foreign investments, International trades are few of the many things that get affected due to this issue. Our economies growth is highly dependent on these internal factors. Thus unless we achieve harmony within the country it’s difficult to achieve a sustained growth.
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Hi,
ReplyDeleteI think your assessment about the political situation is pretty accurate. But politics is not the only hurdle towards business success. Infrastructure and crime is another hurdle.
There's very little infrastructure (power, water, roads) and the lack of it is preventing businesses from decentralizing, or moving into smaller towns.
Until we can ensure constant power and water supply to our manufacturers, we can't hope for an economic boom like the one in China for India.