Today, the NYT in an editorial talks about the huge investments and business activity that is transforming India into a modern powerhouse.Companies are attracted by the massive numbers of well educated young people being turned out by India’s many fine universities and Institutes.For those of us who are familiar with India’s powerful IT industry,it comes as a surprise to learn that India’s manufacturing industries are no less adept at producing goods of high quality at very competitive prices.All of this is explained in the editorial as a prelude to questioning Bush’s support of India’s massive program to build a large number of nuclear power plants using technology from GE, Bechtel and others.Bush is even trying to justify it as a way to reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
It is in this context the Times article talks about an automobile produced in India for $2500 that is attracting the attention of Toyota,Honda and others.A car produced at such cut rate prices would have a massive transformational effect.Our auto industry reeling from years of stagnation and losses would have a hard time withstanding a challenge of that magnitude, and believe me it is coming.China’s PM Wen Jiabao is now visiting India and joint ventures between China and India are not far off.Between themselves the two Asian giants have fully one third of the world’s population and both have achieved double digit growth rates in recent years.
Contrast this with the sad neglect of our own industrial heartland.I live not far from Kokomo,IN where the people are wondering if the city will survive if Delphi bites the dust.Ironically, Delphi is hooking up with a major automotive manufacturer in India and you know where this story is headed.The same story is being repeated in many communities across Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin.
I think we have to ask ourselves why our futures are looking bleak while those of India and China are so bright.I think our rulers, in their egomaniacal pursuit of world hegemony, have deliberately impoverished us.Only by making the connection between our obscene militarism and our impending poverty can we see through the fog that has enveloped our country.The same ideological blinders that killed the Soviet Union are slowly but surely strangling us.
India is getting its act together and I am very happy for the people of that country that they finally experiencing good economic growth. They still have a long way to go before India’s untouchables have a decent shot in life, but it’s amazing what that nation has accomplished.
And they are doing it with secular education. That is what we moving away from here. And it will eventually catch up to us. The media’s utter lack of seriousness on any issue is a big part of the problem.
Speaking of their education..I just read somewhere that India has more colleges/universities than the US does. I don’t know if that was simply overall or per person but it would point to their rising education/educated work force while education here is rapidly declining and our work force becomes more and more illiterate.
As for the media they have their propaganda role to play and are doing it well…keeping us uninformed or misinformed and promoting the myth that America is still Number One in everything while our own eyes give evidence to the contrary…in jobs, education, health care, technology and so on. I mentioned this before by according to Lou Dobbs our number one export is ….GARBAGE.
We have arrived at a point in this country where the value of education, health and environment is being debased owing to a variety of influences, not the least of which is the flight from reason.
I can tell you from personal experience the reverence with which Chinese or Indian schoolchildren listen to lectures on Math, Science and English, something our children seem unable to bring.That reverence for learning is the magnet that attracts our corporations to these countries.The NYT article also alludes to the increasing practice of locating R& D facilities in India by pharmaceutical, biotechnology and many manufacturing companies.That, in and of itself tells a sad story.
And speaking of R&D, I read that while the budget makes it sound like there is a lot of money for R&D, something like 97% I think of that R&D money will be going to the Pentagon..like they don’t have a big enough budget right. Sorry don’t remember offhand where I read that little known fact either…but it is disgusting..no doubt going for researching and developing those wonderful new nuclear bunker busters among other things.
May I just suggest that most of what the NYT writes about India should be understood as propaganda from the corporations, even though its putative point is that Americans need to be more competitive? Its not just the Dalits (formerly untouchables) who are frozen out of this boom, but also most of India’s population–at least 65-70%– have seen poverty levels and misery rise to levels not seen since under colonialism.
Post independence, India made a concerted effort to engage in a bottoms-up economy not a trickle down version. That experiment led to very slow results and was also hampered by red-tape, corruption, etc. The slowness of the results frustrated many and so they decided that it was more important that the rich get richer quicker and the poor go to hang.
The opening of the markets, the open invitation to multinational corporations to come and wreak their depredations at will, the end of any socialist programs, the end of any pretense of caring for the weaker sections of the population, meant that the gap between the haves and have-nots widened considerably. The upper middle and the upper classes are having an undreamt of boom–again comparable only to the time when the British needed to reward their loyalists for standing between them and the angry masses.
A week or so ago, France ordered the return of its ship, Clemenceau, an asbestos laden poison pill for the workers in the breakdown business in India, who don’t go to these wonderful universities, or buy any of the dream products so ably advertised on the media. Why was the ship sent to India, if it is shaping up to be such a great world power? Why did the Indian govt agree to accept this poison? And, finally and most important, why did France, after two years, reverse its decision and order the ship back?
The last question is the easiest to answer–Chirac is now in India, hoping to persuade Indian govt to spend its money on French aircrafts and munitions. It was a smart PR move to have the whole controversy of the ship out of the way.
I agree that the boom one hears about touches only a fraction of the people of India.We need to look at that as a catalyst for greater changes in Indian society which has been mired in social and economic stagnation for centuries.What this boom has unleashed is the increase in aspirations of all levels of Indian society.Amy Waldman of NYT has described this as a revolution in elementary, secondary and university level education that is now coming to fruition. If present trends continue, one would not be able to recognize Indian society two decades from now.This is the process that V.S.Naipaul has callled A MILLION MUTINIES.
As for the French turnabout on the asbestos laden ship an interesting sidelight has appeared in the form of the India-born entrepreneur, Laxmi Mittal, who has offered to buy the French/Luxembourg steel giant Arcelor unleashing a xenophobic storm in France.It looks like the French who want to sell planes and munitions to India do not want Indians to buy their corporate assets in a free market transaction!