The Indian Development Paradox

I have been away for some time since my last post on Leadership.

I recently visited India, and the first notable thing was how overpopulated and polluted the city of Mumbai was. A fetid milieu is evident in many parts of the Metro. This is also evident in other cities though at a lower scale, but a scale that has crossed the benchmark of being termed as 'acceptable", in terms of global standards.

India for long has been an epitome of manufacturing and IT prowess, but the developmental leap has resulted in a subsequent rush to one of the world's biggest metros - Mumbai. The vast pressure created by population, infrastructure needs and sanitation have been paramount, but left much to be desired from the ruling party - Congress.

Although the "common man" has now extended reach to a better standard of living, but that does not come easy given the able pressure on employment, settlement and education. The latter has now become a norm in every household, and tends to drive the middle-class lifestyle which is now estimated at 780 million.

There is ample to be invested in infrastructure and instituting policies that control the population pressure, which clearly remains the biggest threat to the country in the medium term. Awareness has to be spread among the rural settlements and simultaneously overcoming the stereo-type norms of having a "big" family.

India remains one of the emerging hotspots of IT and Manufacturing, and Telecoms in the region, if not the biggest. If corporate India could overhaul the economy to give the country a new birth, it is due time similar emphasis ought to be given by the Government to the masses to control the ill-effects of development.