This being my first ever attempt to write a blog and given that I have a natural inclination to think about everything from the perspective of an Economist,I decided to start off with one of my most favorite topics--the new 'urban' India! All of a sudden over the last 2-3 years India seems to have become the most talked about country in every sense, apart from China of course. Not just because it is expected to become the world's most populated country by 2030, but mainly because it is growing at a rate that has caught the attention of every politician and economist all around the globe. Ambitious infrastructure projects, regulatory changes, a wave of company restructuring, government-led anti-poverty schemes, a huge surge of BPO business drastically transforming the socioeconomic environment, IT boom, huge expansion of the service sector providing employment to thousands of young graduates, a booming consumer market--the list is endless! These dramatic improvements are certainly attracting the attention of a string of international corporate giants who have been falling over themselves to plough billions of dollars into expansion programmes. Microsoft is planning to invest $1.7 billion in India over the next four years, mobile-phone giant Nokia is planning to start making handsets in the country, while computer firm Dell intends to double its India-based workforce to 15,000 by 2008. Retail chains such as Macdonald's and Subway and Starbucks are also planning on making inroads into the consumer markets of every major Indian city. Not just the MNCs and BPOs, domestic enterprises such as Reliance, Tata, Infosys, Wipro etc have become global names too.
Every time I return to my hometown Calcutta, I feel as if I am going to a new city! Local markets being replaced by swanky shopping malls, Barista and CCD in place of small tea-stalls or coffee house, pubs-restaurants-clubs multiplying in big numbers, new models of cars getting released in the market every other day, young students moving around with the latest model of cell phones or bikes--it's a real feast for the eyes of someone who's so used to the laid back, slow moving, lazy Calcutta of the 1990s! And above all everyone around seems to have the money to spend and splurge and soak in the luxuries of an urban city life. Once upon a time, not so long ago, graduating from either an IIT or an IIM was perhaps the only way to enjoy these luxuries on a day to day basis for the young educated crowd; now it's a passe. Getting a job in any big MNC is not considered a hard task for any graduate student and with it comes all the perks-be it traveling to London or San Francisco for "off-shore" assignments or training or buying a house and a car with loans of course, even at an young age of 26-27-a feat that used to be the dream of our parents even during their early middle age! What does the "new urban India" dream about then?
India has indeed risen very fast to be a global force worth recognizing. But is this high GDP growth rate of 9-10% sustainable in years to come? What does the future hold for this "new urban India'? Is India growing but not developing? What about the rural India? How much do we really know or care about "them"?
2 comments:
Nice article - Reading about the Coca-colonization of 'Lazy Kolkata' brings to mind a host of questions?
The sudden hike in the per-capita income in India (thanks to the MNCs,BPOs) is somehow becoming agencies of cultural erosion.
The "Coffee House Adda" we espouse Kolkata with - where the discussion transcended from the individual realms to more community and even national, 'Para-Football' to 'Party-Politics' - is suddenly at a brink of crumbling under the changing scenario. Instead of discussing Marx we have Nokia N-series on the tables. The vain 'bong-atlami' had something to it :) I wonder whether our country will be able to protect its identity or become just a mc-D infested global economic power. Are the 'per-capita' estimates and rupee-dollar ratio everything we care for? Miss Economist, where is the balance?
To some extent I indeed do agree with you-"westernization" at this pace prolly does more harm than good in terms of distancing new generations from what we refer to as "indian culture and traditions" or "indian values" or even "bong intellectualism"!This is what I used to strongly feel when I was there back home. However, having stayed abroad for 1.5 yrs now, my views are changing. Maybe the time has come to not just think of ourselves as Indian nationals or Bongs, but also recognize the fact that we are integral elements of a much larger global community.In my opinion, in today's integrated world,the best way to reap benefits from the ongoing process of "globalization" is to remain rooted to the values imbibed in us by our culture and continue to appreciate the worth of our traditions yet develop an international persona which helps us nurture a much more liberal and rational attitude towards life per se. It also opens our eyes to some of the deep rooted failings of our own regional or national systems, from a socio-cultural perspective.There is I feel an inherent hypocrisy that we get so used to when we ourselves become victims of the customs and norms back home.Globalization according to me will hopefully help us recognize these drawbacks and rise above these. The best of both worlds is what I think is required at this juncture, economically as well as from a sociological point of view.
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