{"id":3717,"date":"2013-10-30T10:01:24","date_gmt":"2013-10-30T04:31:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/?p=3717"},"modified":"2013-10-30T10:01:24","modified_gmt":"2013-10-30T04:31:24","slug":"indian-miracle-lives-shashi-tharoor-try-be-cheerful-for-our-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/?p=3717","title":{"rendered":"Indian Miracle Lives &#8211; Shashi Tharoor &#8211;  Try Be Cheerful for Our Land"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<header>\n<h1 itemprop=\"headline\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.project-syndicate.org\/commentary\/the-indian-miracle-lives\">The\u00a0 Indian Miracle Lives<\/a><\/h1>\n<\/header>\n<ul>\n<li>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div><a>Tweet<i><\/i>287<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div><a>Share<i><\/i>19<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div><a>Share<i><\/i>49<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div><a>Share<i><\/i>362<\/a><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<p data-line-id=\"4bb8130346f86f080c182610\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.project-syndicate.org\/commentary\/the-indian-miracle-lives#\">CommentsView\/Create comment on this paragraph<\/a>NEW DELHI\u00a0 \u2013 To hear some people tell it, the bloom is off the Indian economic rose. Hailed\u00a0 until recently as the next big success story, the country has lately been\u00a0 assailed by bad news.<\/p>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"This illustration is by Dean Rohrer and comes from &lt;a href=&quot;http:\/\/www.newsart.com&quot;&gt;NewsArt.com&lt;\/a&gt;, and is the property of the NewsArt organization and of its artist. Reproducing this image is a violation of copyright law.\" src=\"http:\/\/www.project-syndicate.org\/default\/library\/6055c15ac098c1e4c17d5031f1378095.portrait.jpg\" width=\"220\" height=\"165\" \/><figcaption>Illustration\u00a0 by Dean Rohrer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p data-line-id=\"4bb8130346f86f080c192610\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.project-syndicate.org\/commentary\/the-indian-miracle-lives#\">CommentsView\/Create comment on this\u00a0 paragraph<\/a>Tales abound of investor flight (mainly owing to a\u00a0 retrospective tax law enacted this year to collect taxes from Indian companies\u2019\u00a0 foreign transactions); mounting inflation, as food and fuel prices rise; and\u00a0 political infighting, which has delayed a new policy to permit foreign direct\u00a0 investment in India\u2019s retail-trade sector. Some have even declared that the\u00a0 \u201cIndia story\u201d is over.<\/p>\n<p data-line-id=\"4bb8130346f86f080c1a2610\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.project-syndicate.org\/commentary\/the-indian-miracle-lives#\">CommentsView\/Create comment on this paragraph<\/a>But\u00a0 today\u2019s pessimism is as exaggerated as yesterday\u2019s optimism was overblown. Even\u00a0 as the world has faced an unprecedented global economic crisis and recession,\u00a0 with most countries suffering negative growth rates in at least one quarter in\u00a0 the last four years, India remains the world\u2019s second-fastest-growing major\u00a0 economy, after China.<\/p>\n<p data-line-id=\"4bb8130346f86f080c1b2610\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.project-syndicate.org\/commentary\/the-indian-miracle-lives#\">CommentsView\/Create comment on this paragraph<\/a>Many\u00a0 reasons have been cited for this success. India\u2019s banks and financial\u00a0 institutions were not tempted to buy mortgage-backed securities and engage in\u00a0 the fancy derivatives trading that ruined several Western financial\u00a0 institutions. And, though India\u2019s merchandise exports registered declines of\u00a0 about 30%, services exports continued to do well. Moreover, remittances from\u00a0 overseas Indians remain robust, rising from $46.4 billion in 2008-2009 to $57.8\u00a0 billion in 2010-2011, with the bulk coming from the blue-collar Indian\u00a0 expatriate community in the Gulf.<\/p>\n<p data-line-id=\"4bb8130346f86f080c1c2610\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.project-syndicate.org\/commentary\/the-indian-miracle-lives#\">CommentsView\/Create comment on this paragraph<\/a>Finally,\u00a0 the external sector accounts for only about 20% of India\u2019s GDP. Most of the\u00a0 economy is a domestic affair: Indians producing goods and services for other\u00a0 Indians to consume in India.<\/p>\n<p data-line-id=\"4bb8130346f86f080c1d2610\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.project-syndicate.org\/commentary\/the-indian-miracle-lives#\">CommentsView\/Create comment on this\u00a0 paragraph<\/a>The Indian private sector is efficient and entrepreneurial,\u00a0 and is compensating for the state\u2019s inadequacies. (An old joke suggests that the\u00a0 Indian economy grows at night, when the government is asleep.) India is good at\u00a0 channeling domestic savings into productive investments, which is why it has\u00a0 relied so much less on foreign direct investment, and is even exporting capital\u00a0 to OECD countries, where it is well able to control and manage assets in\u00a0 sophisticated financial markets. Indeed, India, home of Asia\u2019s oldest stock\u00a0 market and a thriving democracy, has the basic systems that it needs to operate\u00a0 a twenty-first-century economy in an open and globalizing world.<\/p>\n<p data-line-id=\"4bb8130346f86f080c1e2610\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.project-syndicate.org\/commentary\/the-indian-miracle-lives#\">CommentsView\/Create comment on this paragraph<\/a>There are\u00a0 other reasons for confidence that India will weather the storm. Not only does\u00a0 India have considerable resources of its own to put towards investment; as the\u00a0 persistence of global recession drives down returns in the West, foreign\u00a0 investors will look anew at India.<\/p>\n<p data-line-id=\"4bb8130346f86f080c1f2610\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.project-syndicate.org\/commentary\/the-indian-miracle-lives#\">CommentsView\/Create comment on this\u00a0 paragraph<\/a>Still, many are inclined to compare India unfavorably with\u00a0 China, so a few macroeconomic numbers are worth considering. Half of India\u2019s\u00a0 growth has come from private consumption, and less than 10% from external\u00a0 demand; by contrast, 65% of China\u2019s real GDP growth comes from exports, and only\u00a0 25% from private consumption. China is thus far more vulnerable to external\u00a0 shocks.<\/p>\n<p data-line-id=\"4bb8130346f86f080c202610\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.project-syndicate.org\/commentary\/the-indian-miracle-lives#\">CommentsView\/Create comment on this paragraph<\/a>Moreover,\u00a0 India has the highest household savings rate in Asia, at 32% of disposable\u00a0 income. In fact, households account for 65% of India\u2019s national annual savings,\u00a0 compared to under 40% in China. Bad loans account for only 2% of Indian banks\u2019\u00a0 credit portfolios, versus 20% in China. And India\u2019s workforce has been growing\u00a0 at nearly 2% annually in the last decade, while China\u2019s grew at less than\u00a0 1%.<\/p>\n<p data-line-id=\"4bb8130346f86f080c212610\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.project-syndicate.org\/commentary\/the-indian-miracle-lives#\">CommentsView\/Create comment on this paragraph<\/a>Putting\u00a0 China aside, India\u2019s economy grew by 6.5% in 2011-2012, with services up by 9%\u00a0 and accounting for 58% of India\u2019s GDP growth \u2013 a stabilizing factor when a world\u00a0 in recession cannot afford to buy more manufactured goods.<\/p>\n<p data-line-id=\"4bb8130346f86f080c222610\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.project-syndicate.org\/commentary\/the-indian-miracle-lives#\">CommentsView\/Create comment on this paragraph<\/a>McKinsey &amp; Company estimates that the Indian middle class will grow to 525 million by\u00a0 2025, 1.5 times the projected size of the US middle class. According to last\u00a0 year\u2019s census, the country\u2019s 247 million households, two-thirds of them rural,\u00a0 reported a rise in the literacy rate to 74%, from 65% in 2001. In just the last\u00a0 two years, 51,000 schools were opened and 680,000 teachers appointed.<\/p>\n<p data-line-id=\"4bb8130346f86f080c232610\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.project-syndicate.org\/commentary\/the-indian-miracle-lives#\">CommentsView\/Create comment on this\u00a0 paragraph<\/a>An impressive 63% of Indians now have phones, up from just\u00a0 9% a decade ago; 100 million new phone connections were established last year,\u00a0 including 40 million in rural areas; and India now has 943.5 million telephone\u00a0 connections. Nearly 60% of Indians have a bank account (indeed, more than 50\u00a0 million new bank accounts have been opened in the last three years, mainly in\u00a0 rural India).<\/p>\n<p data-line-id=\"4bb8130346f86f080c242610\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.project-syndicate.org\/commentary\/the-indian-miracle-lives#\">CommentsView\/Create comment on this paragraph<\/a>Some\u00a0 20,000 MW in additional power-generation capacity was added last year, with 3.5\u00a0 million new electricity connections in rural India. As a result, 8,000 villages\u00a0 got power for the first time last year, and 93% of Indians in towns and cities\u00a0 now have at least some access to electricity.<\/p>\n<p data-line-id=\"4bb8130346f86f080c252610\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.project-syndicate.org\/commentary\/the-indian-miracle-lives#\">CommentsView\/Create comment on this paragraph<\/a>These\u00a0 trends all augur well for India\u2019s economic future. And they aren\u2019t slowing:\u00a0 India is looking for $1 trillion in infrastructure development over the next\u00a0 five years, most of it in the form of public-private partnerships. This offers\u00a0 hugely exciting opportunities to investors.<\/p>\n<p data-line-id=\"4bb8130346f86f080c262610\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.project-syndicate.org\/commentary\/the-indian-miracle-lives#\">CommentsView\/Create comment on this paragraph<\/a>The real\u00a0 picture of dogged progress is far removed from the perception of a government\u00a0 beset by inaction and policy paralysis. As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh\u00a0 modestly put it: \u201cI will be the first to say we need to do better. But let no\u00a0 one doubt that we have achieved much.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-line-id=\"4bb8130346f86f080c262610\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.project-syndicate.org\/commentary\/the-indian-miracle-lives#\">CommentsView\/Create comment on this paragraph<\/a><b><a title=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.project-syndicate.org\/focal-points\/will-india-s-boom-go-bust-\" rel=\"\">Read more from our &#8220;Will India&#8217;s Boom Go Bust?&#8221; Focal\u00a0 Point.<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Read more at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.project-syndicate.org\/commentary\/the-indian-miracle-lives#P7JJxW3Tc51T9CMj.99\">http:\/\/www.project-syndicate.org\/commentary\/the-indian-miracle-lives#P7JJxW3Tc51T9CMj.99<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; The\u00a0 Indian Miracle Lives Tweet287 Share19 Share49 Share362 CommentsView\/Create comment on this paragraphNEW DELHI\u00a0&#8230; <a class=\"meta-more\" href=\"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/?p=3717\">more <span class=\"meta-nav\">&raquo;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3718,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3717"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3717\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3719,"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3717\/revisions\/3719"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/patriotsforumindia.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}