The choice before them

A few days ago Rajnath Singh, India's home minister tweeted a series of tweets about religious conversion in India. He tweeted "Can social service not be performed in India without resorting to conversion?" and in another tweet "Why cant all religions prosper without promoting conversion in India?" and "How can a country like India allow changes in its demographic profile and character?". I don't have any problem with this line of argument. Religion at a community level is about identity and culture and no country would like to lose its identity and culture. But the thing is is conversion really changing the demographic profile of India? The data seems to suggest not.

The Christian population in India was 2% in 1951, it reached a high of 2.60% in 1970; after that it has fluctuated and reached 2.5% in 2011 which is the latest census figure we have. So the Christian population has gone up marginally by 0.5% in 60 years. Clearly it doesn't look like there is any danger of change in demographic profile of India through conversion since the Christians are the most active religious group in conversion. Muslim population has increased by 5% in 60 years but that is based on high birth rates of Muslims as majority of them tend to live in poorer backward states with high birth rate and because of migration from Bangladesh. And recent tweets of Rajnath Singh inspecting Bangla border seem to suggest  that he is on the job on that front.

On twitter I have seen many reports shared of missionaries and proselytizers bragging about how they have saved the soul of millions of people or how they have introduced Jesus to so many millions or how they have built so many number of churches, but the fact remains that in the past 60 years overall population of Christians in India hasn't changed much. So clearly these people are just bragging like you do in propaganda to rally your troops or to attract donations. Whatever be the case the right wing organizations in India like RSS, VHP etc need to not waste their time and effort behind the bogey of conversion and in re-conversions. They may claim that it is because of their efforts that major demographic shift hasn't happened already but I don't think that is true as they haven't been so active in the past. Instead they can spend their time and effort in many other ways that would genuinely help Hindus, BJP and India as a whole.

For example, I am really happy that VHP has recently launched a new campaign to end caste bias and untouchability. If it succeeds, this can make a huge difference in lives of millions of people. It can unlock the growth potential of hinterlands and large swaths of country and millions would prosper because of it. It can change the political and economic scenario of India. And this would also remove the primary cause for conversion.

There are many such areas where large RW organizations with their huge volunteer base and resources can make a huge difference. For example in education we not only have a high drop out ratio of both boys and girls but those who are in school also do not get a quality education. Studies have shown that in govt. schools many students in 5th, 6th, 7th grade are unable to read and write at the level of 2nd grade. Studies by NGOs like Pratham have shown that just a basic one to two hour coaching in the evening after school can make a dramatic difference in learning outcomes. And every year's worth of education and delaying drop out rate increases by few percent the amount of money the child will earn later in his life every year. So just few hours of effort can change the entire outcome of the life of a child.

In health there are numerous such things that can be done that change millions of lives. For example ensuring all the children in the villages get all the essential vaccines. Studies have shown that the health and diet of mother during pregnancy and the first year of child can dramatically alter child's mental and physical development and his earning capacity throughout his life. Female cadres can assure good nutrition and health of mother and child by advising on diet and nutrition and taking the mother and child for hospital visits. They can teach the benefits of having hospital birth and how to maintain good reproductive health. They can explain and teach about kinds of family planning methods and why it is important. There are just hundreds of things like hygiene, water borne diseases, malaria, etc that even a non-trained person can teach about. These things can bring about a huge change in the quality of life of people in rural area.

They can also help teach different farming techniques and share knowledge gained from elsewhere. They can organize villagers and teach them to build small check dams and water storage facilities like wells and artificial lake etc.

They can participate in swacch bharat and clean important public places in cities like railway stations, public hospitals, etc.

For an economy to grow it requires capital, land and labor. Modi with his foreign trips and making right climate for investment is trying to facilitate capital for investment, his land bill is to take care of land issues. The RW groups by focusing on health, education of people can facilitate labor, the vital ingredient for growth. And most importantly it will repel perception that Modi govt. is not pro-poor. Because trying to help people by creating jobs might seem like too indirect for most rural people. They need direct immediate help and that's where these RW organizations can make a huge difference.

This way RW groups can bring change personally in the lives of millions of people, help the nation grow and ensure BJP victory in upcoming state and national elections. We will need healthy educated populous for economic growth and we will need rapid economic growth to repel any external threat we may face. Or the RW groups can just keep fighting imaginary threats within India and keep reveling in 2000 year old real or imagined past glories of India rather than working to make India glorious now and in future.

Jai Hind.

The future of Modi and India

Trying to ascribe motives to political victories and defeats is a tricky business in India. After the LS election there was a lot of talk of aspirational India, a belief that we are finally out of the mai-baap sarkar politics where government is seen as giver of things. That people has started to dare of dreaming jobs and economy and government is just a facilitator of that. That more often than not it is better that government gets out of the way rather than depending on government for your sustenance. Lot of people thought this because of the way Modi won, the magnitude of his victory and the way he campaigned. Because he symbolizes this new brand of politics where people are not dependent on government for day-to-day things, that government is not a giver of things but just a facilitator. Modi's often repeated slogan of 'Minimum government Maximum governance' also seemed to suggest this (even thought he may not have been able to live up to it many times). There was a lot of general euphoria in the free marketers and economic right (and social right) middle class. There was a feeling that we are finally out of the dark days of congress, DMK, AIDMK, SP, BSP etc where government promises some free things before elections like TV, laptop, free electricity, cheap wheat, rice and then after election does a poor attempt (with lots of corruption) of delivering these things. Then they sit smugly for five years claiming it has done its job neglecting its real job of building decent infrastructure, governance, administration, effective regulation.

However, if experts thought that people needed break from all that then Delhi election proves that it was probably only partially true. Because in a state which has the highest per capita income in India the same aspirational voter chose AAP which is as socialist and leftist as it gets. May be people just needed more efficient socialist government. Yes it's true I might be making the same mistake of ascribing motive to a local election victory which might be decided on a lot of local issues. It may be that people decided that Kiran Bedi is also socialist but Kejriwal is more efficient at it. Or that in a small city state what matters is delivery of local governance, that it was more a municipal election.

But given the magnitude of victory and the kind of ultra left wing socialist language of AAP where every industrialist rich person is 'chor' or the only good politician is the one giving free stuff one can't help but feel that this victory sends the message that voters in large parts of India still want socialist government, an efficient corruption free socialist government who can crack down on local corruption but socialist nonetheless. May be Modi's victory also on the large part was because people thought he would crack down on local corruptions, that he would make doctors come to duty on time in rural hospitals, that he would make teachers teach properly in government schools, that he would remove inefficiencies and corruption from government schemes like PDS, MGNREGA, etc. May be Modi's strong leader image made them think that he would deliver at the local level and remove inefficiencies and corruption. May be they wanted efficient, in-corrupt but ultimately socialist government who delivers free things to people.

If that is the case then Modi has a major problem on his hand. If that is the case then Modi's popularity rating will quickly and continuously go down and soon old hands like Nitish, Mulayam will be back in power in their respective states and BJP's rise as a natural party of governance will look much more doubtful. Because while people will continue to punish Congress for a while because of its many many corruption scandals, people in India have shown that they have short memories and they forgive easily. May be they would want to go back to socialism again hoping that Congress has learned its lesson and they would keep corruption in check.

For Modi to avoid this fate (which will be very difficult if people indeed want left wing socialism) he would need to first communicate a lot better than he is doing now. Communicating with people doesn't mean just talking about swachch Bharat, or Make in India but he would also have to explain his motives behind those campaigns. Because while he has never have to explain himself in Gujarat, where people who are business-minded instinctively understood that what is better for the business or economy is better for them, that if he spends time wooing global investors, industrialists, business leaders he is not working for the rich but helping the economy as a whole, that his ultimate objective with those global investor summits was to create jobs, to kick start the economy, but as a PM of India he will have to explain to Indians all this and keep repealing the lie that his government is working for the rich and that he has forgotten the poor common men. Quite the contrary by tirelessly working to get investment from China, USA, Australia or from the local Indian businessmen he is working for the poor and middle class and for everybody. That if the economy grows at 8-9% everyone will benefit and that is his ultimate goal.

He should remind the Indian people of why they loved him in the first place, of his clean scrupulous record of 15 years as a CM of Gujarat. How he has never been accused of any corruption anywhere, how he has no family to support for whom he would collect money, how he has dedicated himself fully to the country living a bachelor life without any children, how his mother continues to live middle class simple life despite him being the PM. All this he will have to keep communicating with the people and remind them that he is working for them, for the poorest of the poor and that contrary to the public perception being created his whole effort whether in Make in India campaign or Land Acquisition Bill, or anything he does is to help poor people, to get people jobs, to get economy growing at 8-9%. He doesn't want any money or favor personally from anybody. He will have to keep repeating this again and again to counter the propaganda of AAP and others in India, especially since lot of his actions (like LAB) by their nature will seem otherwise.

Ultimately though, for Modi, in the end what will matter after 5 years is whether he has been successful or not in doing what he wanted, getting the economy growing at 8-9%. He could get unlucky and outside global factors might prevent him from achieving this and he might lose next election. Or growth might pick up but if he is not effective in communication then the perception might be created that it was because of global factors that growth picked up and that he needs to be removed as he is crony and in bed with rich industrialists.

One thing where his criticism is valid (and this was the criticism in Gujarat too) is that he hasn't focused much on human development, on health and education. Mr. Modi is impatient in getting the economy growing but he needs to understand that ultimately the quality of manpower in the long term will decide the economic fate of the country. For this first thing he needs to do is to get better ministers for education and health. Then even if he doesn't focus on these two areas much the ministers effectively can bring some change. Because an economy needs not just land, electricity, water, effective regulation, freedom from bureaucratic and political harassment but ultimately it needs quality skilled, highly skilled, semi skilled manpower. Modi would be better served to focus on that which would also make him look less pro-rich and would make his socialist-leftist base happy.

False equivilences and propogonda

In the aftermath of terrorist attack in Peshawar there has been many Pakistani 'experts' who have been coming on Indian news shows everyday spewing complete nonsense. Whenever they are pointed out how Hafiz Saeed is allowed to spew venom so openly in Pakinstan everywhere including news channels and even a day after Peshawar attack, their retort is same and that is you also have hate mongers spewing venom openly in India. They give examples of Shiv Sena and Bal Thackerrey, RSS, Modi (pronounced Mudi) and amazingly Godse's murder of Gandhi way back in 1948. Amazingly they all give same examples and same arguments which means they are all tutored by somebody to obfuscate facts or these are the things that are commonly talked about everyday in Pakistani media hence everybody knows these examples. The worst thing that Bal Thackrey has done against Pakistan is, in the aftermath of a big terrorist attack, oppose Pakistani artists and sport persons performing in India. The worst thing that he directly did to Pakistan is dig up a pitch in INDIA to not allow Pakistan to play in Mumbai. And this is being compared with Hafiz Saeed who is running the most murderous terror organization in Pakistan training terrorists for attacks on India like Mumbai attack. Are you kidding me?

People only talk about Mumbai but they are continuously attacks in India repeatedly including in Kashmir from terrorists trained in Pakistan and the worst we have done is some ultra right wing politician has talked about attacking Pakistan. Even they don't recommend training terrorists to attack civilians in Pakistan. Imagine if there were Mumbai like terrorist attacks in Pakistan with terrorists talking with their handlers in India. Imagine the reaction in Pakistan. Even the more moderate elements would be talking about giving fitting reply. Everybody feels hurt. Hell even when we don't attack and Taliban attack them still they continuously talk about giving fitting reply to India and attacking and killing us. What has Modi done to Pakistan really? When he was in opposition he talked about Indian govt. being more aggressive towards China and Pakistan and to not let them bully us. What is wrong in that? And since he has been in power he has talked with the most restrain and been most statesman like. What has RSS done to Pakistan? Hell they don't even give statements against Pakistan even after attacks in India as they keep low profile. And to talk about Godse killing Gandhi in 1948 to justify Pakistan support for terror in India? seriously?

Yes these right wing politicians and organizations have lot to answer to Indian minorities, but is Pakistan going to teach us how to treat minorities? seriously? When there is wholesale killing of minorities going on in Pakistan they will lecture us on minority rights? When Ahmedis, Hazaras, Shias, Hindus, Christians are systematically being exterminated in Pakistan they will lecture us on minority rights and that too for something that happened in 2002? Everybody it seems in Pakistan knows about Gujarat riots in 2002 which were a result of Hindus being burnt alive in a train. The very fact that they are still talking about 2002 in 2014 means they don't have much to talk about us. And who gives Pakistan the right to interfere in our domestic affairs. Do we lecture them when Christian colony is burnt down. When minorities are killed in the name of blasphemy or when Hindu girls are abducted and forced to convert and 'marry' someone? 2002 riots are still being talked about because of Indian media and Indian liberals who ensured that we don't forget about it and I  am proud of it.

The only terrorist attack on Pakistan nationals from Indian national was on Indian soil in Samjota express and that too was uncovered by Indian investigators without any pressure from any international country or organization. Because we don't condone or allow terrorist attacks on civilians even after repeatedly being attacked. And after this we are lectured by these 'experts' from Pakistan creating false equivalence and telling complete lies like RAW being behind terror attacks in Pakistan or Baloch struggle. Are we so bloody good in covert operations that we convince hardcore Taliban (who hate us much more than Pakistan btw) terrorists to attack Pakistan and they never find any evidence of Indian involvement? Are you kidding me? I guess if you keep telling lies 1000 times then people start believing them. I guess the whole narrative in Pakistan has been hijacked by hard core elements who tell lies on Pakistan news channels everyday. I cannot stand when they come here and try to do the same hence this rant.

Big Pharma and the lessons for India

I recently read an article about how there has been growing concern in the US about the quality of generic drugs that are made in India. According to the article India supplies 40% of over-the-counter and generic prescription drugs consumed in the US. The article mentioned that "F.D.A. investigators are blitzing Indian drug plants, financing the inspections with some of the roughly $300 million in annual fees from generic drug makers collected as part of a 2012 law requiring increased scrutiny of overseas plants. The agency inspected 160 Indian drug plants last year, three times as many as in 2009. The increased scrutiny has led to a flood of new penalties, including half of the warning letters the agency issued last year to drug makers".

Ranbaxy had to recently pay a fine of $500 million, largest ever for a generic company. In the background of all this I saw a documentary movie called the 'Fire in the Blood' and one of the things I learned from it is that American "Big Pharma" are constantly trying to prove that the generics in India are not safe. They have been running campaigns for decades trying to scare people in the west about how dangerous drugs made in third world are. It is very easy for them to use the stereotype image of the third world countries to scare the patients in America, despite the fact that most of the generic medicine manufacturers in India are world class and follow same safety guidelines as in the US. In fact, even the Big Pharma themselves import lot of their medicines from India. Another noteworthy thing that I learned from the documentary is how much influence the Big Pharma lobby has in the US government.

Combining these two facts it is quite easy to conclude that these recent increase in raids and campaign against Indian drug manufacturers is the result of intense lobbying by the pharmaceutical companies in the US. However, we have to be careful in blaming these conspiracy theories for failings of our regulators. While it is quite possible that at least in part the FDA campaign against the Indian pharma companies could be the result of intense lobbying, it is also true that there are many spurious drug manufacturers in India. The recent deaths in the Bilaspur sterilization program where 18 women died due to rat position contaminated Cipro proves that we have a problem. While we can hide behind conspiracy theories or cry discrimination, it would be in our interest to increase regulation and solve the problem, not only to safeguard our lucrative drugs export industry but also for the sack of millions of Indians'mobile.nytimes.com/2014/02/15/world/asia/medicines-made-in-india-set-off-safety-worries.html?referrer=&_r=0 health.

There are lessons that we can learn from the experience of other developing countries in this regard. Some years ago toys manufactured in China were in news all over the world because they were selling toys which were painted with paint that had lead in it, which is hazardous for the health of the children. The Chinese effectively dealt with it and they are still selling toys all over the world including in the US. In fact, at that time it was the Mattel, an American toy manufacturer which was forced to apologize to Chinese for selling toys laced with lead. Every developing country manufacturing goods on a large scale to the developed world goes through such controversies at least once, but how it is handled by the government of such developing country that makes the difference in the end.

Another lesson that we can learn from the documentary 'Fire in the Blood' is how much US government protects the interest of its corporations that provide jobs and create wealth. It is not just in this case of Big Pharma where US Government intervened on behalf of the American corporations, but we have seen that on number of occasions when big purchases are involved by other government or private corporations US Government at the highest level takes part in some way in pushing for US manufactured goods, from multi-billion dollar defense deals to big tech deals. Now I am not saying that Indian government help Indian corporations in exploiting poor population of other countries as Big Pharma in US did, but there are many occasions when government should be legitimately involved in negotiation in national interest. For example, I recently read that even when Indian oil PSUs like ONGC Videsh bought big oil fields abroad in a multi-billion $ deal involving considerable geopolotical risk Indian Government was not involved in negotiation and these companies were pretty much on their own. According to the article "the lament of firms such as ONGC Videsh (OVL) has been that India’s diplomats weren’t best suited to navigate the technical and financial complexities of acquiring oil and gas assets overseas." Clearly Indian govt. needs to protect Indian business interest abroad, especially when large amount of money is involved.

Analyzing Modi's Speeches

I have been following Modi's speeches for a while now because it's important to know what kind of ideas country's PM aspirant has and what he believes in. Also after last election when Advani offered a live televised debate to Manmohan and he refused it's important we don't repeat that mistake again.

His speeches during Gujarat elections were good and his speech just after he won the election was very good. But I was disappointed with his speeches after Gujarat election and his speech in Hyderabad I thought was really bad. The main problem I had with them was that Modi was focusing too much time talking about border issues with both Pakistan and China and how MMS was proving to be weak and not able to do much about it and frankly too much of it was rhetoric BS. We know that there are no easy answers here. Even Americans have floundered in dealing with Pakistan, blowing hot and cold, not able to decide how to deal with Pakistan. When you have a nuclear-armed nation wanting to pick fight with you there are no easy answers, and the same goes with China too. As a good speaker you are supposed to respect the intelligence of the audience and such rhetoric without any answers gets a bit boring after a while.

Same thing when he said how rupee was at 1 rupee a dollar at independence (wrong info) or how China is spending 20% its GDP on education (totally wrong). People on the right tried to explain it by saying that he was probably trying to say China's education spending is increasing at 20% per year not that it is 20% of GDP. But equating value of currency with nation's progress is problematic so is quoting wrong figure of China's spend on education to make your point about importance of education. Remember audience is not dumb, respect their intelligence. And add to it the puppy remark or burkha of secularism and I was beginning to feel disappointed. Where is the Modi who was supposed to be such eloquent orator and who was supposed to chose each word carefully to project right image. Because every successful politicians are masters of what they say and very careful about the words they choose. Puppy remark sounds even worse in Hindi (the original language of interview) and burkha of secularism is again a loaded word. If those words were genuine mistakes then it is bad but if it was deliberate then that is even worse. That means he doesn't understand at all that he has to project more centrist position if he wants any chance to win. Projecting any Hindu rightist tendencies is a huge mistake as your core right-wing voters are anyway going to vote for you. Its the centrists and secular Hindu and Muslim votes that he needs, also to project himself as an acceptable ally to the regional parties, which he will need after election.

Big problem for me though was not what he said, but what he didn't say. The biggest advantage that Modi has is that he represents a sense of hope to millions of people whether justified or not. He has a track record to show for that unlike his opponent. All he has to do in his speeches is to sell hope like he used to do in speeches he has given before Gujarat elections. Talk about farmers of Gujarat exporting their produce to rich countries, or success of potato farming near Mehsana where farmer's sons who are engineers are still doing farming as it is more profitable. It would be a music to farmers across India who are barely surviving. Talk about industry, talk about electricity reform and living without power cuts, talk about ports and roads and other infrastructure. Basically give Indians a picture of what their country can be if they elect him and while doing so keep reminding of the faults and mistakes of this government, which are plenty. Focusing on rhetorical speeches about Chinese and Pakistani aggression when you don't have any answer to it is a mistake.

However, in the last two speeches he has redeemed himself for me by addressing some crucial issues. He has talked about some important issues that are close to my heart and that needed to be told. I hadn't been able to hear his latest Delhi speech live and when I heard about 'dehati aurat' controversy I thought here we go again. He has again focused his speech mostly on Pakistan and his rhetoric of weak PM and by using that word which we don't even know was said by Nawaz or not he had given media something to focus on making sure other parts of his speech are ignored. But still keeping with my intention of hearing his every speech I went online and heard his speech on youtube and I was impressed and then again at his 8-hour question-answer session with students he again made some important points. Here are some important points he made that I think need urgent attention.

1. Power Sector: The most important issue among many we are facing today in my opinion (and the biggest failing of the government) is the power shortage issue. Modi in Delhi speech talked about how thousands of MW of electricity generation capacity is lying idle because of want of gas or coal while we have power cuts even in the capital Delhi.

This is the part of the Coalgate mess. India needed (still do) huge electricity generation. Govt. gave out huge contracts to build power stations and the free market capitalism did its magic. For once the power generation capacity was going ahead of power requirement. But there was one problem. All those power companies thought they will get coal from Coal India and get gas from Reliance KG basin. Both flopped. One because of usual bureaucratic delays and the fact that our environment ministry suddenly decided that it was not going to be rubber stamp ministry anymore. And the other because of technical difficulties in gas extraction.

Govt. had one way out of it, which was the captive mining route where you give a captive mine along with the power plant and allow the private company to use the coal from the mine for power generation. But our govt. decided to do this haphazardly and arbitrarily, some sat on their mines for years, some were still waiting for environment approval, and in some cases people close to govt. benefited from getting cheap mines. Naturally all these caused outrage and we had coalgate scam, which made govt. further scared and everything further froze. Govt. paralysis meant approvals were further delayed.

In the meanwhile all those power companies who had invested billions are sitting on huge loses on their balance sheet as their power plants lie idle. PSU banks which were once praised during financial meltdown for being conservative and prudent now sit on huge NPAs from power companies and face downgrade risks.

Its a huge mess created by the govt. that has a massive implications for the country when Tamilnadu, an important state for the country which is an auto hub and one of our better performing industrialized state, has power cuts for 12 hours. So I am glad that Namo focused on this in his Delhi speech.

2. Food corporation of India: Modi talked about reforming Food Corporation of India by dividing it into three parts -- each overseeing purchase of food-grains, storage, and supply. As we see mountains of food-grains rotting in the open and broken down PDS this is another important suggestion.

3. Environmental clearances: Modi said in Delhi speech that in UPA there are govt. within govt. and how environment ministry has become another govt. which everybody is upset with for sitting on projects and causing delays in giving environment clearances for important projects. Another important issue.

3. Losses in the aviation sector: In his Delhi speech Modi talked about losses in the aviation sector. He said airline firms in India made losses of Rs.53,000 crore from 2007 onwards and Government gave Rs.30,000 crore bailout. He was just talking about govt. equity infusion of 30,000 crore to Air India, but many PSU banks have lost millions in Kingfisher also. He didn't talk about privatizing or selling of AI, but on the base of what he said I am hopeful that he will if he has a chance sell off AI and stop bleeding of public money.

4. Toilets before temples: Again extremely important issue.

5. Railways: He has talked about railways reform before and he did again this time. He has before even talked about allowing private players to run few trains. Again important issue.

6. Indigenisation of defense production: I know it is easier said than done and he might not be able to do anything about it but I am glad he is thinking in that direction.

So I think Modi is in right direction. Many more speeches to go before the election. Here is hoping we have agenda driven elections this time.

Poor Economics

Why are some countries poor? How do some countries suddenly break out and start growing fast while others are left behind? Why is India not able to match the growth rate of China? These are the questions that everybody wants an answer to. Some of the explanations given in the Indian context is that India's main problems are its poor infrastructure, slow, corrupt and excessive bureaucracy, and India's rigid and myriad labor laws that make firing of employees almost impossible.

But are they really the problems stopping India or is there more to it? For example if infrastructure was holding India back then Gujarat has excellent roads, good ports with excellent connectivity, and stable and reliable power supply. And although Gujarat has done well, lot more industry and manufacturing should have come to Gujarat.

For labor laws there is the option of hiring contract workers as some have already done, although, of course its not a perfect solution. Also today I read an interesting article in ET about similar problem in Japan that seems just as bad as us. With layoffs unthinkable, Japan's workers are sent to the boredom room. 

Bureaucratic hurdles are a genuine problem, which hurts us pretty badly. For example just yesterday ET had this article. Its about how despite huge bamboo resources Indian agarbatti makers are forced to import bamboo because of forest regulations and bureaucracy. Similar situation is prevelent for things like coal and iron ore. Despite having large exportable reserves we are importing these things because govt. can't distribute these resources fairly without corruption or bureaucratic delays. Thousands of Megawatts of power plants (both gas and coal based) are lying idle because of coal or gas unavailability. But, in Gujarat there is 'Single Window Clearance Act' with CM himself taking personal interest to speed things up for larger projects. Of course, it's not perfect and for things like environmental clearance you need central government approval.

I think it's just lazy journalism to keep on bandying about Infrastructure or labor laws or bureaucracy. They are genuine problems no doubt, especially the last one, but there are many other factors apart from the combination of these that hold India back. May be we just don't have enough smart, driven, hardworking skilled workers as even the simplest, most labor intensive industries like textile, require few highly skilled workers like designers, engineers etc. Its a fascinating subject and requires proper research.

5 things wrong with us (Indians)

5. Our unhealthy obsession with old people.

Some people may find inclusion of this point strange but bear with me. Why does Arvind Kejriwal need Anna Hazare? I mean Kejriwal has the necessary credibility. He is an IITian and was an IRS officer. He could be enjoying a cushy job right now going to the malls on weekends and taking his family to Paris or Switzerland for summer vacations if he took advantage of the "perks" that his job offered. He is articulate, intelligent and media savvy and unlike Ms. Bedi, who could sometimes get carried away by her passion, he answers questions calmly and thoughtfully when he talks to the media. Granted that Anna Hazare has earned his reputation by decades of work he has done regionally in the villages (and may be Kejriwal should also have started regionally with small regional problems and built up his reputation overtime before attacking big national problems) but why should that matter in Delhi? Why is it that Anna appears to attract huge crowds and AK only relatively small.* Why is it that AK needs Anna to make his movement a big success. While there are many reasons my hunch is that in India we all love a lovable dadaji (granddad). AK's relatively young age is a disadvantage to him. And it's not just him there are many many brilliant young politicians in India who are wasting their talent cooling their heels as junior minister in some pointless ministry while some old lovable dadaji is our minister in key positions bumbling and fumbling and making fool of himself (case in point S.M. Krishna). What is worse is that the said junior minister has to be a sycophant and an avid risk-avoider all his life, who has tried to avoid offending anybody (from his own party or others) to the point of not saying anything at all to get a chance in his old age for some meaningful post, by which time he is way past his prime. Recently there was an article in The Economist that showed that India has the highest gap in the world between the average age of population and the average age of politicians. The difference between the two is shockingly large. As Dhurandhar Bhatwadekar says "Is desh ko buzurgo ki nahi nauwjawano ki jarurat hai. Tabhi ye desh dod payega."

4. Our lack of empathy.

It took a foreigner to tell us that poor in Kolkota were treated worse than animals while intellectuals in Kolkota sat in their coffee house discussing Lenin and Marx. While it is convenient to say that because we have been seeing poverty all around us for all our life we have been desensitized to it and we don't notice it anymore, the fact is that there are many things that we see in our daily life (especially in our metros) that should leave deep impression on us and move and shock us. The big scams that we see now daily where politicians and bureaucrats don't think twice in amassing billions that were meant for the poor while people die all around them shows the mental make up of us all. Injustice and crime against weaker sections of society happen almost daily but nothing is done about it. While this is not unique to India the degree of it is surely shocking. Whatever the reason, whether it be our caste system or just habit of centuries, something has to change.

3. Our lack of aggression. 

Our majority Hindu religion has taught us to be happy and content with life, whatever we have. It has taught us to not be overambitious. And while it is good to have happy and content populous (be it poor), -- we have enjoyed many benefits of this, mainly relative lack of crime (till now) despite widespread poverty and social inequality, -- but our lack of aggression meant we were never a whole nation under one king (except for brief periods) but just a collection of small states ruled by different kings and because of that we were able to be ruled by English for more than 200 years and we missed the whole industrialization period and set our economy back for centuries. And by aggression I don't mean just military aggression, which is no longer needed, but our lack of aggression in all spheres of life. For instance our lack of aggression in economic decision making is hurting us now with constant leftist and timid economic policy. We have a socialist leftist instinct that we keep going back to at the first sight of any trouble. We would rather use redistribution to spread our misery than do the hard work of building our economy.

2. Our overly patriarchal society.

We have all seen Satymave Jayate. Almost half the episode of it were related to the issues facing women. Aamir himself said that during his research this issue came up again and again and that this is the central issue facing India today. If half of your population is not able to live up to their full potential then how can you progress as a nation. Also there are millions of unhappy families for things like domestic violence, dowry related abuse, pressure to bear male child, etc etc. It can't be good for the children too to grow up in such unhappy families. So this hurts us at the most important point that is social unit called family. Unhappy family results in unhappy kids who grow up to be abusive husbands, fathers, mothers with issues and the cycle repeats itself.

1. Our otherness that divides us.

This is a no-brainer really. Very few of our states decide their chief ministers based on purely performance (states like Gujarat and Bihar now and few others) and even in these states other factors like caste and religion play some part in decision making. However, there are some major states where development is not even a big issue of the election. Caste arithmetic and freebies at taxpayers expense rule the roost in most of the states. If the caste is not the issue then the issue is secular (read pro-Muslim in Indian context) or communal (pro-hindu). Heck we have a state that rotates between two parties based on "Dravid pride" against aggression of the northern 'Aryan' parties. So in TN they keep rotating between DMK and AIDMK even though both of them are corrupt but people won't chose between two national parties as they are north Indian "Aryan" parties. How ridiculous that we have been clinging on a 2000 y.o. (5000?) divide. Sad part is in some states it doesn't even look like we will leave caste-based politics behind soon. This means development is not a core issue and parties can get away with rampant corruption and misrule. 

So these are the five worst things about us according to me. Do you agree or do you have other points in mind? Do write in the comments below.

*This blog was written before recent Vadra episode.