I was hygience conscious fifty years ago, from non-flushing toilets to
HDB flushing toilets. Fifty long years ago I knew about hygiene, and
Indians in India only just recently discovered hygiene.
How to
progress when one highly educated, staunchly relgious, University
professor interviewed admitted he still bathe in the Ganges, knowing it
is highly polluted, saying that he follows his heart and ignored his
head. He should, of all people, know the dangers of bathing in such a
highly polluted river, yet goes in for his dip day in and day out. The
Ganges must be the most polluted river in the world.
India is
touted as the world's largest democracy, freedom to do anything, but
when it comes to freedom of doing things or getting things done, it
always get stuck in the mud, due to leaders not able to overcome public
opinion and stalled by fear of voters backlash. This has hindered
India's progress and can only move at a snail's pace while the world
zips by.
China zipped past India within a matter of three
decades. Give India three decades and see what happens. So much
hindrances, so much of the population still resisting progress and
preferring to adopt small scale manufacturing that cannot break into the
global market. That is India's biggest problem and with such a massive
population growing so fast, the problems get more difficult to solve.
Anonymous
6 comments:
India is surpassing China as the most populous country on earth shortly, with only about a third in land area compared to China.
Yes, population growth is good for the economy, but elevating poverty must come first. Otherwise more children born into poverty stricken households are not going to get out of the poverty trap and will get mired in the same living condiation as their parents. That is not something that will be good for the economy or the country as a whole. It is just a bigger burden to bear and not an asset to relish.
For countries like Japan, yes, a bigger population is an asset. But we cannot assume that one size is going to fit all.
Of the 5 BRICS countries, double-head snake India is the second smallest, after South Africa. Yet it wants to unashamedly sit at the high table of BRICS to greedily enjoy the benefits, while at the same time plotting evil against fellow BRICS China.
The "I" in BRICS should be replaced with more-trustworthy oil-rich Iran.
Iran should replace India. India is a spy for the Americans. So it cannot be a member of BRICS. Simple as that.
India, as always, wants to share the sbenefits, but not willing to contribute or sacrifice a little for the common good, if it sees things are not to their advantage, or going to change their deep seated mindset of sticking to customs and traditions. It all boils down to leaders wanting to win votes over-riding the progress of the country. Having to make sacrificial changes to mindsets for better progress is going to lose them the support of their agrarian and small enterprise ecnomy under their so called biggest democracy status.
Their refusal to join the BRI is a big mistake, just to spite China I suppose. Their staying away from the RCEP was a bigger mistake, given that they were given the option to join. Actually it was a blessing in disguise for China and others that India did not join, otherwise we can be sure there will be problems to comply with their demands. They know that joining the RCEP will hollow out their small cottage industries as bigger players from abroad will muscle in and voters will not be happy about that. So they stayed away from the RCEP. If they eventually do join the USA version of BRI, isn't that going to be 'out of the frying pan into the fire'?
India will only do a deal if it's very much in their favor, and the counterparty must sacrifice their pound of flesh to the Indians, eg CECA.
That is why only 1 stupid country in Asean trusts India and allowed India to take control of its economy, its workforce and domestic politics. The rest of the Asean countries do not want to have anything to do with India as they know India is there only to take from them. Most Asean countries have very little relations with India.
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