India vs China: An economic battle

The rise of the fastest growing economies of China and India has taken the world by surprise. Post-recession, while developed countries continue to struggle, the India-China growth story still seems to be intact.

As China surges ahead as an economic superpower, here's a look at how the two economic giants score on various growth parameters.

ECONOMY
China

This year China became the world's second largest economy, surpassing Japan. China's economy was valued at $4.98 trillion in the second quarter of 2010.
China could become the world's largest economy (by nominal GDP) by 2020.

India

The Indian economy is the eleventh largest in the world, valued at $1.23 trillion by nominal GDP and the fourth largest by purchasing power parity (PPP).

ECONOMIC GROWTH

India

India is poised to achieve the 9 per cent economic growth in the current financial year itself, driven by the robust performance of agriculture and industry sectors.

The economy grew by 8.9 per cent in the second quarter of the current fiscal.

China

In the first three quarters of this year, China's GDP grew by over 10 per cent. The gross domestic product (GDP) grew 9.6 percent in the third quarter.

GDP Per capita

China

With a GDP (PPP) per capita of $6,778, China is ranked at 97. Today, about 10 per cent of the Chinese population (down from 64 per cent in 1978) live below the poverty line of $1 per day (PPP). Inflation stands at 4.40 per cent.

Moreover, Hong Kong has a GDP (PPP) per capita of $42,653.

India

India with a per capita GDP of $3,015 has one of the lowest ranks at 127, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Inflation currently stands at 9.82 per cent.

Around 70 crore (700 million) Indians live on $2 per day or less, but there is a growing middle class population of about 30 crore (300 million) with a rising disposable income that is creating an unprecedented consumer boom in the country.

ECONOMIC REFORMS

India

In the 1990s's India ushering in economic reforms that saw the country transform from a socialist economy to a market economy. The liberalization of the economy led to high economic growth and industrialization.

China

In the 1970s, reforms called 'Four modernizations’ improved agriculture, industry, technology and defense, heralding a fast pace of growth and rise in living standards.

In the 1990s, the Chinese economy continued to grow at a rapid pace, at around 9.5 per cent.

FISCAL DEFICIT

China

From January to October, China's fiscal revenue increased by 21.5 per cent year-on-year to nearly 7.09 trillion Yuan.

India

India's fiscal deficit will be at around 5.5 per cent of its gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010-11. India's fiscal deficit has risen to Rs 4, 12,307 crore (Rs 4.12 trillion).

EXPORTS

China

China is also the largest exporter and second largest importer of goods in the world. China's exports jumped 34.9 per cent from a year earlier to $153.3 billion.

India

India's exports during November jumped by 26.8 per cent to $18.9 billion year-on-year. India's exports during April-September aggregated to $103.65 billion registering a year-on-year growth of 28 per cent.

FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT

China

China's continues to attract more foreign direct investment. The foreign direct investment volume in November jumped 38.2 percent year-on-year to $9.7 billion.

During the January-November period, FDI in China grew by 18 percent year-on-year to $91.7 billion, and was expected to exceed $100 billion by the end of 2010.

India

India, China and Brazil are the top three target countries for foreign direct investment until the end of 2012 with the United States, for years number one, now in fourth place, according to the UN Trade and Development Agency (UNCTAD).

Foreign direct investment inflows in to the country dipped by about 40 per cent to $1.4 billion in October over the same period last year.

In October 2009, FDI was $2.3 billion. During the first seven months of 2010-11, India received FDI inflows worth $12.40 billion.

GOLD RESERVES

China

According to the World Gold Council, the share of global gold demand in China doubled from 5 per cent in 2002 to 11 percent in 2009.

China has 1054.1 tonnes of gold, which is 1.5 per cent of its total foreign reserves.

India

In 2009, total Indian gold demand reached $19 billion, or Rs 974 billion, which accounts for 15 per cent of the global gold market, according to WGC.

While Indian consumers continue to stock gold despite rising prices, when it comes to total gold reserves in the country, India ranks 11th in the world with 557.7 tonnes of gold.

MANUFACTURING SECTOR

China

China's manufacturing sector continues to grow with a booming consumer base in the country. China's manufacturing sector gained momentum in September with the Purchasing Managers Index rising to 53.8 in September from 51.7 in August 2010.

India

India has emerged as one of the world's top ten countries in industrial production. The nation's industrial production grew at the fastest pace in three months at 10.8 per cent. Manufacturing grew 11.3 per cent in October after a 4.6 per cent gain in September.

UNEMPLOYMENT

China

China, the world's second-largest economy after United States has a low unemployment rate of 4.20 per cent.

From 2002 until 2010, China's unemployment rate averaged 4.15 per cent reaching an historical high of 4.30 per cent in December of 2003.

India

Post-recession, the unemployment rate in India is at 9.4 per cent during 2009-10, according to the Union Labour and Employment Ministry.

About 40 million persons are unemployed in India as per the government's statistics.

The unemployment rates are estimated at 101 and 73 out of 1,000 persons in the rural sector and urban areas, respectively.

FOREX RESERVES

China

The world's fastest growing economy, China saw its foreign exchange reserves rise to a record $2.65 trillion by the end of September 2010.

According to People's Bank of China, currency holdings rose about $194 billion.

China's trade surplus and inflows of cash from foreign direct investment also drive up the reserves, which rose 16.5 per cent by the end of September from a year earlier.

India

India's foreign exchange reserves grew by $2.41 billion during the week ended December 3 to $296.40 billion. Foreign currency assets rose by $1.98 billion to $267.23 billion during the week ended December 3, as per the data.

PROSPERITY INDEX

China

India has slipped 10 places to the 88th spot, way below China, in the World Prosperity Index due to poor healthcare and education systems coupled with a weak entrepreneurial infrastructure.

China is ranked 58th in the list of 110 countries according to London-based Legatum Institute's Prosperity Index 2010.

China ranks 30 places higher than India in the overall global rankings and outperforms India on the economy sub-index, where the Asia's second largest economy spots at 24th position.

India

India ranked low on education ground (89), health (95), entrepreneurship and opportunity (93) and social capital (105).

Besides, economy (44th) and governance (41st) are two measures on which India ranks highest.

STOCKS MARKETS

China

With two stock exchanges Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange, China has become the world's third largest stock market. It is estimated to be the world's third largest by 2016.

India

The Bombay Stock Exchange has been rated as the world's best performing stock market recently. With a 13 per cent gain, Sensex is among the world's 10 biggest markets, according to data collected by Bloomberg.

AVIATION

China

Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China is set to take on world's biggest airline manufacturers Airbus and Boeing Co.

China's aviation industry has witnessed double-digit growth in the past five years. China's civil aviation fleet is set to nearly double to about 5,000 aircraft in five years.

India

India is yet to manufacture commercial aircraft though the aviation market is booming. India's civil aviation sector will be among the top five in the world in the next five years.

Indian domestic air traffic is expected to reach 160-180 million passengers per year, while international traffic will exceed 80 million.

MAJOR CONTRIBUTORS TO GDP

China

The two most important sectors of the economy have traditionally been agriculture and industry, which together employ more than 70 per cent of the labour force and produce more than 60 percent of GDP.

India

India's services sector, backed by the IT revolution, remains the biggest contributor to the country's GDP, with a contribution of 58.4 per cent. The industry sector contributed 24.1 per cent and the agriculture sector contributed 17.5 per cent to the GDP.

TELECOM REVOLUTION

China

China has 842 million mobile phone subscribers and 300 million fixed line phone subscribers.

India

The Indian telecommunications industry is the world's fastest growing telecommunications industry, 723.28 million telephone (landlines and mobile) subscribers and 687.71 million mobile phone connections as of September 30 2010.

INTERNET USERS

China

Broadband Internet subscribers rose 19.19 million from end-2009 to hit 123.16 million. The telecom industry revenue generated total revenue of RMB 2.53 trillion ($382.34 billion) over the period, up 20.7 per cent year-on-year.

India

The number of Internet users in India is estimated at 81 million. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India pegs the number of broadband subscribers at 10.08 million in August 2010. India will see its number of Internet users triple to 237 million by 2015.

SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONES

China

Special Economic Zones were born in China in the early 1980s. The most successful Special Economic Zone in China, Shenzhen, has developed from a small village into a city with a population over 10 million within 20 years.

India

India has also played a significant role in the founding and establishment of Special Economic Zones. Around 574 SEZs have already received formal approvals from the government, of which 350 have been notified under the SEZ Act. Currently, 105 SEZs are operational.

IT/BPO

China

While 7 Indian cities are listed among the world's top 10 BPO, only one city from China, Shanghai is in the list.
China will have a 28.7 per cent share of the outsourcing industry globally. It will end the year with revenues worth $35.76 billion from the BPO sector alone.

China's IT services point out how exports last year amounted to only $9.6 billion. India, on the other hand, made $49.7 billion.

India

The Indian IT-BPO Industry is expected to exceed $70 billion in fiscal 2011. Indian IT-BPO exports are projected to grow by 13 per cent to 15 per cent while domestic IT-BPO will grow slightly more by 15 per cent to 17 per cent during fiscal 2011.

Roads

China

The total length of China's expressways is 65,065 km at the end of 2009. It has world's second longest after the United States.

Until 2015, the Chinese government will invest $600 billion (four trillion yuan) to develop high speed railroads, and fast railroads, and long-distance railroads.

India

The road ministry has unveiled an ambitious programme to construct 35,000 km of roads by March 2014 and has called for foreign investment to meet the financial requirements.

The highways ministry is keen to implement mega projects, each with a length of about 500 km and a total project cost of $500 million.

COUNTRY BRAND

China

China was down to 56th position. Perceptions about political freedom, censorship battles with Google and the nation's handling of environmental issues were contributors to China's weak performance this year, the study said.

Russia, on the other hand, had to grapple with issues concerning both political freedom and corruption, the study said.

India

India is ranked 23rd in the Future Brands' annual country brand index, a comprehensive study of nations based on levels of awareness, familiarity, preference, consideration, advocacy and active decisions to visit.

India has slipped down five places from its perch in 2009, when it stood at 18th position.

RAILWAY

China

Aiming to break the 574.8 km/hour speed record set by France, China has signed agreements with Thailand and Laos to build high-speed railways.

On December 3, a high-speed passenger train manufactured by CSR Corporation hit a record speed of 486.1 km/hour on a test run on the Beijing-Shanghai line.

Chinese railway officials said the CRH380A is designed to operate at a cruising speed of 380 kph, is the fastest train in operation in the world.

India

While China is conducting test-runs for one of the fastest trains in the world, Indian Railways are conducting a pre-feasibility study on running high-speed trains between Delhi and Agra and between Lucknow and Patna via Varanasi.

The study would seek to assess the feasibility of constructing high speed corridors on these routes, the route alignments and the ridership study among others.

AUTO INDUSTRY

China

In 2009, China beat Japan to become the largest automobile maker in the world, manufacturing 13.759 million vehicles.

The number of registered cars, buses, vans, and trucks on the road in China reached 62 million in 2009, and is expected to exceed 200 million by 2020.

The value of China's auto industry rose to 2.1 trillion yuan during the January-June period, up nearly 49 per cent from last year. China's automobile sales rose 26.9% in November.

India

India is one largest and fastest growing auto markets. It manufactures over 11 million vehicles and exports about 1.5 million every year. It is also the world's second largest manufacturer of motorcycles.

By 2050, the country is expected to top the world in car volumes with approximately 611 million vehicles

In November, car sales rose by 20.8 per cent in November to 161,497 units.

STARTING A BUSINESS
China

It takes 99 days for foreign companies to set up shop in China, says a World Bank report.

China has 18 procedures for foreign firms to fulfil. However, here it takes just 129 days for firms to access industrial land.

China lacks legal and regulatory transparency, according to the Index of Economic Freedom.

India

It takes as many as 46 days for a foreign company to set up business in India, but this is faster than in China.

India scores slightly better in terms of number of procedures (16) required for overseas firms to set up operations in the country.

However, it takes a whopping 295 days to lease public land in India.

AGRICULTURE

India

India ranks second in farm output globally. India is the largest producer in the world of milk, cashew nuts, coconuts, tea, ginger, turmeric and black pepper.

China

China ranks first in worldwide farm output. The agriculture sector employs 300 million farmers. Only 15 per cent of its total land area can be cultivated.

Proud to be Indian

The Indian economy is the eleventh largest in the world by nominal GDP and the fourth largest by purchasing power parity (PPP).

1. India is poised to achieve 9 per cent economic growth in the current financial year itself, driven by robust performance by the agriculture and industry sectors.

The economy grew by 8.9 per cent in the second quarter of the current fiscal.

2. India has emerged as one of the world's top ten countries in industrial production. The nation's industrial production grew at the fastest pace in three months at 10.8 per cent.

Manufacturing grew 11.3 percent in October after a 4.6 percent gain in September.

3. India is one of the fastest growing automobile markets in the world, expanding at 35 per cent on average in the first four months of the current financial year.

4. The Bombay Stock Exchange has been rated as the world's best performing stock market recently. With a 13 per cent gain, Sensex is among the world's 10 biggest markets, according to data collected by Bloomberg.

5. Indian companies have become bigger and stronger in the last ten years with the average revenue of a company on the Fortune India 500 list standing at Rs 7,632.5 crore (Rs 76.32 billion).

The total revenue of the Fortune India 500 companies stands at Rs 38,16,239.40 crore.

6. India is the world's largest recipient of overseas remittances. The remittances grew from $49.6 billion in 2009 to $55 billion in 2010.

It is also the country with the second largest number of emigrants after Mexico, according to the World Bank.

7. India owns over 18,000 tonnes of above ground gold stocks worth approximately $800 billion and representing at least 11 per cent of global stock, according to estimates of World Gold Council.

India ranks 11th in the world with 557.7 tonnes of gold reserves.

8. India is among the top 10 nations in terms of foreign exchange reserves.

The country's foreign exchange reserves breached the $300-billion mark for the first time since 2008 with an addition of $2.2 billion on the back of a healthy rise in foreign currency. The nation's forex reserves currently stand at $296.40 billion.

9. India's services sector, backed by the IT revolution, remains the biggest contributor to the country's GDP, with a contribution of 58.4 per cent.

The industry sector contributed 24.1 per cent and the agriculture sector contributed 17.5 per cent to the GDP.

9. India's civil aviation sector will be among the top five in the world in the next five years.

Indian domestic air traffic is expected to reach 160-180 million passengers per year, while international traffic will exceed 80 million.

10. India's exports during November jumped by 26.8 per cent to $18.9 billion year-on-year. India's exports during April-September aggregated to $103.65 billion registering a year-on-year growth of 28 per cent.

11. India, China and Brazil are the top three target countries for foreign direct investment until the end of 2012 with the United States, for years number one, now in fourth place, according to the UN trade and development agency UNCTAD.

12. The Indian telecommunications industry is the world's fastest growing telecommunications industry, 723.28 million telephone (landlines and mobile) subscribers and 687.71 million mobile phone connections as of September 30, 2010.

13. The number of Internet users in India is estimated at 81 million. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India pegs the number of broadband subscribers at 10.08 million in August 2010.

14. The Indian IT-BPO industry is expected to exceed $70 billion in fiscal 2011.

The Indian IT-BPO exports are projected to grow by 13 per cent to 15 per cent while domestic IT-BPO will grow slightly more by 15 per cent to 17 per cent during fiscal 2010-11.

15. India has the largest number of post offices in the world. The world's highest post office, Hikkim is located at 15,500 feet in the Lahaul Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh.

16. The largest employer in India is the Indian Railways, employing over 1.6 million people. Indian Railways started operations on April 16, 1853.

17. India ranks second in farm output globally. India is one of the largest producer in the world of milk, cashew nuts, coconuts, tea, ginger, turmeric and black pepper.

18. Tourism is the largest service industry in India, with a contribution of 6.23 per cent to the national GDP. The number of foreign tourists visiting the country during September this year is higher than that of the same month last year.

Around 3.69 lakh (369,000) foreign tourists came to India in September this year as compared to 3.28 lakh (328,000) during the same month in 2009.

http://www.rediff.com/business/slide-show/slide-show-1-facts-you-must-know-about-indias-growth/20101215.htm

Who says India is a poor country?

Indians are poor but India is not a poor country, says Swiss Bank Director. He says that Rs. 280 Lakh crore of Indian money is deposited in Swiss Bank.

This same money can be used for

• Tax less budget for 30 years
• Can Give 6o crore jobs to all Indian
• From any village to Delhi 4 lane roads
• Forever free power supply to more than 500 social projects
• Every citizen can get monthly Rs. 2000/- for 60 years.
• No need of World Bank & IMF loan.

Think how our money is blocked by rich corrupt people.

ZEROING IN ON BLACK MONEY

$462000000000

India Drained Of 20 Lakh cr During 1948-2001: Study

Binoy Prabhakar NEW DELHI

IN A season of swindles, kickbacks and scams, here is some more on the mother of them all. Black money — the popular moniker given to the billions seeded by dirty deals and whisked away abroad from the taxman’s prying eyes — has received much attention in recent years.

The opposition never tires of screaming foul at the government. The government, for its part, is at pains to say it is doing all it can to track down the illegal stash.

Despite the cacophony, an estimate of the scads of black money in secret bank vaults overseas has long been one big unknown, resulting in a great deal of speculation and glib talk around the subject. Finally, some help is at hand.

A new study by an international watchdog on the illicit flight of money from the country, perhaps the first ever attempt at shedding light on a subject steeped in secrecy, concludes that India has been drained of $462 billion ( 20,556,848,000,000 or over 20 lakh crore) between 1948 and 2008. The amount is nearly 40% of India’s gross domestic product, and nearly 12 times the size of the estimated loss to the government because of the 2G spectrum scam. The study has been authored by Dev Kar, a lead economist with the US-based Global Financial Integrity, a non-profit research body that has long crusaded against illegal capital flight.

Mr Kar, a former senior economist with the International Monetary Fund, says illicit financial flows out of India have grown at 11.5% a year, debunking a popular notion that economic reforms that began nearly two decades ago had tempered the creation and stashing away of black money overseas.

Outflows accelerated after reforms
IF CAPITAL outflows were a child of the independence era, the problem came of age in the years after the reforms kicked in. Nearly 50% of the total illegal outflows occurred since 1991. Around a third of the money exited the country between 2000 and 2008.

“It shows that reforms seem to have accelerated the transfer of black money abroad,” says Mr Kar, whose study titled ‘The Drivers and Dynamics of Illicit Financial Flows from India: 1948-2008’ sifts through piles of data on the issue over a period of 61 years. The study, which Mr Kar says is the most comprehensive one yet on illicit financial flows from India, will be made public on Thursday.

His report comes amid a renewed government push in recent months to pursue black money stashed abroad. In late August, the government signed an agreement with Switzerland — its banks top a list of usual suspects — that will enable exchange of information on tax evaders. New Delhi is also in talks with at least 20 tax havens, particularly Mauritius, to extract similar information.

The government is also attempting to gain a measure of the total unaccounted money circulating in the economy. The finance ministry last week approached the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy to get a fix on such money.

But M Govinda Rao, director of the institute, says his think-tank is yet to decide on going ahead with the exercise because it is not an easy task. “A study on this subject is a huge challenge because one is dealing with a very big problem that covers hordes of money from many sectors,” he says.

Black money turned into an election issue during the 2009 general elections, with the BJP harping on the issue throughout its campaign. Its leader LK Advani has been the most vocal critic of the government on this issue, time and again questioning the government’s resolve to chase illegal funds. Mr Advani recently urged the government to publish a white paper on the issue.

While Mr Advani was unavailable for comment, the government’s detractors on this issue say there is more talk than action to address this issue.

“Everybody knows about the gravity of the problem, but the government has not shown the political will to bring the money back to India,” says Prakash Karat, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist).

The government has, however, received praise from Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which has been at the forefront of the fight against tax evasion. OECD, whose relentless offensive is largely credited with lifting the veil of secrecy over umpteen tax havens, hailed India’s efforts to crack down on tax evasion and sign information exchange agreements earlier this year.

These are but short-lived answers, say experts, adding that an overhaul in the global financial system is central to a lasting solution. New tax havens will spring forth when pressure mounts on existing ones.

That is not to say there are only a few tax havens out there. Indeed, at least 91 such hotspots flourish across the globe. Asian countries, particularly Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong and Macau, too are emerging as new destinations for parking illicit funds.

Besides Switzerland and Mauritius, Indian money is also said to end up in Seychelles and Macau. Due to the illicit nature of these deposits, pinpointing the journey’s end of the bulk of India’s black money is tenuous at best.

The GFI study gives a measure of the amount of money that the government is chasing, but it is only a fraction of the $1.4 trillion that the BJP claims is the illegal stash.

GFI acknowledges as much, saying its figure is conservative and hasn’t taken into account smuggling and certain types of trade mischief. It also admits to gaps in available statistics, lamenting the lack of data on the consolidated fiscal balance with the government, which has hampered research. If these indicators were counted, India’s total illicit outflows would well be half a trillion dollars.

But Mr Kar says the $1.4 trillion figure was an “estimate”, while the numbers in the latest report are based on real data.

Still, GFI says that by no stretch of imagination is its calculation insignificant, more so when viewed against the country’s existing external debt at nearly $230 billion.

“It means India could not only have contracted less debt or even paid it off, but another half would also have been left over for poverty alleviation and economic development,” says Mr Kar. “There is no question that this huge loss of capital has set India back in its struggle to eradicate poverty and illiteracy.”

The study has based its findings on the World Bank Residual Model that tracks illicit outflows by measuring the disparity in a country’s recorded source and use of funds. It also delves into IMF’s ‘trade-mispricing’ model that compares a country’s recorded imports to what the world says it exported to the country as well as the recorded exports against its global imports. The gaps tell the story.

The perpetrators of illicit outflows, says the study, are wealthy individuals and private companies. Black money is also abetted by the existence of an ’underground’ economy that emerged out of illegal activities and assets spawned by such activities.

The unabated growth of slush funds is borne out of a growing affinity of culprits for offshore financial centres, or tax havens, at the expense of banks in developed countries such as the US, France and the United Kingdom. The study finds that the share of deposits in offshore tax havens grew to 54.2% in 2009 from 36.4% in 1995.

The study is as much an indictment of feckless government action as it is about shedding a light on the nature of illicit financial flows. “The sharp rise in illicit flows means that tax evasion (which is part and parcel of such flows) is also increasing sharply,” says Mr Kar.

“In the absence of good governance and poor institutional oversight, the desire for the hidden accumulation of wealth drives more of such transfers,” he adds.

Though India cannot end its black money problem alone, there are challenges it must address by itself, says the study. Legal institutions and procedures need to be strengthened and streamlined. The guilty should be punished --the architects of the Commonwealth Games scam, for example -- swiftly. And tax policies must be rationalised.

“Sure, black money is there in most countries but if it worsens poverty, robs human rights and drives centrifugal forces such as naxals, it becomes a problem that can no longer be ignored,” says Mr Kar.

Source: The Economics Times, 18/11/2010

'Awake to freedom'

'Awake to freedom' "Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially.

At the stroke of midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, then an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment we take the pledge of dedication to India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.

At the dawn of history India started on her unending quest, and trackless centuries are filled with her striving and the grandeur of her successes and her failures. Through good and ill fortune alike she has never lost sight of that quest or forgotten the ideals which gave her strength. We end today a period of ill fortune and India discovers herself again.

The achievement we celebrate today is but a step, an opening of opportunity, to the greater triumphs and achievements that await us. Are we brave enough and wise enough to grasp this opportunity and accept the challenge of the future?

Freedom and power bring responsibility. That responsibility rests upon this assembly, a sovereign body representing the sovereign people of India. Before the birth of freedom we have endured all the pains of labour and our hearts are heavy with the memory of this sorrow. Some of those pains continue even now.

Nevertheless, the past is over and it is the future that beckons to us now.

That future is not one of ease or resting but of incessant striving so that we might fulfill the pledges we have so often taken and the one we shall take today. The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease
and inequality of opportunity. The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us but so long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over.

And so we have to labor and to work, and work hard, to give reality to our dreams. Those dreams are for India, but they are also for the world, for all the nations and peoples are too closely knit together today for any one of them to imagines that it can live apart. Peace has been said to be indivisible, so is freedom, so is prosperity now, and so also is disaster in this one world that can no longer be split into isolated fragments.

To the people of India whose representatives we are, we make appeal to join us with faith and confidence in this great adventure. This is no time for petty and destructive criticism, no time for ill-will or blaming others. We have to build the noble mansion of free India where all her children may dwell."

-- Speech by Jawaharlal Nehru

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wUcw8Ufx_Y

My Response to comments received for earlier post

Nice points of observation. So now lets see what do you want to say. First of all it all about “these people”, but who are “these people”. I think “these people” are you, I and some others like us hence we. So now since we know whom we want to address to for getting India on higher growth lines, let’s look at what do we do which we need to change. We spit on roads, we are narrow minded, we are illiterate, corrupt and we live on ‘jugaad’.
I guess you already know what I am going to write but still allow me to do that. First is to change ourselves then talk about others. See yourself in how many such activities you contribute, in positive and negative manner. Do you also spit on roads? Do you also get involved in corruption? Do you use any jugaad yourself? And what have you done to get people literate?
You don’t need to answer me but you know the answer. If the change has to come it has to start from within. How can we demand something from others when we don’t do it ourselves? We should set examples, which can lead the way. No body in the world can stop you from thinking big and bright, then why do you think we are narrow minded. Who is narrow minded brother? A farmer, who grows crops every year and still lives below poverty line, is he narrow minded. He has thought much-much bigger than what we do, its because of him that we get to eat our food, its because of him that India is the largest supplier of pulses and grains in the world. He has done much more than we ever can. But yes he cannot talk in English like you, or he does not have a great dressing sense, or he might be getting involved in child marriage or female daughter killing. So what do you think can change all this?
Education is the key to all those issues. Studying arts, science and commerce is not enough, we should also learn our moral duties. It’s our moral duty to keep our country clean. It’s our moral duty not to make our country corrupt. It’s our moral duty to help other.
Poverty is another big enemy of ours and we have to win over it. But this too has solution from education. If we are educated than we can get better jobs and some of us will create some jobs and businesses.
Tell me why you can’t teach someone. You are big enough to teach anyone. You not your servant and their children may be one hour a day. Now what possibly can happen if you do that? Firstly you will loose one hour of your play time. Secondly, that servant will spread the word of mouth that his employer teaches him and his children. Such can be the excitement that in sometime more servants will ask their employer’s to help them in studies. Hence it will gradually decrease the illiteracy rate. Even government has now implemented so many policies like mid-day meal, free primary education, etc. for such people. You can help them in getting in there. Remember to make any policy successful we should have three important factors; people who can take the best benefits from the policy, systems which can sustain the policy and its demands, and the policy makers for can manage all the implementations and monitor the response.

My Reponse when asked - what according to u is a feasible solution? {related to GROWING INDIA}

The current India is growing India itself, that's why we call it as developing nation. The question is - are we satisfied with the pace at which it is growing? If yes, then we have the solution and we are working on it. If not, then what changes are required to increase the pace?
Well my solution is simple, a nation grows when its people grow, because it’s the people who make a nation, not the other way round. Hence the growth has to come from each individual; each individual has to understand their responsibility and role towards nation’s growth. Every wrong act is wrong, no matter how large or small it may be and it’s the individual who has to stand against wrong and has to stand high for the right.
A nation progresses when each individual understands his own contribution in countries’ GDP. we have such a beautiful example of Japan in front of us, a country beaten down to dust but look at them now, they are among the developed nation. India on the other hand never faced any such tragedy. But to be fare, India has faced bigger ones. Atom bomb happened once in century, India has smaller atom bombs exploding every now and then with different names. A stupid country, smaller than the size of U.P. in all terms be it area, population, economy, etc. has caused more problems per year to us then the number of companies India has registered on sensex every year. How can any Indian forget that one of our beautiful state is under terror attack since 1948?
The actual problem does not stop there, because it starts from inside. The corruption, self centered thinking, and cowardliness (yes it’s a truth Indians are coward people) has pushed India more back than anything else. How can you imagine that when UP, Assam, Bengal get floods every year, we have desert in Rajisthan, drought in AP and Tamil Nadu. Why can’t we combine all the rivers and states together and use the power of free flowing energy. This is the kind of thoughts and work which is required from our nation's countrymen.
The solution lies within us, we as nation has to take decisions some will be hard, some will be shocking but for certain they have to be bold. And that's exactly what our generation has the responsibility for. Our fathers and grandfathers have done their job and it’s time for them to retire and be our guide. But its time for us the generation next to stand make things count.

10-point plan for India to be an economic superpower

1. Agriculture needs to grow at a sustained rate of 4%.

2. Manufacturing needs to register 11-12% long-term average growth.

3. Service sector needs to remain robust and a growth driver.

4. Physical Infrastructure needs to be of global standards.

5. Education would have to be the center of reforms.

6. Skill development would need a massive step up.

7. Labour environment and rules need to be conducive to employment creation.

8. Delivery mechanisms of government need to be streamlined.

9. Need new urban centers to come up as growth poles.

10. The financial sector reforms need to be fast tracked to enable financing of a high growth, large economy -- particularly focussing on long-term funding instruments and financial inclusion.

Is this the India we love?

Manipur must be amongst the most beautiful states of India with green hills, flowery valleys and vast clean water lakes mesmerising the viewer and in many ways dwarfing Switzerland's over-stated panorama.

The state is on fire today. Terrorist organisations demand secession from India, local tribal conflicts and a total collapse of the civil administration has turned this state into a virtual hell otherwise famed for its Radha Krishna dance the world over and a stunningly sharp martial arts said to be the predecessor of karate.

A few facts first.

1. Since January 16, 80,000 state government employees have been on a 'pen down' strike demanding implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission's recommendations with retrospective effect. This has paralysed the government machinery, but Chief Minister Ibobi Singh has refused to talk to the striking employees.

2. A stifling blockade on National Highway-39 and a partial blockade on NH-53 has caused an unbelievable scarcity of oil, food and medicines. Buses and trucks are given 40 litres of petrol/diesel per day through a self-imposed rationing system. Diesel and petrol are being sold at exorbitant rates in the black market.

Bus fares have increased two to three times (the Imphal to Churachand Pur bus fare has gone up to Rs 150 from Rs 40 earlier).

3. The only one major government hospital is not getting oxygen cylinders, hence it has stopped operating upon patients. With a few oxygen cylinders left, it has closed down the casualty department, keeping the scantly available reserve for emergencies.

4. The Guwahati-Imphal air fare has suddenly gone up and people are simply unable either to enter or leave Manipur by road.

5. Non-Manipuris have been served notices to quit the state by the Peoples' Liberation Army, an outlawed separatist organisation with Chinese contours; it has set May 31 as the deadline.

Thousands of labourers and workers have already left in panic; the remaining traders and teachers are terrified with zero security assurance either by the state government or by the Centre.

So this is the state of India where citizens are asked to leave like the jihadis did to Kashmiri Hindus. People ask who owns Manipur. Why don't the Delhiwallahs care for them?

If a small road was blocked for day in Haryana or Uttar Pradesh, the media would have covered it immediately. But a month's blockade of two arteries joining the state with the rest of India hasn't attracted even a fraction of that attention. Why? Because Haryana and UP are more important to South and North Block than Manipur?

Roads are blocked cutting the state from the rest of India, hospitals do not run, an administration is on strike for the last four months, terrorists virtually rule the land and above that the Centre decided to allow T Muivah, a leader of a separatist insurgent organisation, the National Socialist Council of Nagaland, Issac-Muivah faction, to visit his ancestral village in Manipur.

Muivah has been booked in several cases of murder and mayhem in Manipur. On finding that the Union home ministry is proposing to send him under Z-plus security cover in a government helicopter to the state, Manipuris boiled in anger. Chief Minister Ibobi Singh, a Congress leader, flatly refused to accept the central government's unilateral decision.

Nevertheless, this move further aggravated the already tormented state and all social and political organisations joined hands to condemn the Centre's move, threatening dire consequences if Muivah was allowed to visit the state. In protest clashes, three young men have been killed.

Muivah is demanding a Greater Nagaland, and his organisation's slogan is 'Nagaland for Christ'. The movement is supported openly by various denominations of Nagaland's churches and it gets funds from Western countries. Muivah is accused of having engineered the 1992-1993 ethnic cleansing of Kuki tribes in Manipur which is said to have claimed more than 900 lives. During that NSCN-IM operation, 350 Kuki villages were uprooted and 100,000 Kukis were turned into refugees.

They are bewildered why such a person is given so much importance and Z-plus security cover. Is the only 'crime' of the Manipuris that they still owe an allegiance to the Indian tricolour?

Manipuris oppose Muivah's visit to his ancestral village Somdal in Ukhrul district. It may shock many that Muivah is originally a Manipuri Naga, hence his credibility amongst the Naga-Nagas is low. Manipuris fear this will further accelerate and strengthen his demand to merge four Manipuri districts into his proposed Nagalim state.

The Government of India has so far not assured it will keep Manipur's territorial integrity intact.

Non-Manipuris, organised under a banner, quite ironically called the 'Hindustani Samaj', are in a deadly trap.

On March 17, 2008, eight non-Manipuri people were killed on the outskirts of the capital Imphal. Seven of them were brought in a van, lined up on the roadside with their hands tied behind their backs, and shot dead from close range with automatic weapons. A few miles away another non-Manipuri was shot dead in similar circumstances. This was the first time in Manipur that militants targeted non-local migrants who are either labourers or petty traders.

In the two years since then 32 non-Manipuris, mostly Biharis and Bengalis, have been killed.

This year in February, the Revolutionary People's Front, a banned organisation in Manipur through its armed outfit, the Peoples' Liberation Army issued a quit notice to all Mayaangs -- a derogatory term used for non-Manipuris, who came to Manipur after 1949 (the year when the princely state was merged with the Indian Union) to leave the state by May 31.

Non-Manipuris travelling from Guwahati to Imphal by bus -- the only mode of travel available to poor people -- have been denied tickets at Guwahati ticket booking counters.

Yet none of the great national leaders or organisations, barring the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party, have thought it fit to voice the pain and anguish of the Manipuri people. Neither the television channels nor national newspapers sent their correspondents to cover the unprecedented crisis.

That's what makes the north-eastern people think that Delhi does not care for them. Hindustan's boundaries for the so-called mainland politicos are up to Kolkata in the east and Amarnath in the north. Even the local Manipur media cannot refuse to publish threatening press releases of the terrorist groups.

In the famous Mothers' Market in Imphal, the women traders seethe in anger. Their leader Mangi Devi says, "How do you think our children will get a good education when 15 days a month, their schools are forcibly closed? Can they ever think of qualifying for the IAS and IPS like your children in Delhi? There is no petrol, no kerosene, it has become extremely difficult for the common person to travel to his village, no medicines in hospitals. Is this the India we should be proud of?"

The Manipuri people hardly get to celebrate Independence Day or Republic Day -- they are not allowed by the banned outfits who virtually dictate the state's life. Only under heavy security cover can government buildings hoist the tricolour for a short time.

No school, public place, private institution can display the national colours. Hindi is banned; Hindi movies have not been allowed in movie theatres for the last ten years. In school textbooks, the national anthem cannot be printed.

Every single government contract has a 20 percent share for the terrorist separatist organisations and government officials take cash out in bundles and distribute it, according to the size and influence of the organisation, to their representatives whenever a new contract is awarded.

Leaders of various social organisations are so terrified are no local political party has been able to condemn the threat to the non-Manipuris. The market wears a ghostly look after 6 pm and the last movie show (all showing either Manipuri movies, shot on video cameras or Korean ones) is at 4 pm. Unemployment is widespread; educational degrees from local colleges mean nothing as they are given without a proper regimen.

With none to protect them and engulfed in such a darkness it is a great tribute to the patriotic Manipuris that they suffer in silence and have not yet revolted.