Can India Fly?

Every few years, The Economist publishes a Survey of India. The magazine has been always more optimistic about India’s potential than I am, but has often lamented the low ‘Hindu’ rate of growth, which was because of a creeping bureaucracy often called as the ‘license raj’. For the first time last week (June 3-9, 2006 issue), it has a 14-page special report on business in India and asks the question: Can India Fly?

The survey opens optimistically. It quotes the head of the biggest temporary employment agency in India who feels that 2006 is a “once in a lifetime” opportunity for India, and the head of a major IT company who contends that though India has always been a country of promise and potential which has not delivered, the “worm has turned” now.

The Economist had always called India a caged tiger. It feels that many of the bars have now been removed and the beast is “free to roam and roar”. It correctly points out that “…Indian business can play a big part in delivering faster growth, but only if the government helps” (italics mine).

Now there’s the catch, or a Catch-22. Despite all the chest-thumping that India and Indians can justifiably do, the basic issue remains that the change there is painfully slow. It is not the ‘institution’ of the Government of India Inc. that holds the key, but the political will of the nation.

I will be posting a lengthier review and analysis soon. To access the article, go to http://economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=E1_SDDQQPP&CFID=82057964&CFTOKEN=1d44373-0cf6ca16-b728-4dfa-8909-07451d26a6ff, but you must be a subscriber to read it in full.