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India @61

India will be celebrating 62nd Independence day tomorrow. India has come long way and is on the path of future glory or at least that's what people claim. GDP figures have been going up. Growth rate, though has been projected down, is decent enough. All MNCs are lining up to enter India. Everyone is buying to the India story.

India's GDP might be growing and it may well become superpower or something. But how does it benefit me? OK, I might have got good job and having more disposable income to spend. But has it improved my day to day life? Perhaps not. And the reason as per me is complete lack of planning in India and complete lack of infrastructure.

Consider basic transportation. Trains are getting crowded ( Borivali locals are now-a-days packed even after Kandivali). Roads are baaaaaaad. It takes ages to travel on potholed roads. Today it took me 40 minutes from Borivali station to Dahisar, which ideally shouldn't have taken more than 5-10 minutes. Things are getting ridiculous. And there is no other option to travel. People may well buy new cars, be it Mercedes or BMW, but ultimately they have to travel on the same crowded roads. Why buy these fancy cars then? Just show-off I guess.

Ditto with any other high end products. iPhone will be coming to India. But would we be able to use all its functions, with lack of high speed connections on mobiles. 3G seems ages away, even after guidelines have been declared. So apart from listening music, which I can do on iPod as well, iPhone is another gadget which I cannot utilize to its maximise potential. Another device for India's nouveau riche to brag about.

So till the infrastructure improves, I doubt how much of the growth will be reflected in the betterment of daily life. And worse part is, it's Government's domain, which has no plan to improve it in keeping pace with the country's needs. Just wondering if things will ever improve!

PS: I have heard lot of claims that this is change phase n all. I am not going to buy that. Change phase can be much quicker and can be better managed. For that there has to be clear intent, which is not there.

posted by ninad @ 8:49 pm