Indian economy strong, growing globally

The economic balance of power is soon to tilt, at least if Manjeet Kripalani, the 2006 Edward R. Murrow press fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations is to be believed.\nKripalani, the India bureau chief for Business Week, came to IU for a lecture on "Economic and Political Impediments to India's Embrace of the Market" presented by the India Studies Program and the Kelley School of Business.\n"There are only two kinds of stories: 'aah' the wonder of it and 'oh' the pity of it," Kripalan said. "In 1996 when I went to India it was a 'pity story', but then things changed and India turned into a wonder story."\nKripalani focused her talk on India's impact on globalization and globalization's impact on India. While she was aware of the scope of India's socio-economic problems, she stressed that they could not outweigh the revolution that the trio of cellular, software and satellite had stirred.\n"India is a society in transition and it represents inside-out change. There is a silent revolution in India as India has chosen social equity over economic equity," she said. \nIndia attained independence on Aug. 15, 1947.\nKripalani articulated that India is a story of grassroots growth, which gives the country a "democratic model of development" as opposed to the "autocratic development" model of neighbor China. This to her was the foundation of India's growth.\n"India is the only country which upon independence was given universal adult franchise -- one person, one vote," she said. "And nobody in India would replace water and electricity for their vote."\nWhat brought this change in the destiny of India? According to Kripalani, India's tipping point came at the outset of the new millennium.\n"In the wake of the threat of the Y2K virus, Indian coders saved the world when all computers were supposed to shut down," she said. "With the technical boom, Indian tech workers were in great demand in California, giving the entire nation a sense of pride. This was the moment when India felt it had a place in the world and belonged to its future, not just the past."\nIndia has the cheapest cellular services in the world and the lowest banking transaction costs, Kripalani said. Indian elections are a "joy for a liberty lover to see -- completely free and fair, noisy and colorful," Kripalani said. \nEighty percent of foreign direct investment comes to India from its stock exchange. She said the non-governmental organizations, the banks and the private sector are addressing challenges, which the government fails to take up.\n"India has the largest young population in the world, which could be turned into a very strong asset if it is channeled correctly," she said. "But it has few young politicians. The mismatch between midnight's children (the politicians) and liberalization's children (the youth) is apparent."\nBut why is global India important?\n"Much of the world looks like India -- confident, pluralistic, multi-lingual and multi-religious. India serves as the bridge between the Islamic and the Christian world," she said.\nSumit Ganguly, director of the India Studies Program, said lectures such as these add to the element of diversity at IU, a view exemplified by the multi-lingual, multi-racial audience for the lecture.\n"Indian economy is undergoing a fundamental transition; it has grown, in the last quarter, at a rate of 10 percent as indicated by robust and reliable statistics," Ganguly said.