Of Indian Economy...

Beautiful piece here by Gurcharan Das, the former CEO of P&G India, whose celebrity-like status I havent quite been able to understand. But he does write well.

This piece expalins clearly what many of us suspect or believe - that India is growing inspite of the State rather than because of the State and its policies. That also explains the unique anti-incumbency trend in India. In most other fast-developing countries, parties do some good work and get voted back to power because people are generally happy with economic growth. Here, parties in power just get in the way of development, and then try to claim credit with campaigns like 'India Shining', only to be duly booted out by a frustrated public.

I've never understood why Jawaharlal Nehru is always voted as the best PM India has had, in any survey. The facts suggest quite the opposite. His 'socialist' philosophy for India wasnt in sync with the age of globalization. He's the one who nationalized everything and created incompetent PSU behemoths, that sapped the adrenaline out of India. But of course, in school we are all taught how great he was and what a wonderful thing it is to be a 'socialist, secular, democratic republic . Im sure the 'socialist' was a bad idea, and have some reservations about the secular and democratic parts also.

I also doubt the so-called 'Non-aligned movement' that we are taught as if it were gospel. Did it really make sense to go it alone and become irrelevant, rather than take a side and stay in the mainstream of world politics and trade?

India is now on the right track. But I am worried about the indoctrination of school education. We are forced to align our thinking with principles that are clearly irrelevant in this day and age, if not altogether wrong. Our past is glorified, and not critiqued till you get to late-college, and even then traditional thinking is challenged only in a few good colleges, with thinkers like Dr Veeraraghavan.

Ive heard many people voicing the opinion that Indians are too risk-averse. We lack the killer instinct, we dont have enough entrepreneurs, our best brains defect to the West. Well, you want all that to change, start with encouraging free thinking at school! How realistic is to expect children - who are taught a load of bull and pressurized to get higher grades with little freedom given to develop social, artistic, or athletic interests - to develop into risk-taking torchbearers of a new Indian economy later in life?