Chords Of Life

I came across this really good article analysing the current boom in the Indian economy. The gist is that Indians love hype and make a big deal out of the smallest feat without seeing it in perspective, i.e. relative events/achievements of other nations/teams. We all know how when we win even an inconsequential match, the Indian cricket team is the cynosure of all eyes and individual players are described in hyperboles, whereas a loss is treated in equal extremes. The article argues that our internal view of the Indian economic boom is perhaps equally packaged in hyperbole and represents a parochial view of our achievements. Its certainly food for thought.

It also begs the question as to who these “Indians” are? My guess is it is not so much the common man, but the politicians and media. The media desperately need stories to sensationalise (even if it is a perfectly ordinary and boring occurrence), while politicians would love to lull the masses into thinking that all is hunky-dory and we are rocking, so that they can quietly justify their excesses and go about their business.

I think the article is a wake up call to all of us who are part of the economy and buy into the hype.

I couldn’t find the article published anywhere except in TOI’s epaper so couldn’t paste a link, and so am copying the entire text. Worth a read.

Indian economy: Secure Super 8 before Top 3

Chidanand Rajghatta | TNN

Hype has become part of our national discourse over the past few years. Why blame our perfectly ordinary cricket team, full of decent blokes but ranked somewhere at the bottom half of the international ratings for our exaggerated expectations?
The same kind of hype courses through the debate on India’s modest economic achievements and the great expectations for the future. There is a big gap between current gains and the grand projections that place us, potentially, among the world’s top three economies in the 2032-2050 time frame. But who’s listening? The imminence of India’s superpower status is taken as gospel by the believers.
We seize every upbeat assessment of India by the West while ignoring the caveats and pitfalls they mention, the same way we have believed Tendulkar is the greatest batsman who walked the earth even though the number of crunch games he has won for India can be counted on our fingers. Delusional, we certainly are.
Take one area where we have fooled ourselves into believing we are catching up with the world—roads.
Current wisdom is we are building thousands of miles of world class expressways.
But anyone who has travelled in the West and driven on our Golden Quad will tell you the difference: Our “massive” project—a modest and incomplete 8000kms of it—is comparable to what predated the US Interstate system of the 1950s. Most of it is like what the US now uses as back road highways, meandering through town and country traffic.
Similarly, the Indian Railways story is hyped beyond belief. It took a bunch of business school grads to puncture this myth when they bluntly asked Lalu Prasad about the dismal state of trains and stations after experiencing first hand the delays, dirt, and discomfort they offer.
One metro (Delhi) and two half-finished airports (Hyderabad and Bangalore) later, we are ecstatic. Many commentators snicker at our premature celebration, while acknowledging the kernel of success in the Indian story and the potential it holds.
“Giddy” and “intoxicated”, are some of the words they have used to describe our overenthusiastic twaddle. Some of our metrics (share of global trade, investment, social and health indices) are so pathetic that talk of superpower status is laughable, they point out.
Perhaps the only thing really growing faster in India than China is hype, the Economist observed tartly earlier this year. A columnist in the International Herald Tribune wrote recently that “there are too many signs of an overconfidence (in India) that looks more and more like hubris.” The problem with India’s selfproclaimed (and wildly premature) declaration of superpower status is that it reflects a complacency about both its present—which for many people is dire—and its future, noted Fortune magazine.
Many such red flags are being raised. But we are delirious with our modest success. A talk shop hosted by the Carnegie Endowment this week is soberingly titled “India, a decisive decade.” In India, the same seminar would have been entitled: “India—a superpower!”
So this painful moment in cricket is probably a good time to recalibrate our national discourse too. Go easy on the chatter about becoming the world’s top three economies for the moment; first let’s secure a place in the super eight.