The economic development of India - An essay

Résumé du document

India has always been in the shadow of China's influence around the world, and therefore has very often been neglected as a real growing economy, despite its great performances and its huge population. Nevertheless, some phenomena can explain the fact that India has never been seen as a serious contestant in the globalized world economy. In spite of having real assets, like its English-speaking population, and its sound democratic basis, India has had to overcome some difficulties. Inefficient bureaucracy and very poor infrastructures have restricted some parts of the Indian economy from taking off. Some facts, like the recent deep drop of Bombay's stock market index could argue in favor of India being stuck in unsolvable problems.

Extraits

[...] But the most problematic phenomenon has been heritated from the tradition, the cast system is a very thorny subject. This rigid system is a brake for the capitalist system that is ruled by the dream of climbing the social ladder, dream which is today unreachable for millions of people. This matter at hand leads us to question the difference of the individual conception between the Indian and western societies. Contrasting to what prevails in the western world, having money does not mean being part of the upper-class in India. [...]

[...] In spite of real assets, like its English-speaking population, its sound democratic basis, India has had to overcome some difficulties. Inefficient bureaucracy and very poor infrastructures have refrained some parts of the Indian economy from taking off. Some facts, like the recent deep decrease of Bombay's stock market index could argue in favour of India being stuck in unsolvable problems. In fact, it is clear that the Indian economy is now improving very quickly and soundly, figures are actually stunning. During the last three years, its GDP has grown at an average of 8 percent. [...]

[...] From this angle, the social structure of western societies looks like the Indian one because filling this cultural gap is much more difficult and challenging that filling the financial one. Therefore, it seems that these differences are too huge for India to keep up with the capitalist model of civilization. As a matter of fact, this 1,1 billion populated country is slowly changing, and anyway, important people such as Gandhi were members of a lower Cast and had a huge audience in the country. Slowly, India is replacing its archaïc traditions by the more conventionnal occidental way of considering an individual. [...]

[...] It is true that this country is known worldwide for its cheap and qualified engineers; however, India also has based its economy on manufacturers which, unlike many Chinese companies, have already invaded the world market. Successful examples of Mittalsteel, or United Breweries show that India is able to compete with the very best. The other side of the coin is that compared to China, India's exports and investments are residual. In addition to this disadvantage, this country is not today able to make everyone benefit from this take off. India should not only count on its population growth to improve, but also keep on reforming its economy. [...]

[...] The individual is considered to have his place in the society, and there is no chance for him to break out of it and enter a new class. The caste system in India is exclusively based on religious beliefs, which does not mean that it is the way for the upper Caste to confirm their domination. Therefore, it seems that in India, climbing the social ladder is impossible, in terms of social recognition at least. On the contrary, in western society, the individual can actually hope to improve his situation if he works enough, it actually constitutes one of the bases of these capitalist societies, among which the US is the most striking example. [...]