India - progress, potential & pitfalls
Progress
A truer form of knowing you are doing well is when a critic admires your progress. India and Pakistan have been enemies since independence of the nations in 1947. Although both countries share a common culture, both countries diverged in many ways in policy and reform.
Today Pakistan is looking for another financial bailout from the IMF and its economy is in a downward spiral with high inflation and devaluation of the currency. Relatively India is much stronger (10x larger in GDP) and growing stronger with a diversified economy in sectors of services, manufacturing, agriculture and IT. The economy of Pakistan is still primarily agrarian and textile based with some services work.
Importantly the benefits of a modern dynamic economy are reaching many corners of the nation. See this conversation on a Pakistani vlog on a trip by one of them to various cities in India.
Highlights were how accessibility of phones, internet, digitization, women's empowerment, education, broad taxation, infrastructure investments are improving lives. India is self-sufficient in many respects while also becoming an integral part of the global economy.
India has made many policy improvements over the years and is continuing to do so. Right from land reforms after independence, abolishment of license raj, to massive investments in infrastructure, digitization and taxation. Social indicators are also progressing well.
Potential
You just have to be extremely bullish about India's potential. A major reason for this is favorable demographics for the rest of the century. Read this article with research data. Highlights are that 40% of the current population is under the age of 25 years. The percentage of senior citizens is currently only at 7% and will rise to around 30% till 2100. Fertility rates are dropping across the entire society which should keep the population at current levels.
The government needs to continue investing in its people - raising social indices, providing access to education and allowing private enterprises to flourish. Further divestment of public sector units like Air India should continue. Boosting international trade, up-leveling security are a must. India has always had an independent foreign policy and a defensive security posture which should continue. The Indian prime minister recently publicly told Putin that now "is not an era of war".
Pitfalls
The economic boom in India has led to a new confidence. However politics and public discourse has devolved in recent years.
S Jaishankar is the current minister for external affairs and long serving diplomat. He is knowledgeable, articulate and often makes compelling arguments on how India makes its own foreign policy decisions based on its strategic interest. In a recent interview, he spoke about the BBC Modi documentary and how it was a foreign scheme to destabilize India.
Hence we got the documentary banned internationally. As a citizen even if the documentary was propaganda, how fragile does he think Indian democracy is? Actions like this show a complete lack of faith in the Indian citizens. The Indian bureaucracy still wants excessive control on what media we need to consume.
From a values perspective, I suppose being narcissistic is fine now. Having a sitting prime minister accept a stadium in his name feels unnatural to me. The stadium was previously named after a great stalwart of the nation from the same region - Vallabhbhai Patel.
We're seeing a resurgence of pride in Hinduism. By itself being proud of your religion and culture is fantastic. The offbeat cultural movie Kantara was my favorite movie from last year. On religion, we're now going down the slippery slope of vilifying and demonizing others. Just like Pakistan bred terrorists till they turned inwards, I'm afraid that we are stoking anger and hate which will not be controllable after many years.
Hindenburg vs Adani was perplexing. Instead of addressing financial allegations the company and media claimed an attack on India. A single company does not represent my country. If you are getting listed in international markets then short-selling is normal.
The recent Rahul Gandhi defamation case has been astounding as well. An overzealous judiciary has taken a comment with no real material harm as the basis for a conviction. I've heard worse speeches by politicians with real incitement of violence with no action by any court. For a well functioning society we need powerful institutions that can keep each other in check and balance. This is what happens when one section of a branch colludes with another debasing the entire system.
As an engineer I try to make decisions without bias and on the merit of the data. Here also you can like multiple things about a Government but still be opposed to others. I'm not an appeaser for the Congress or any other party. If anything I'd want a stronger opposition to the ruling party at all times for a vibrant democracy. Citizens always need to be critical of the people in power. Agree and disagree with policies. Do not worship a hero or make your identity bound to a political group. Because when that same group will choose actions that you would otherwise consider immoral or unethical; you will be too vested to disagree.
Let's truly be a great nation based on first principles and ideas. We need to pivot towards transparency, secularism, civil liberties and individual freedoms. And these are not foreign concepts or ideals. One of my favorite books is "The Argumentative Indian" by Amartya Sen which goes into how we have always been a heterogeneous society with pluralistic ideas, and a strong foundation of being argumentative and critical; from Ashoka and Akbar and beyond.