NRIs &
Indian professor have different opinions- India is Changing
New Delhi, Oct. 08, 2007
Surinder Mehta
Dipankar Gupta, professor of sociology at Jawaharlal Nehru University,
Delhi, said, "India is only shining for a small section of
society, for the posh middle class strata and above. The incomes
of these people have risen, while for the vast majority unemployment
is growing. Many new private/ NRI funded hospitals have sprung
up but conditions in public hospitals are abysmal. Government
schools remain neglected while a growing number of luxury private
schools offering foreign certification are sprouting across the
country. There are new cars with a whole array of safety and luxury
features, but public transport is still terrible.
In India’s case, there are two nations. One is ‘India
Shining’, which the government keeps harping about, but
the other India is one where even basic human needs are not being
met. While Indian officials have been touting last year’s
8 percent economic growth, during the same year 1.25 million children
below the age of one died, around 50 million children were out
of school and half of India’s children were malnourished,"
says Salil Shetty, Millennium Campaign director and former chief
executive of ActionAid, the well-known London-based non-government
organisation. Shetty has been particularly critical of the Union
government spending $800 billion per year (a 50 percent under-estimate)
on defence, when $900 billion (Rs.40,000 crore) annually would
ensure the achievement of the MDGs.
Most public services remain neglected and the majority of citizens
don’t have access to basic amenities like clean and safe
drinking water. Given these vast glaring inequities, how can one
say India is shining
Read below NRI's view by popular writer Kul Bhushan
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It's changing India that greets
NRIs coming home
By Kul Bhushan, IANS
When Surya 'Sue' Patel landed at Mumbai airport, she stepped
out like many confident NRIs. Wearing the latest Nike sneakers,
a designer pair of jeans and her Rolex watch, she thought she
would make her presence felt among her relatives in Mumbai before
going on to Gujarat to celebrate Navratri and, later, Diwali.
She trundled her Samsonite bags to be welcomed and hugged by
her cousin, Meera. Her cousin fished out a mobile and asked the
driver to pick them up. Soon the car arrived - a big, gleaming
Mercedes Benz. Sue also noted the Gucci bag she was carrying and
her Cartier watch. Sue swallowed hard. Ten years ago, Meera and
her husband had a Maruti Esteem and now they have certainly moved
up in life, she mused.
As they were negotiating the chaotic traffic towards Bandra and
Sion, she saw the same ill-kept, dilapidated buildings and hordes
of people all over. Later, they went through the Dharavi, the
mother of all slums where the huts had encroached footpaths. She
noticed how the lamp posts had been engulfed by hutments with
signboards of almost every business from groceries to construction
materials. Parked on the road was a long line of handcarts pulled
by sweating labourers to transport the merchandise. She thought,
"Ugh! Mumbai will never change!"
After an endless half an hour of this depressing travel through
the squalor of this slum, they came to a toll bridge. Paying the
toll, they entered a new world - open, green and wide. "This
is Navi Mumbai," said Meera. "We moved here four years
ago from our flat in Dadar." Climbing a flyover, they saw
new, high-rise buildings, banks, smart restaurants and spanking
shopping malls ahead.
Gliding over a four-lane Palm Beach Road, lined with date palms
in the centre and verdant plants around them, they came to a high-rise
complex called NRI Colony. A gated estate, it had a small smart
shopping complex. The watchman waved them in and they went up
to the penthouse where Meera's husband, Rasik, and her children,
Ela and Vipul, greeted her. The luxuriously decorated penthouse
boasted of original paintings and Swaroski crystal. As she took
it all in and swallowed hard.
She thought, "Umm, making money was India's first challenge,
now it's how to spend it. Seems they are getting plenty of help
in this direction as the super luxury goods manufacturers are
moving in quickly to get a slice of the market."
Wearing trendy Swatches, the children were soon playing with
the latest Sony PlayStation on a huge Samsung plasma screen. Rasik
was getting out his Callaway golf set for the weekend round of
golf. It seems Meera was spoilt for choice of designer wear, both
Western and Indian - Armani, Escada, Moschino, Hermes, Prada,
Fendi et all was here. It was the same story for Western designer
men's wear and jewellery.
After luxury brands rented outlets in the shopping arcades of
five star hotels, they spawned a demand for luxury shopping malls
that are due to be opened soon in Delhi and Mumbai. Super luxury
cars like Bentley, Rolls Royce and Ferrari are available in India.
On observing the general affluence, Sue said she was happy Rasik
was doing well and wondered what the secret of his success was.
"Simple," he answered, "I invested in stocks, mutual
funds and real estate and all these have gone up many times in
the last seven-eight years. The stock market has shot up from
6,000 to almost 18,000 points now; and the real estate is also
up by over four times. So after I cashed in on some profits and
sold my Dadar flat, I moved here for a better quality of life."
But how come they moved into this NRI Colony? Not a problem as
they paid the going rates and many Indians had moved in, replied
Rasik.
The hi-tech industries and the back office operations of major
companies and big banks are located here, an airport is being
planned at New Panvel and a bridge linking Navi Mumbai to the
city centre is being built. New export processing zones are due
to come up and going to the city centre takes 60-90 minutes depending
on the traffic and Pune is just three hours away by the super
highway.
Sue cringed inside thinking about the 'presents' she had brought
for Meera and her family: a perfume bottle she got as a freebie
from the store for buying something else, a cut price pair of
jeans for Rasik and digital watches from Hong Kong and Chinese
toys from Wal-Mart for the children. After this reality check,
she decided to let her presents remain in her suitcases.
(A media consultant to a UN Agency, Kul Bhushan previously worked
abroad as a newspaper editor and has travelled to over 55 countries.
He lives in New Delhi and can be contacted at: kulbhushan2040@gmail.com)