Super star India : From incredible to unstoppable - Shoba De
Deep down the lanes of history, the subcontinent of India was once christened 'the golden canary'. It had started its journey long back in the depths of time with bags full of heritage, culture and righteousness. It was blessed with a smoothly moving economy, flourishing trade and widespread interpersonal relationship among the dwellers of all regions. The country's glory faded away soon with the invasion of many foreign invaders in search of wealth.
The country diverged from its monotonous traversing to a new direction, which would take it to inestimable heights. On the eve of India's 60th birthday ,Shobha in her book has posed many questions to her fellow citizens. She has asked whether the country has lived up to its promises that it had made to its countrymen. De has called her country to be the 'land of the meek' and at the same time had said that it had the capability of becoming the inheritor of the earth. Despite being immensely fond of jobs in the west, Indians within the country have succeeded in establishing better life. Surrounded by foe like neighbours,the country has risen with its head erect despite many failures. This way the country has earned itself the glory of being a superstar.
As a support to the notion set forth by Shobha De we can present the following argument. This argument would help one to evaluate the depths of the statement made by Shobha De in glory of the country, and its capability to reach the zenith of success, where it would be awed by the rest of the world as the 'incredible and unstoppable'.
Right from the commencement of the first five-year plan in 1951 to the present date the economy of India has undergone an immense transformation. Once rated as a third world country the subcontinent of India was an agricultural economy. Economists who were followers of Rostow's 'Stage Theory'strongly believed that the country would be able to reach a high GDP growth only after reaching high levels of industrialization. However the country reversed the standard theory by revealing a decline in agriculture to nearly 20% from a humungous share of 70% of the GDP of the country. The industrial growth rate which was the essential ingredient for achieving high per capita income however remained unchanged. The per capita income of the country rose by a large percentage due to a sudden doubling of the tertiary sector. The country at present not only specializes in traditional services such as trade, hotels, finance, insurance, real estates etc. but also is an IT-hub. Globally India ranks second next to Ireland in export of computers and information services.
The country's Gross Domestic Savings and domestic capital formation, though stagnant during the post independence era has risen highly in the recent years. The maximum savings coming from the household sector, the industries have contributed less to the total savings of the economy. The increase in investment has galloped above the increase in savings in the post liberalization era due to heavy inflow of foreign direct investment. The public sector savings which had once turned negetive after liberalization has revived itself and is heading towards a positive increase.
The economy of India was shattered under the British rule. No matter how much criticism the British rule in India has to face, it had brought about a major development in India in the form of development of railway network. The network helped connecting the remote parts of India rich in raw materials to the main metropolitan cities. The development of the railways pulled up the demand for steel, coal, thermal power etc. which are the basic infrastructure required for a country to develop. The development of steel plant under J.N. Tata and other Indian business tycoons in pre-independence period helped developing the basic infrastructure of the country. The construction of railways paralleled the construction of firm postal system. The development of railways not only accentuated development of economic overheads but also developed large and small scale industries of consumers importance . the railway constructions raised demand for coal which was required to generate thermal power in the engines. The same source was also required by other medium and small-scale consumers good industries such as jute, textiles, cement, paper, light engineering goods etc.
The country is richly endowed with a large number of natural resources the availability of which is unusual within the limits of a single national territory. The country being rich in agricultural raw materials of almost all sorts in simultaneously packed with huge mineral reserves. The various regions of our country as plentifully endowed with minerals such as coal, iron, aluminium, bauxite etc. due to such availability of wide ranges of agricultural resources and mineral reserves the country has self sufficiently created a strong industrial base. Today it manufactures cotton textiles, jute steel, cement, chemicals, electric and transport machinery and many more. Thus one can precisely conclude that the country has succeeded independently in establishment of basic, capital, consumer and intermediate goods base.
Despite of scanty hydrocarbon reserves that could partly suffice the energy needs of the vibrant economy. The country is victoriously sailing towards the discovery of new reserves which would reduce its excess demand for power. Though discovery of off-shore reserves of Bombay High Fields have raised supply in the past decades ,explorations are still on around the peninsular region.
Indian population is the second largest after China and rates up to 17% of the world's population. Prior to independence large member of India 's population were dwellers of the rural region. Rapid urbanization had facilitated high urban-rural migration. Like other developing country's India at present is facing rapid development of small industrial townships. These industrial townships are helping in modernization of backward regions of the country. The country at present has successfully developed large numbers of ports, have constructed networks of roads connecting the remote parts and has set up a vast telecommunication system which has boosted extensive use of information technology. Aggregate of all the above development have raised the country's stock of physical capital. The country is now one of the chief suppliers of human capital. It supplies vast pools of trained manpower including scientist, engineer, doctors and other professionals. The country has built large storages to hold large reserves of buffer stock during bumper crops and this makes the country to face natural calamities with a lot of valour.
India has also expanded its research in pharmaceuticals, has created markets and has set up collaborative undertakings with world leaders such as UK and USA. India has lately experienced immense expansion of civil aviation by launching the 'Open Skies Policy'.
The conclusion that India has achieved multifaceted development in almost all fields is incomplete without the mention of its space set up. Indian space programme driven by Dr Vikram Sarabhai has not only launched a network of satellite facilities to reduce the various disparities among the dwellers of the country, but have also created a new era in the country's history of space programme. After tedious researches the country is scheduled to launch its unmanned moon expedition called the 'Chandrayaan-1'. This would be the countries first independent step towards space expedition.
As Bengals great writer Bankim Chandra chattopadhyay portrays his nation as the 'Goddess of wealth' the country in true sense has been successful in regaining its lost glories. Shobha De has been right in making the comment that the country unless otherwise stopped by some serious natural calamity will never decelerate its pace towards the zenith of success. It is in this sense that she is justified. The difficulties that the nation today faces are mere frictions, which could be overcomed by the ardent attempt of development, which would act as a lubricant.
