India is undoubtedly shining
This cannot be disputed. Sceptics of Indian economy cannot complain about the acceleration of growth. The "feel good" factor which is being widely talked about is positively a reality. The "feel good" and "India shining" slogans are in evidence in all areas of civic life and economic functioning. There are undoubtedly certain deficiencies, shortcomings and painful features in some aspects of functioning of our system and customs of the people which cannot be disregarded. It is, therefore, worthwhile and necessary to look at the totality, the shining features and the grey and dark areas.
Let us first look at the shining aspects. Economy of the country is on the upward trajectory in terms of growth. We used to be previously accustomed to 1.5 percent growth in per capita income. 1980s witnessed the rise to 3 percent annual growth in per capital national income. This went upto 4 percent in 1990s; with the population declining and national income growing at a higher rate every decade, economy has been definitely on accelerating trajectory. Economy had grown only nominally, in the half century 1900 to 1950, and at 3.4 percent from 1950 to 1980. 1980-2000 growth was highe!, at over 5.5 percent, and more recently it further inched to 6 percent. The "feel good" factor is strengthened by the fact that the growth has continued to increase; and during the third quarter of 2003-04 it has jumped to 9.0 percent. If the last quarter does equally well the growth rate will end with upwards of 8.0 percent.
The country can legitimately claim that our people are endowed with intelligence; they have shown capacity of economic development, industrial expansion, modernisation and technological progress. Individuals in our country have outshown in the world in every field; science, arts, technology, and the areas of general developmental progress.
We have the good fortune of having a vibrant democracy; in fact ours is the largest functioning democracy in the world. We have independent judiciary, trained manpower and administration. We have developed a capacity to manufacture everything, from pins to missiles, as somebody remarked. We have diversity and admixture of religions; there are 18 major languages, 1600 minor languages and dialects, 6,400 castes and sub- castes; 52 major Tribes and ethnic groups, and 28 States; and yet we have maintained unity, amidst this diversity. This is evident also by the fact that we have wide expanse of the Press, with 5,000 Dailies, 16,000 Weeklies and more than 6,000 Fortnightlies, in various languages. Not many countries can boast of such Freedom of Thought, Freedom of Expression and Freedom of Action, as we have in our country. We have enormous spread of Railway system, trains covering 1,00,000 kms, with 700 stations, 11,000 freight and passenger trains plying round the country everyday, carrying over one million passengers daily, being the largest Railway system in the world.
Progress in the fields of industrialisation, business, entrepreneurship, infrastructure expansion and technological developments has been very satisfactory. Recent studies have shown that we are next only to USA in the emergence of professionals, with about 40,000 Certified Professionals emerging every year. In fact, the reaching out of our professionals in fields such as Computer skills, Financing, Health-care, Industry and Information Technology, has led to the outsourcing our professionals and technicians, arising from the feeling that our professionals and technicians pose a problem to them regarding utilisation of their own professionals.
Our exports have shown remarkable progress. We have crossed Rs. 50,000 crores in exports. Exports relating to Information Technology, which was not even heard of a decade ago, have reached the height of 20 percent of the exports. We have become the sixth largest manufacturer of automobiles and heavy vehicles in the world. More than two million of our buses and trucks are on the roads of the country itself. We are exporting components of automobiles to 15 of the world's largest manufacturers; the figure of these exports last year was $ 335 million and in the current year this figure may be $ 1.5 billion, and possibly reach the figure of $ 15 billion in about the next six years. Almost every car in the world today has at least one auto component made in India.
In 2004, six million Indians are expected to go abroad, more than ever before. They will go for exports and exploring further markets in Singapore, USA, Dubai, U.K., Malaysia, Hongkong, Italy, etc. Europe and Far East are their present favourites.lt is not only that more Indians are travelling abroad, they are travelling frequently.They are also choosing newer and more exotic destinations like China and Eastern Europe.
India can take pride in the fact that it is presently the fastest growing economies in the world. It has satisfaction of having reached the level of higher annual additional national wealth than ever, amounting to over Rs. 22,36,000 crores.
Total number of telephones was 2.3 crores a decade ago; now the number has crossed the figure of 4.75 crores. Number of "mobile" phones was 12 lakhs five years ago; the number now is 2.2 crores. There has been five-fold increase in exports of software during the last five years and these are expected to reach the figure of $ 50 billion in next three years. Information Technology hardware exports have risen from about Rs. 2,000 crores to Rs. 6,000 crores in the last five years. Earnings from IT based services have risen from Rs. 2000 crores to over Rs. 16,000 crores during the last five years. Over 10 lakh operatives are now working in IT sector.
Pharmaceutical industry of the country has been advancing very well. It has developed enormously. It has developed the capacity of manufacturing $ 6.5 billion worth of pharmaceuticals, and its exports have crossed $ 2 billion. Trade of medicinal plants has crossed Rs. 4,000 crores. In various other areas of manufacture and exports we are doing splendidly well. Our foreign exchange reserves have reached the astounding figure of over $ 100 billion (latest figure: $ 104 billion).
The rich, the richer and the richest have loosened their purse strings; luxury goods and services industry is booming like never before. An increasing number of Indian consumers are installing entertainment products in their cars, spending big amounts on embarrassingly costly swiss watches, top-end audio equipment, leisure travel abroad, digital cameras and handycams and even as innocuous a product as a pen is being bought at Rs. 1,000 plus price tags. In a number of such lifestyle products, growth is reported to be in triple digits.
