Why is India in the fast lane now?

[StormRider]

A long time ago when I was younger I remember watching a 60 Minutes episode comparing Hong Kong with India.

Hong Kong was progressing quickly while India was languishing in poverty. One of the economist that was interviewed thought it was because India was too bureocratic and it was so combersome to try and start up any new business there. Meanwhile, Hong Kong had policies that encouraged economic growth. Hong Kong was more capitalistic while India was more socialistic in their policies.

Now India is booming! And I'm happy for them. I always thought that Indians were very bright (same with Russians, Iranians etc.) and have always thought that under the right conditions their country should do very well and prosper.

But what happened since that time to cause this explosive growth in India?

 

[TitanDiddly]

Good work ethic and not a lot of whining people who think they should get something for nothing. Until the EPAroll banned their import, I was looking into buying an Indian made Lister diesel engine replica. Too bad.

 

[eits]

american job exportation

 

[kalster]

A government focussed on things more important than Hinduism in India. Market was opened up in the 90's too which promoted foreign investment.

 

[jagga]

Lot of changes in the overall economic policy. Less state control; more privatization

 

[Cattlegod]

they rode the tech wave in the late 90s - a totally uneducated guess.

anyway, without the tech wave in the 90s i don't think they would be where they are at right now.

 

[kalster]

Originally posted by: Cattlegod
they rode the tech wave in the late 90s - a totally uneducated guess.

anyway, without the tech wave in the 90s i don't think they would be where they are at right now.

Uneducated guess? Having lots of people trained in engineering/computer science is not an uneducated guess

 

[txrandom]

JOHN STOSSEL FTW

 

[Inspector Jihad]

privitization and foreign investment is a huge part of it. the tech industry and outsourcing is a result of the success india has had.

 

[AccruedExpenditure]

I really need to stop coming to these forums.

 

[RabidMongoose]

They had nice economic reform since then.

 

[Cattlegod]

Originally posted by: kalster

Originally posted by: Cattlegod
they rode the tech wave in the late 90s - a totally uneducated guess.

anyway, without the tech wave in the 90s i don't think they would be where they are at right now.

Uneducated guess? Having lots of people trained in engineering/computer science is not an uneducated guess

i think you misunderstood what i was saying. i was saying that it was an uneducated guess on my part that they rode the tech wave of the 90s.

 

[ts3433]

Originally posted by: kalster

Originally posted by: Cattlegod
they rode the tech wave in the late 90s - a totally uneducated guess.

anyway, without the tech wave in the 90s i don't think they would be where they are at right now.

Uneducated guess? Having lots of people trained in engineering/computer science is not an uneducated guess

I think that Cattlegod meant that his own guess was uneducated.
(Edit: Late.)

 

[ScottMac]

Before the tech boom, inport tarrifs were high, import laws were strict, you had a lot of highly educated people with the knowledge, but no "things" on which to use that knowledge.

People used to buy PCs in the US, dismantle them so they could be imported as "sapre parts" (lower tarrif ... versus ~300%+ duty) and re-built the components in-country.

Then the government reduced some of the tarrifs, relaxed some of the import laws, and permitted outside companies to set up shop (without the horrendous taxation ... now it's only "real ugly taxation").

At that time, there was also a shortage of bandwidth: there was *SIX* T1s worth of Internet bandwidth into the country, fed by satellite, controlled by VSNL(VNSL?) - a "joint venture" with the government.

A 9.6K (yes, that's a "K") frame line was ~US$50,000.00 to order, US$5000 a month to keep, plus a payload charge. 56K was another order of magnitude more expensive, and a T1 was amazingly expensive.

At that time, it was cheaper for the software developers (Novell, Oracle ...) in Bangalore to put media in an employee's pocket and fly them to Austrailia or KL to upload the data back to the US.

After that, the FLAG Project (or was it "OXYGEN"?) started "Connecting the dots" in the Asian Pacific, including India, with Fiber (and Internet access).

Bill Gates, at the invitation of Babu (the nickname of CM/Governor of Andra Pradish) set up "Microsoft University" outside of Hyderabad, and contributed financially to the technical education of the local population. Babu basically flipped off the government and proceeded forward with cultivating technological growth in his state. He also developed a "City of the Future" that included things like solar power and more modern communication technologies.

With cheaper computers, cheaper bandwidth, educated people (who work for less (with the exchange rate)), and a more cooperative government, things have taken off.

This is the (real) short version. The whole story is pretty interesting and spans ~20+ years, maybe more.

FWIW

Scott

 

[Kadarin]

India trains engineers, whereas the US trains lawyers and MBAs.

 

[MOCKBA1]

Thanks for the topic. I'm Indian, and very proud.

 

[atybimf]

India may have serious problems in the future because they avoid giving birth to girls because boys are more lucrative and bring more prestige.

 

[Mani]

Originally posted by: atybimf
India may have serious problems in the future because they avoid giving birth to girls because boys are more lucrative and bring more prestige.

wtf? You're thinking of China.

 

[atybimf]

Originally posted by: Mani

Originally posted by: atybimf
India may have serious problems in the future because they avoid giving birth to girls because boys are more lucrative and bring more prestige.

wtf? You're thinking of China.

Mebbe, dunno. Heard something about it on the radio yesterday when I was listening to the US game. I could've sworn they said something like they are detecting the sex of the child and aborting females.

 

[Mani]

Originally posted by: atybimf

Originally posted by: Mani

Originally posted by: atybimf
India may have serious problems in the future because they avoid giving birth to girls because boys are more lucrative and bring more prestige.

wtf? You're thinking of China.

Mebbe, dunno. Heard something about it on the radio yesterday when I was listening to the US game. I could've sworn they said something like they are detecting the sex of the child and aborting females.

Less need to do that in India. China only allows one child per family so that's much more common there and is causing a nationwide disparity between the sexes. No such thing happening in India.

Edit: don't get me wrong, this still happens in India, but not nearly to the same extent.

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: Mani

Originally posted by: atybimf
India may have serious problems in the future because they avoid giving birth to girls because boys are more lucrative and bring more prestige.

wtf? You're thinking of China.

No, that's both India and China.

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: Mani

Less need to do that in India. China only allows one child per family so that's much more common there and is causing a nationwide disparity between the sexes. No such thing happening in India.

Edit: don't get me wrong, this still happens in India, but not nearly to the same extent.

China is supposed to have a male surplus of 35 million by 2020, India will have a surplus of 25 million.

 

[Mani]

Originally posted by: CanOWorms

Originally posted by: Mani

Originally posted by: atybimf
India may have serious problems in the future because they avoid giving birth to girls because boys are more lucrative and bring more prestige.

wtf? You're thinking of China.

No, that's both India and China.

It's like saying crime happens in compton and beverly hills and beverly hills. Yes it happens but it's not nearly the problem in one place that it is in the other.

 

[Mani]

Originally posted by: CanOWorms

Originally posted by: Mani

Less need to do that in India. China only allows one child per family so that's much more common there and is causing a nationwide disparity between the sexes. No such thing happening in India.

Edit: don't get me wrong, this still happens in India, but not nearly to the same extent.

China is supposed to have a male surplus of 35 million by 2020, India will have a surplus of 25 million.

China churns out 121 males to 100 females. India 111 to 100. The normal rate is 105 to 100. So it's a difference of roughly 6% vs. 16 - that's huge.

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: Mani

It's like saying crime happens in compton and beverly hills and beverly hills. Yes it happens but it's not nearly the problem in one place that it is in the other.

Sure, but it's a major problem in both countries as well as South Korea and a few others.

I'm not sure where you're getting your numbers from, but having tens of millions of men without women is going to be a problem regardless of the ratio. Hopefully these societies will be more open to homosexuality!