RE: [MTC Global] A VERY DAMNING ARTICLE ON INDIA - IT HURTS, BUT ... IS TRUE

Even for rooting out the corruption, we shall need transparency,
accountability (both for actions and non-actions) and quick dispensation of
justice. No new laws or lokpals are needed, existing laws are enough to
punish the guilty but without earlier mentioned three aspects, no effort no
change is going to be successful.
Regards
Virendra Goel

-----Original Message-----
From: join_mtc@googlegroups.com [mailto:join_mtc@googlegroups.com] On Behalf
Of R P Singh
Sent: Monday, October 01, 2012 11:44 PM
To: MJ Xavier ; join_mtc@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [MTC Global] A VERY DAMNING ARTICLE ON INDIA - IT HURTS, BUT
... IS TRUE

Really hard hitting but unfortunately absolutely true state of situation in
the country. I have seen the degradation of rivers, ground water and air
pollution in last about thirty years which probably may not have happened
in last 500 years. Corruption at times seems so pervasive that it looks to
many including to myself that it may not vanish in atleast next 100 years.
Corruption is mother or root of all, and I stress on all, problems of the
country. Lower GDP growth rate, poor quality of infrastructure, services,
administration, pollution are all because of corruption at some point in
the chain of events. Remove corruption or inculcate integrity of thought,
behaviour and action in all responsible instruments of service providers or
delivery channels and things can brighten in a decade beyond recognition.
Hope and wish some day, sooner than later, will come when that will happen.
Regards, Dr R P Singh Sent from BlackBerry® on Airtel

-----Original Message-----
From: MJ Xavier <mjxavier@iimranchi.ac.in>
Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2012 13:59:39
To: <join_mtc@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [MTC Global] A VERY DAMNING ARTICLE ON INDIA - IT HURTS, BUT
... IS TRUE

Though a lot of what Kelley says are true, one need not give up India. Filth
and dirt can be cleaned in a matter of 3 to 5 years;  Infrastructure can be
improved in a decade provided our economy grows at a healthy rate. However
bureaucracy and political  corruption could pose a serious problem for long
term growth of the country.


On Sun, Sep 30, 2012 at 6:56 PM, Virendra Goel <goel.virendra@gmail.com
<mailto:goel.virendra@gmail.com> > wrote:



Here is an article about India that does not have any political overtones
nor does it reflect on any government doing or government policies but it is
definitely a comment on 'WE THE PEOPLE' as citizens of our nation (I still
believe it is great underneath all the problems and even filth) Regards
Virendra Goel

 


































 


















      Read and pass on for whatever its worth, be'cos as the writer says, I
don't think we care (enough to change it). The collapse of our civil society
has been the biggest loss








Reflections on India By Sean Paul Kelley
<http://rupeenews.com/2009/12/14/reflections-on-india-by-sean-paul-kelley/>
 
 
Sean Paul Kelley is a travel writer, former radio host, and before that an
asset manager for a Wall Street investment bank that is still (barely)
alive. He recently left a fantastic job in Singapore working for Solar
Winds, a software company based out of Austin to travel around the world for
a year (or two). He founded The Agonist, <http://www.agonist.org/> in 2002,
which is still considered the top international affairs, culture and news
destination for progressives. He is also the Global Correspondent for The
Young Turks,
<http://www.theyoungturks.com/story/2008/11/10/25449/781/Diary/An-Introducti
on-Of-Sorts> on satellite radio and Air America


 If you are Indian, or of Indian descent, I must preface this post with a
clear warning: you are not going to like what I have to say. My criticisms
may be very hard to stomach. But consider them as the hard words and loving
advice of a good friend. Someone who's being honest with you and wants
nothing from you.  




These criticisms apply  to all of India except Kerala and the places I
didn't visit, except that I have a feeling it applies to all of India ,
except as I mentioned before, Kerala.  




Lastly, before anyone accuses me of Western Cultural Imperialism, let me say
this: if this is what India and Indians want, then hey, who am I to tell
them differently. Take what you like and leave the rest. In the end it
doesn't really matter, as I get the sense that Indians, at least many upper
class Indians, don't seem to care and the lower classes just don't know any
better, what with Indian culture being so intense and pervasive on the
sub-continent. But here goes, nonetheless.  




India is a mess. It's that simple, but it's also quite complicated. I'll
start with what I think are India 's four major problems-the four most
preventing India from becoming a developing nation-and then move to some of
the ancillary ones. First, pollution. In my opinion, the filth, squalor and
all around pollution indicates a marked lack of respect for India by
Indians. I don't know how cultural the filth is, but it's really beyond
anything I have ever encountered.  At times the smells, trash, refuse and
excrement are like a garbage dump.  




Right next door to the Taj Mahal was a pile of trash that smelled so bad,
was so foul, as to almost ruin the entire Taj experience. Delhi , Bangalore
and Chennai, to a lesser degree, were so very polluted as to make me
physically ill. Sinus infections, ear infection, bowels churning was an all
too common experience in India . Dung, be it goat, cow or human fecal
matter, was common on the streets. In major tourist areas, filth was
everywhere, littering the sidewalks, the roadways, you name it. Toilets in
the middle of the road, men urinating and defecating anywhere, in broad
daylight.  




Whole villages are plastic bag wastelands. Roadsides are choked by it. Air
quality that can hardly be called quality. Far too much coal and far to few
unleaded vehicles on the road. The measure should be, how dangerous the air
is for one's health, not how good it is. People casually throw trash in the
streets, on the roads. 




The only two cities that could be considered sanitary in my journey were
Trivandrum -the capital of Kerala-and Calicut . I don't know why this is.
But I can assure you that at some point this pollution will cut into India's
productivity, if it already hasn't. The pollution will hobble India 's
growth path, if that indeed is what the country wants. (Which I personally
doubt, as India is far too conservative a country, in the small 'c' sense.)



The second issue, infrastructure, can be divided into four subcategories:
roads, rails and ports and the electrical grid. The electrical grid is a
joke. Load shedding is all too common, everywhere in India . Wide swaths of
the country spend much of the day without the electricity they actually pay
for. With out regular electricity, productivity, again, falls.  





The ports are a joke. Antiquated, out of date, hardly even appropriate for
the mechanized world of container ports, more in line with the days of
longshoremen and the like. Roads are an equal disaster. I only saw one
elevated highway that would be considered decent in Thailand , much less
Western Europe or America . And I covered fully two thirds of the country
during my visit.  




There are so few dual carriage way roads as to be laughable. There are no
traffic laws to speak of, and if there are, they are rarely obeyed, much
less enforced. A drive that should take an hour takes three. A drive that
should take three takes nine. The buses are at least thirty years old, if
not older.  




Everyone in India , or who travels in India, raves about the railway system.
Rubbish. It's awful. now, when I was there in 2003 and then late 2004, it
was decent. But in the last five years, the traffic on the rails has grown
so quickly that once again, it is threatening productivity. Waiting in line
just to ask a question now, takes thirty minutes. Routes are routinely sold
out three and four days in advance now, leaving travelers stranded with
little option except to take the decrepit and dangerous buses.  




At least fifty million people use the trains a day in India . 50 million
people! Not surprising that wait lists of 500 or more people are common
now.  




The rails are affordable and comprehensive, but they are overcrowded and
what with budget airlines popping up in India like Sadhus in an ashram, the
middle and lowers classes are left to deal with the over utilized rails and
quality suffers. No one seems to give a shit.  




Seriously, I just never have the impression that the Indian government
really cares. Too interested in buying weapons from Russia , Israel and the
US, I guess. The last major problem in India is an old problem and can be
divided into two parts that've been two sides of the same coin since
government was invented: bureaucracy and corruption.  




It take triplicates to register into a hotel. To get a SIM card for one's
phone is like wading into a jungle of red-tape and photocopies one is not
likely to emerge from in a good mood, much less satisfied with customer
service.  




Getting train tickets is a terrible ordeal, first you have to find the train
number, which takes 30 minutes, then you have to fill in the form, which is
far from easy, then you have to wait in line to try and make a reservation,
which takes 30 minutes at least and if you made a single mistake on the form
back you go to the end of the queue, or what passes for a queue in India.  




The government is notoriously uninterested in the problems of the commoners,
too busy fleecing the rich, or trying to get rich themselves in some way
shape or form. Take the trash for example, civil rubbish collection
authorities are too busy taking kickbacks from the wealthy to keep their
areas clean that they don't have the time, manpower, money or interest in
doing their job.  




Rural hospitals are perennially understaffed as doctors pocket the fees the
government pays them, never show up at the rural hospitals and practice in
the cities instead. I could go on for quite some time about my perception
of India and its problems, but in all seriousness, I don't think anyone in
India really cares. And that, to me, is the biggest problem. India is too
conservative a society to want to change in any way.  




Mumbai, India 's financial capital is about as filthy, polluted and poor as
the worst city imaginable in Vietnam , or Indonesia -and being more polluted
than Medan , in Sumatra is no easy task. The biggest rats I have ever seen
were in Medan ! One would expect a certain amount of, yes, I am going to
use this word, backwardness, in a country that hasn't produced so many Nobel
Laureates, nuclear physicists, imminent economists and entrepreneurs. But
India has all these things and what have they brought back to India with
them? Nothing.  




The rich still have their servants, the lower castes are still there to do
the dirty work and so the country remains in stasis. It's a shame. Indians
and India have many wonderful things to offer the world, but I'm far from
sanguine that India will amount to much in my lifetime.  


Now, have at it, call me a cultural imperialist, a spoiled child of the West
and all that.  But remember, I've been there. I've done it. And I've seen 50
other countries on this planet and none, not even Ethiopia , have as long
and gargantuan a laundry list of problems as India does.  




And the bottom line is, I don't think India really cares. Too complacent and
too conservative. 




 

 

 

 



The other side of the coin .Majority of the urban Indians r in constant
denial about the state of things in India exactly like the majority of the
population of Pakistan who would just not believe that their country is
being gradually taken over by terrorists & suicide bombers.


,_._,___
 
 
 
 
 


--


Thanks & Regards,

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M. J. Xavier | Director

Indian Institute of Management Ranchi <http://www.iimranchi.ac.in/>

Thought Leadership through Erudite Fusion

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