The achievements in the 60th yr of Independence

I consider following as the major achievements of the country in the last one year:

1: Tatas take over of Corus.
2. The growth rate of 9.4 % for the financial year 06-07.
3. Sentences to 1993 blasts culprits.
4. Indo US nuke Deal.
5. Sensax Crossing 15000.
6. A lady president.
7. An Indian Satellite carrying an Israeli secret payload.

६० साल कि आजादी: क्या खोया क्या पाया

Today India completed 60 years of the Independence, with that came some different interpretation of the 60 years. Some said "now India becomes a senior citizen" & some said " India at 60 is Sexy". The second statement itself reflects the change in the culture & the attitude of the society.

Today I read a very good comparison on various measure of the India in 1947 & India in 2007. the statistics were great & gave a sense that we have grown a lot indeed. Defiantly we have grown a large extent, from the era of movies like "Sant Tukaram" to the era of movies like " Cheeni Kum". In 1947 people believed in gods & saints. They also had one alive saint to worship at that point of time. The saint died & came the era of an charismatic leader, who took initiatives to establish the county in the International stage & also tried his best to establish the Industry & the Institutions, which took the country forward. the 50s & 60s were not good but still the people were happy, as they were not having much of the glimpse of the developed world & remained happy being a third world country. The movies of that time were also showcasing same happiness, some sorrow & sometimes the society as reflected in "naya daur".

Then came the era of the great Indian middle class, the India made of the clerks. People had to stand in ques for even the basic amenities. With that came the anger against the system, the system which deteriorated considerably. People were unhappy with the redtapism, unemployment & the quotas. The society found its reflection in an "angry young man", who portrayed the anger of the great Indian middle class.

With the advent of MNCs in India after India adopted a liberal economic policy, the country started to use global brands. The same way evolved the angry young man, who now is an very happy old man and plays a sexy sam. No more we are bothered about the old moral values & the ethics. In the same manner grew the Indian middle class, whose children now work for IT companies instead of trying to become "babus". The good old "Buland bharat ki buland tasweer" no more produces Chetaks, it now has a different tone, which represents the today's youth. A population, which is happy in itself.

Also at the same time there was a part of that old Indian middle class, who were not able to catch up with the development. They fell back, but still part of that great Indian middle class. The Middle class has grown & has grown its range. People living in metros, who spend there holidays abroad are middle class walahs & at the same time the families living on 1500Rs a month in UP & Bihar consider themselves also to be from the middle class.

India has grown and will grow with good pace, but what has to be ensured is that every sect of the society participates in this growth.

Stronger Rupee = Stronger India

Let me ask a question first.

What type of economic strength is preferable to India?
A) A strong Indian economy fueled by its cheap labor due to a weaker rupee against dollar, where the Indians end up working in shifts, late nights, whole nights and what not… only doing low profile jobs which foreign companies want to offload to India, so that they can concentrate on high end works and become even better. For instance in IT field, providing BPO services, support and maintenance work for products…

OR

B) A strong Indian economy fueled by its strong innovations and products, no matter whether the rupee is strong or weak against dollar.. where Indians work only in regular office hours of 9 to 6, developing cutting edge technologies and solutions, selling our world class products both inside and outside India. For instance in IT field, imagine operating systems, compilers, databases etc all coming out of India..

I do not deny the fact that the IT boom in India came to a large extent because of (A). Well and good, we have had the benefits of our cost being cheap in western markets due to a weak rupee against dollar.. We have had our share because of this advantage in the past 2 decades..

But at the same time doesn't it make sense to move towards (B), instead of crying foul against rupee becoming stronger against dollar?

What a pity! Indian IT companies are feeling bad because rupee is becoming stronger against dollar! Reason, their profits will go down when the value of rupee is stronger, as every single dollar that comes into their account now means lesser rupee than earlier..(if for instance earlier they used to get 47 rupees for every dollar that comes in, but today its about 40!)

But isn't this a matter of celebration? Our rupee is gaining importance internationally and is becoming stronger again.. How many of us know that in 1947 when India got independence 1 Rupee was 1.2 US dollars?

These Indian IT companies instead of relying on a weaker rupee for their profit should now look at coming out with innovative products and technical solutions. What have these companies done in the arena of core system products? Why don't we have any operating systems, compilers, database systems, development platforms etc coming out of India? Why don't we develop tools like photoshop or flash? We have talent, but they all are working in American companies on these products.. Cannot our Indian IT companies setup at least small teams to develop such products?

Instead they are planning to make their employees work on saturdays too ! So that their profits can increase due to extra hours the employees put in.. As if India doesnt have any other option other than cheap labour, workaholic labor!! Are there no brains in India who can setup companies developing products and make money just by printing out more serial numbers and burning their product DVDs?

If Indian companies continue to depend on its weak currency, then how would Indian economy survive in a world where all currencies have equal value? Survival of the fittest.. Only greater innovation can help us in that case..

We need to have knowledge and technological advantage if India wants to become a superpower, not low cost based cheap labor advantage! Let the Chinese do it..

I hope that rupee becomes more and more stronger so that Indians are forced to use their brains and come up with innovative products and next generation technologies, than to provide low end services…

We need to create a situation where other countries line up to buy our F-16s, to buy our operating systems, to buy our mobile phones and I-pods, to buy our Boeing, to buy our Mercedes…

A stronger rupee means we can easily afford foreign trips!

"A stronger rupee means Indians can buy things anywhere in the world on par with developed economies! We dont have to spend crores of rupees then to buy a Boeing! We don't have to pay tens of thousands of rupees for international air travels! A stronger rupee means greater international exposure! There wont be a difference between buying a Maruti and buying a Mercedes! One can go on a trip to the Grand Canyon just like the way one goes to Ladakh or Nepal ! How do you think american citizens are able to tour all over the world? Because they earn more? No. But because their currency USD is stronger.. and this is where a strong rupee will lead us to!… "

I am not saying providing low end services is wrong .. It gave us a very good start in the 90s. But that should definitely not be the bread and butter fueling our economic boom indefinitely in the future.. For the simple reason that it can't continue to do so any longer.. other low cost destinations, cheaper than India are already coming up in the world… Let us move ahead… become more innovative.. the journey has just started… This is just the beginning of all the beginnings…