The ads and services section in the newspaper is like a fruit laden tree. Just reach out for what you want. And currency notes in people's pockets have given a certain buoyancy that was unheard of ten years ago. I have been seeing ads for "Movers and Packers" in the papers almost everyday. It is not just that businesses and services like "moving" did not exist ten years ago...its that people simply did not move that much! A generation ago if you got the much coveted Government Job, you were golden. You got health-care, a house and pension. Now, for a vast number of people (though still perhaps not the majority), the world and world-view has grown to geographically embrace itself and the world . For those that grew up in Indore or Patiala or any of the many "Tier 2 cities"( Newspaper's classification, not mine!) , it is obvious that one would move to metros like Delhi or Bangalore after graduating from school or college and get a job in the any of the many new private businesses/industries. A cousin who works for the government at a fairly good position wants to move into the private sector too. The reasons he states are many- opportunity to grow, less red-tape and better pay are a few. He says he works six days a week, in a far from glamorous office, using a software that is bug-ridden,slow and barely useful. His bosses and colleagues are bribe mongers and he sticks out like a sore thumb. Yet, with a wife, a kid and another one "planned soon" along with the fact that once he quits the government job he will not be able to join back ( Government jobs are usually competitive and have an age limit) makes him postpone his decision until the "next year". This is a kid who is bright and intelligent and the government of India, the largest employer, has no place for him. The only reason he is staying on is that old promise of stability. How long will he hold out to pressures around him and the aspirations within him.
The government's employee today is a frustrated bystander while corrupt politicians continue to give themselves pay hikes and perks. The Armed forces are reporting record number of voluntary early retirements and shortage of officers. A country needs its armed forces to defend its borders and keep its people safe but what happens when in the not too distant future the only people who will join the army will do so not out of any sense of patriotism or pride but because it was their only option. Will we then have an army of mercenaries?

Bangalore has a brand spanking new airport which was built by a private company. The roads leading to it though are nowhere near complete- that was the part the state government had to take care of. I guess you could still fly into and out of Bangalore but you may never get to leave the airport. This is the absurd reality of most infrastructural projects that the government undertakes in India today.

With so many people moving into the city, there has been a spurt in new housing developments in satellite towns. Private builders promise "24 hours electricity back up" in their high rises. That's because there isn't enough electricity even for the existing number of houses, let alone the gazilion that are coming up. So the private builders will run petrol powered generators to provide electricity for the high rises and also use the aforementioned generated electricity to suck the water up from the ground below, because there's no water supply either. So then we will burn gas/petrol to get water & electricity. Sort of like Mary Antoinette's fool proof solution- we can eat our cakes, since we will certainly not have any bread to eat!

Can a country really run on private businesses and its shining markets alone? The reality is that all private businesses need infrastructural support for them to function efficiently and for long.

Are these symptoms growing pains or a diseased core that will ultimately eat its way outwards until we remember these couple of decades as the brief flicker of hope that died sooner than it was born? Perhaps it is for the economists of the present and historians of the future to tell us.

Articles about the "new" India, the one that is shining, the one that is at the cusp of becoming the next super-power , the one that has shown jaw-dropping rise in economic growth, have become a regular feature in magazines and newspapers across the world. (In the Indian newspapers, it often borders on gloating). A recent article stated that the current middle class in India is equal to the total population of the United States. This, quiet obviously is not the result of the super rich sharing their bounty with their less fortunate brethren, as the mighty socialist phase of post-independence era promised us would happen. The reasons are many but not surely the generosity of the "haves". I am not an economist...in fact never studied economics in school either. What I can share is what I see around me. Sometimes that is the "shining" youthful side of India and at other times the less than perfect,old hurting, aching bones that is India.