India is here

now what?

Chandrayaan, Praag, Chopra (and the 4x400 team!) - India’s had quite the week. Growing up, every Independence and Republic Day we were treated to solemn declarations of how India would soon be a superpower, India in 2020, the tiger waking up. Well we’re here. Most populous country. Fastest growing economy. Helming G20. Decisive counterweight in a multipolar world. Open the Economist or Foreign Affairs and it’s clear it’s a well established fact for most now.

It’s been interesting to map this narrative with my own experience this past year. I’ve been lucky to have had the chance to travel through a dozen odd countries and the response to my Indianess has been near-universally positive. The Israelis had respect for our technical prowess and love for our mountains and landscape (often having travelled more extensively than I). A Montenegrin shuttle driver remarked five times ‘India - big country’ (honestly facts). A Mongolian small business owner in Budapest confided that he preferred to hire Indians for manufacturing gigs because they were more competent and worked harder.  

It’s also interesting how the developing/developed gap is fast closing in some areas, and in some is already in the past. Chennai’s airport (and Bangalore and Mumbai’s) is better than most European counterparts, especially UK and the France. Hell, even Chennai’s roads were better than Rome’s. Connecting to good internet and paying for things  - way easier than most places. And don’t get me started on food - literally no place on Earth can compare to the taste-to-price + variety-density ratio.

Since this is social media, a disclaimer is necessary - of course they’re a bunch of problems. Inequality, air pollution, lack of public goods, walkable cities. I know smart people working on solutions to some of these but there’s still a lot to do. But every country has problems, not every country has a perceptible energy and drive in their people to solve them.

My Appa (dad) persuaded my Amma (mom) to move from the UK to India when I was three - despite having well-paying jobs, a house, and cars - because he felt like their medical degrees would go a lot further in India. I’m glad he did. I don’t think I’d trade growing up in India for anywhere else in the world. And I hope to follow in his footsteps.

Look at the moon and say hi to Pragyan,

Akash