veera8

The rise of this growing nation will change the balance of power in Asia—and potentially the world.
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With nearly 1.1 billion inhabitants, India is the second largest country on earth in population, and seventh largest in geographical area, over 1.1 million square miles. This is almost 1,000 people for every square mile of area nationwide—much denser than even China.

Since achieving independence from British rule in 1947, it has seen its share of conflict, struggle and setbacks. Although India still faces many challenges, it is now poised to reach a higher position on the world scene than at any previous time.

The Indian economy has grown an average of around 6% annually over the past decade and 8% per year over the past three years—among the fastest rates in the world. It boasts an emerging middle class and increasing gross domestic product, exports, employment and foreign investment. This is complemented by a roaring stock market (index value up by a third in 2005 and by 200% since 2001), low external debt and large foreign exchange reserves.

Recent visits from leaders and officials from the United States, France, Germany and Russia have spotlighted India’s rise. These wealthier nations see India as a trading partner with enormous potential.

Although it has not yet matched the financial performance of China—currently the fastest-growing economy in the world—according to some analysts, India shows even more long-term potential for rapid growth. Leaders from both nations have discussed the creation of a Chinese-Indian common market based on the European Union model. Although only an idea at present, if realized, it would be the largest economic system in the world, home for about 2.5 billion consumers—almost 40% of the human race (or 3 of every 8 people on earth)!

India’s growth becomes more impressive in light of the fact that it is driven by a fraction of its population. Much of the nation remains a picture of rural poverty. Nearly all foreign investment in India goes to its six most urban states, with 22 other less developed states virtually ignored. This gap between city and country is keenly felt in places such as Gurgaon, a suburb of the Indian capital New Delhi: “In a land still plagued by deep poverty and backwardness, Gurgaon has become a renowned home of international call centers, business-processing operations, and information-technology firms. There are gleaming, glass-paned high-tech towers, condominium blocks, multiplexes, and shopping malls, where Indians dine at Ruby Tuesday, browse for Samsung electronics, or kick the tires at a Toyota, Ford, or Chevy dealer. If one overlooks the dusty pockets of poverty nearby, a few water buffaloes picking at garbage near shantytowns, the look is more Southern California office park than the India of yore” (U.S. News and World Report).

Despite the problems seen in India’s underdeveloped countryside—for example, massive unmet infrastructure needs; more illiterate citizens than any other single nation—there are several areas in which the nation excels. These particular specialized talents have allowed a tiny percentage of the populace—perhaps less than 1%—to spearhead its move toward a higher standing in the world order.

Intellectual Capital
India’s economy is divided between agriculture (which accounts for a quarter of the gross national product), manufacturing (constituting another quarter) and the high-tech service sector, which now makes up fully half of the gross national product. Striving to become a “knowledge superpower,” it hopes to skip the intermediate step of industrial development that has preceded other nations’ march into the Information Age.

Scientific and information technology companies from around the world are opening research and development labs in India—more than 100 in the past five years. One mainstay of the new economy is software development, with ever more global firms outsourcing to India the time-intensive work of programming. Businesses worldwide also rely on the country for customer service—phone calls from around the world are directed to call centers in Indian cities such as Bangalore. Other developing markets include pharmaceutical and biotechnology research. Currently, the majority of top American companies send some of their IT work to India, and there is little evidence of a slowdown in this trend.

The business world is also looking in India’s direction. Graduates of the nation’s business programs are in high demand among multinational corporations, with each graduating class commanding a higher average salary than the one before. Those who complete MBA degrees at schools such as the Indian Institute of Management can now expect starting salaries ranging from $75,000 (USD) at Indian firms to over $200,000 outside the country. This is comparable to graduates of top American business schools such as Harvard, Stanford and Dartmouth—testimony to the market value of Indian talent in this area of study.

Military Buildup
As its clout has grown, India has placed a high priority on improving its military capabilities as well.

New Delhi has not joined 187 other nations in signing the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT), and appeared on the world’s radar screen as a nuclear-armed nation in May 1998, with the detonation of five warheads in the desert near the border of Pakistan. This disturbed many governments around the globe, naturally including that of Pakistan, which responded with nuclear tests of its own.

This stand-off was the turning point that began India’s pursuit of a full-fledged nuclear weapons program. According to The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, additional nuclear missile tests occurred in the summer of 2004; since then, the Indian Defense Ministry has earmarked $2 billion annually to build 300 to 400 weapons over the next 5 to 7 years.

India maintains a “no first strike” nuclear policy, and asserts that it only seeks enough nuclear weaponry to effectively deter aggressors. U.S. President George W. Bush, during a March 2006 visit with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, announced cooperation between the two countries on civilian nuclear programs, and had previously called India a “responsible” nuclear nation (Der Spiegel). These measures drew an American diplomatic line between India and other nations that have nixed participation in the NPT, such as North Korea and Iran.

Whatever its nuclear aspirations, the country has a long military shopping list. Last year, it announced plans to build the first aircraft carrier ever put to sea by a developing nation, and to lease two nuclear submarines from Russia. America has openly discussed the sale of naval vessels, combat aircraft, patrol aircraft and helicopters to India. One former U.S. ambassador to India opined, “Of course we should sell advanced weaponry to India. The million-man Indian army actually fights, unlike the post-modern militaries of many of our European allies” (The Economist).

A Turning Point in Relations With China?
Many have compared India’s pattern of growth to its neighbor, China. The countries have much in common—physical borders, immense populations, similar challenges, ancient civilizations, and quickly-rising economies. India also measures itself against China, coveting its economic power and international standing, including its permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council.

Though a degree of tension does remain between the two nations, with lingering memories of the brief 1962 war in which China soundly defeated India, the relationship between these two Asian giants is warming up. Trade between them is now increasing at a vigorous pace, and diplomatic relations are at a post-1962 highpoint. Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, during a recent visit to New Delhi, hailed cooperation between the two nations as the driving force of a new “Asian Century.” Indian Prime Minister Singh spoke of the potential for India and China to rearrange the world order by working together.

Many have pointed out that their economic strengths seem to be tailor-made for a partnership. India seeks to be a major player in the computer software world in the same way that China is in the area of hardware. Cooperation between Beijing and New Delhi could prove a dominant force in the information technology market.

Both nations have a voracious appetite for natural resources, and a recent energy deal neatly symbolized the new Sino-Indian dynamic: India acquired a 20% share in the development of the largest onshore oil field in Iran. The venture happens to be operated, and 50% owned, by Sinopec—China’s state-run oil company.

However, India could seek to undercut China’s manufacturing prices (as China did with many Southeast Asian countries in the 1990s). But it is more likely to pursue a different segment of the world market by producing higher-quality goods, as well as entirely different products.

Time will tell exactly how the relationship will mix competition and cooperation. These two nations both aspire to “first-world” status—and economic gains could be the incentive for a more tightly allied Asia.

Between East and West
With its newfound power, India faces a dilemma: Should it ultimately pursue closer ties with Western nations, or with other Asian countries?

After India gained independence, its first prime minister spoke of an Asian renaissance, envisioning a tightly bound continent changing the post-World War II landscape. Though premature at the time, the idea is now more feasible than any time since the Cold War era. Along with the improving relations with China, India is also friendly with Russia and Japan. And, as of 2004, the value of India’s trade with other Asian nations surpassed that of exchange with the United States and Western Europe put together (International Herald Tribune).

But the United States—after courting India’s arch-rival Pakistan as an ally in the war on terror after the September 11 attacks—is now distancing itself somewhat from the current Islamabad regime led by Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, focusing on India instead. India’s common ground with the U.S. includes liberal democratic government, capitalism and, among the more educated urban residents, the English language.

However, America’s courting of India is viewed by some as a way to limit and contain Chinese influence in Asia. Some Indians resent this perception of their nation as a pawn of the U.S. Though they appreciate the American lifestyle and culture, much of the Indian population still sees this lone superpower as a bully.

While it may be able to dance with both partners alternately for a while, India will eventually be forced to choose. Which way will this nation turn?

“Kings of the East”We need not merely guess where world events will ultimately lead. While many of the details remain to be seen, the overall framework of the future has been recorded in advance in one book—the Holy Bible.

In nations such as India, the size of population alone pulls them toward superpower status. Bible prophecy describes global power blocs—superpowers, or groups of superpowers—that will be prominent at the end of the age, shortly before Jesus Christ returns.

These powers will be based in the north (Europe), the south (the Arab world), and the “kings of the East”—a group of Asian nations that will band together, eventually fielding a standing army of two hundred million (Rev. 16:12; 9:16; Dan. 11)!

The nations of the West, including the United States, are headed for hard times as a result of their national and personal sins against the God that inspired the Bible. He reveals that they will be forsaken by their allies, called “lovers” in Scripture:

“And when you are spoiled, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with crimson, though you deck yourself with ornaments of gold, though you rend your face with painting, in vain shall you make yourself fair; your lovers will despise you, they will seek your life…All your lovers have forgotten you; they seek you not; for I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of your iniquity; because your sins were increased” (Jer. 4:30; 30:14).

India is today one of these “lovers,” but one that will soon prove to be something very different. So will other nations that Western countries now consider to be allies.

Keep watching India’s growth toward superpower status—just one part of the inevitable rise of Asia!

link :::INDIA --ON the rise

gilgamesh

Talented people will run from this country given the first chance. I think that pretty much speaks volumes about our a being super-power. Even those returning from abroad, inspired to do good for the country, will run back to their cubicles in Minnesota or wherever they came from inspite of our gloating.

veera8

true,but some day i expect those talented brains -who took every thing from mother india will repent for their idea of running abroad under the aegis of india being a messed up country will come back and deliver the much needed duty for mother land ..time will change

667medic

I am just sick and tired of all this superpower nonsense.......

__________________
Seek Save Serve Medic

Neo

Me 2!
Not only superpower nonsense but also the dickmeasuring contests..

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Administrator @ Defence.pk

667medic

If the length of the dickk is all that mattered then probably Africa is the lone superpower

Neo

Hey, my last name is Khan!

667medic

Let me guess, Khans are supposed to have a long dickk
BTW I am curious as to why ladies prefer long dickks. Isn't it supposed to be scary...

Neo

We need a lady to answer that...

gilgamesh

They will do it from a safe distance of two oceans.

And how many years is that "someday"? Laloo's and Mulayams and Rahuls won't be dying so easily.

gilgamesh

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...205374,00.html


India Awakens

Fueled by high-octane growth, the world's largest democracy is becoming a global power. Why the world will never be the same

By MICHAEL ELLIOTT

Even if you have never gone to India--never wrapped your food in a piping-hot naan or had your eyeballs singed by a Bollywood spectacular--there is a good chance you encounter some piece of it every day of your life. It might be the place you call (although you don't know it) if your luggage is lost on a connecting flight, or the guys to whom your company has outsourced its data processing. Every night, young radiologists in Bangalore read CT scans e-mailed to them by emergency-room doctors in the U.S. Few modern Americans are surprised to find that their dentist or lawyer is of Indian origin, or are shocked to hear how vital Indians have been to California's high-tech industry. In ways big and small, Indians are changing the world.

That's possible because India--the second most populous nation in the world, and projected to be by 2015 the most populous--is itself being transformed. Writers like to attach catchy tags to nations, which is why you have read plenty about the rise of Asian tigers and the Chinese dragon. Now here comes the elephant. India's economy is growing more than 8% a year, and the country is modernizing so fast that old friends are bewildered by the changes that occurred between visits. The economic boom is taking place at a time when the U.S. and India are forging new ties. During the cold war, relations between New Delhi and Washington were frosty at best, as India cozied up to the Soviet Union and successive U.S. Administrations armed and supported India's regional rival, Pakistan. But in a breathtaking shift, the Bush Administration in 2004 declared India a strategic partner and proposed a bilateral deal (presently stalled in Congress) to share nuclear know-how. After decades when it hardly registered in the political or public consciousness, India is on the U.S. mental map.

Among policymakers in Washington, the new approach can be explained simply: India is the un-China. One Asian giant is run by a Communist Party that increasingly appeals to nationalism as a way of legitimating its power. The other is the largest democracy the world has ever seen. The U.S. will always have to deal with China, but it has learned that doing so is never easy: China bristles too much with old resentments at the hands of the West. India is no pushover either (try suggesting in New Delhi that outsiders might usefully broker a deal with Pakistan about Kashmir, the disputed territory over which the two countries have fought three wars), but democrats are easier to talk to than communist apparatchiks. Making friends with India is a good way for the U.S. to hedge its Asia bet.

Democracy aside, there is a second way in which India is the un-China--and it's not to India's credit. In most measures of modernization, China is way ahead. Last year per capita income in India was $3,300; in China it was $6,800. Prosperity and progress haven't touched many of the nearly 650,000 villages where more than two-thirds of India's population lives. Backbreaking, empty-stomach poverty, which China has been tackling successfully for decades, is still all too common in India. Education for women--the key driver of China's rise to become the workshop of the world--lags terribly in India. The nation has more people with HIV/AIDS than any other in the world, but until recently the Indian government was in a disgraceful state of denial about the epidemic. Transportation networks and electrical grids, which are crucial to industrial development and job creation, are so dilapidated that it will take many years to modernize them.

Yet the litany of India's comparative shortcomings omits a fundamental truth: China started first. China's key economic reforms took shape in the late 1970s, India's not until the early 1990s. But India is younger and freer than China. Many of its companies are already innovative world beaters. India is playing catch-up, for sure, but it has the skills, the people and the sort of hustle and dynamism that Americans respect, to do so. It deserves the new notice it has got in the U.S. We're all about to discover: this elephant can dance.

Vaman

That really is so self-serving and petty.
"Taking everything" "repent for .." "runnning aborad.." "deliver much duty.." "motherland.." is just populist-speak used by lame politicians to hide their own failures.
Why shouldnt talented people go whereever their talents are better valued?
For years the country has treated talented people with great disrespect neither providing them with opportunities nor intellectual freedom that goes with a professional environment.
If the country has to become great, it will need to attract good people with what it has to offer for their talent and not by tying them down or emotionally blackmailing them.

Tronic

Vaman, over here there are many oppurtunities (private sector)... the country does not disrespect talented people, the only problem is that there are always more talented people then yourself... and remember it's always best man for the job (still talking private sector)... so even if you're talented, always ask yourself, are you talented ENOUGH??? because this is a country where thousands will compete for one job opening and only the best comes out victorious... I mean, look at IIT... the only reason IIT is held in such a high regard because it is only the top notch smartest people that make it in... the rest go to MIT or Harvard and get scholarships...

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Vaman

Read it carefully... I didnt say the country doesnt provide opportunities now.
Some of the the best people now choose to remain in India simply because of the opportunities available and not out of sense of duty or patriotism or nationalism or what have you.
For people who have left the country, it is going to be difficult to come back for a lot of them. One they will find the conditions far more difficult in terms of adjusting to the culture here as opposed to what they have been used to. Two, a number of their skill-sets are simply not relevant in the Indian context... nobody would hire them in India, particularly areas where you need to understand the local markets. In marketing for example, the best marketers - HLL and P&G will not hire someone who has built his career aborad.


Your IIT example is not relevant anyway because it serves a captive market where there isnt much of a competition and it remains the dominant player.

Tronic

nobody is asking them to comeback...

serves a captive market??? this is post '91...

and there isn't much of a competition??? If you are saying that between the Institutes, there is no competition, then you're dead wrong... there are plenty of private institutes competing for higher rep. but none can match IIT because of its already well built rep. in India and Abroad... plus, if you have IIT on your resume, then you are guaranteed a job... and what I stated was that the people that get rejected from IIT end up getting scholorships in MIT and Harvard... I'm talking about the competition between the PEOPLE now... there is so much competition that the best of the best are the only ones that will make it through... the others will end up going abroad...