India’s economic, technical, and social achievements are lessons for capitalists and the communists around the world
Tania Sen
Nov. 8, 2008

In 1969, UN declared India as a beggar nation that would not survive because of famine, shortage of food, and catastrophic poverty. That same year American Apollo 11 landed on moon making history for the human civilization beating the Soviet Union’s communist regime in space exploration.

This is 2008. The communist pillar of the world, Soviet Union is long gone. Russia struggles to find an identity. America has lost most of its wealth through uncontrolled capitalism and reckless mismanagement of fiscal matters. The western world is in deep recession with catastrophic financial meltdown. According to International Monetary Fund (IMF), the only two bright spots in world economies (although dulled) are India and China.

And here comes China and India both claiming a piece of moon in 2008 – the acme of scientific achievements. For India it is a miracle to go from a beggar nation to a Technology Powerhouse in less than 39 years.

What really happened? How America and former Soviet Union failed as nations? Why India shines today in spite of all the gloom and doom of United Nations in 1969?

The answer lies in socio economic structures. Uncontrolled supply side economics of Capitalism has failed miserably. The centralized economies like former Soviet Union have also failed. What has survived and flourished miraculously is a mixture of capitalism and socialism as in India. The Government owned companies in India have successfully competed with the private sector of India. While the private sector has achieved very little other than servicing low end outsourcing contracts from US and Europe, Indian public sector has flourished keeping the balance between greed and national pride.

America has destroyed its acme of pride – the AT&T Bell Labs ia just an example. Thanks to Ronald Reagan’s supply side economics, breaking up of and eventually destroying national vanguards of technologies. The budget deficit has become a mountain. The entrepreneurs have lost all hope. And the nation in despair has elected its first black President hoping for some sort miracle with shower down from the heaven rewarding the inefficiencies, greed, and outright squandering of national wealth. The result is secret nationalization of the banking and financial industry. Even the auto sector in America has declared virtual bankruptcies and waits nationalization. The airlines are broke, the medical sector is giving up, more than 25% of the US population do not have health insurance, and all major industries face depression. The unemployment rate is shooting towards the levels never seen since 1930s. America is no longer a superpower. Like Soviet Union, the county faces implosion because of ruthless and mindless governance by its leaders.

India may have set the new standard and benchmark for socio economic reform to be followed by America and Russia. Interestingly, China silently adopted the concept of green revolution of India in 1974. It empowers individual farmers to grow their crops and profit from the same with the help of Government infrastructure and resources. China is not far behind India. Its shell of communism and the red flag is tarnished since the seventies. China today, just like India is a mixed economy where capitalism and socialism compete freely. Both the countries have invested very heavily in higher education creating abundance of technocrats, scientist, and medical professionals

President elect Obama will soon find that the only way to rescue American pride is to follow the Indian model of mixed economic structures. It will not be easy to convert a nemesis of inefficiency and greed into pride, sacrifice, and justice for all in the country. A good thing for him is that current US president George Bush is already committed to nationalizing banks and financial institutions. No one can say Obama was the first American President to convert American capitalism to socialism.

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