India Everywhere?

India Everywhere......

This was the theme of the extravagant branding exercise that was carried to hard sell India at the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, early this year, reports India Today.
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It set me thinking....the achievement of 7.5 per cent growth in the Indian economy was very well advertised there. But Hey, Look around.....the outstretched hands of little children/Young mothers begging for alms at traffic signals, Coffee day outlets( I've started feeling guilty about going to these places now)...Do we look like a nation worth emulating as of now?

The Hindu reports' A large proportion — 26 per cent or about 260 million (193 million in rural areas and 67 million in urban areas) — of Indians are still below the poverty line, according to India's first Social Development Report released in New Delhi on Friday. '

Now these 2 reports provide such a contrasting view of India. I decided to probe further and came across a startling statistic.

Let us for a moment consider the GDP as a growth indicator of a nation's economy. 60.8% of the India's GDP was contributed by the services sector (IT sector, Banks, Insurance, Hotel Industry), 19.5% by the Manufacturing sector and 19.7% from Agriculture. (Source: ICRA)

Further, most of India's population resides in rural areas, Close to 66% infact. The share of agriculture in GDP may be a little less than 20 per cent, but the percentage of the working population that earns a living primarily out of it is still around 57 per cent.

In simple terms, about 40% of the population contributes close to 80% of India's GDP. And close to 60% of the population contributes around 20% of GDP.

If 80% of the GDP is to be contributed by less than 40% of the population, It would be reasonable to assume that the Urban brethren, who have a greater stake in the services sector and the Manufacturing sector would be much much better off when compared to their rural counterpart, who would having less disposable income and thus less savings.

And if you taken into consideration the rural rich and trust me there are some really really rich people in our rural areas, contrary to the popular perception, the situation of the landless labourer is hardly enviable.

How can India shine with this situation? And pray tell me what the hell is our Agriculture minister doing about it? Oh I am sorry I forgot, Mr. Sharad Pawar is busy running the world's richest cricket board. It is only natural that He gives higher priorities to issues of national importance such as whether Saurav Ganguly should be in the squad or not. And the minister of Agriculture (state) was seen in the award ceremony for the final encounter between India and England yesterday!!!! Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawd….

Thankfully there does seem to be some light at the end of the tunnel.

Mr.Sunil Mittal (The Chairman and Managing Director of Bharti Group/Airtel) presents some startling facts in an article for outlook:
http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20060403&fname=5Col+Mittal&sid=1

(One needs to register/sign up at outlookindia.com before viewing the articles, But Its for free and hardly takes a minute, so what the heck!!!!)

How many of us knew that 'India is the second largest grower of fruits and vegetables…… However, its horticulture exports are less than one per cent of world trade in fresh produce and the wastage is almost 30 per cent of the total production.'!!!!!!!!

Sunil also proposes various solutions such as about how corporate participation can bring about 'expertise in terms of good agricultural practices, research and development on pest control, irrigation equipment, financing back up.....' and also the need for 'infrastructure support such as cold chains, roads and transport facilities, perishable centres at the airports to ensure that the fresh produce reaches its intended markets on time'.

If only there was a political will to actually implement these things on the ground, can the whole of India shine. Else there will be two India's. India (for the urban folk) and Hindustan (for the rural folk). And all that the politicians of the day are doing is pit them, one against the other. IT Vs Agriculture. Urban development Vs Rural development etc etc...... Whereas at the end of the day, they do nothing about either. It must be understood that Urban and rural development are not mutually exclusive. They can co-exist and infact are essential for each other. Else there will be a mass migration from the rural areas to the urban ones and the urban areas will be bursting at their seams, causing a thousand other problems, such as water, electricity, traffic woes etc.

India shining……India will shine when India and Hindustan are both prosperous and learn to co-exist in harmony….