Why I’m Losing Hope in India
Andy is a long time observer of India but this is a blinkered take. FDI (foreign direct investment) in India has doubled to $28B+ from $14B last year for the same 6-month period, <i>in the midst of a pandemic</i>. May I humbly suggest that foreign investors pumping cash into India by choice have more skin the game than economic journalists writing op-eds in newspapers no matter how erudite they are. A good chunk of this cash, about 50%, is into Reliance&#x27;s Jio platform but that cuts for and against.<p>China is 90%+ ethnic Han with one-language-multiple-dialects, one-party state with most population concentrated in a few provinces. Indian elections might have a <i>hundred</i> plus candidates running for one-seat for parliament. India is a multi-ethnic multi-religious democracy with hundreds of languages spread across diverse geographies.  The entrenched nature of (in)decision making in a three-tiered democracy, a free press, coupled with woke activism and sclerotic judiciary makes progress slow especially compared to China.<p>In India building a <i>single</i> nuclear plant requires wading through two decades worth of protests by foreign non-profits [1] and final adjudication by the Supreme court that construction could proceed. Foreign funded non-profits (NGO in India speak) were criticized by the former prime minister, Manmohan Singh, for intervening in matters of India&#x27;s development. Recently, a metro line&#x27;s storage shed in Mumbai, India&#x27;s commercial capital, was relocated after a multi year battle to save &lt;400 trees requiring the whole project to be delayed for multiple years inconveniencing 100s of thousands who would use that line.<p>You can have the biggest bullet train network created from scratch in a decade in China but then you get the Four Pests campaign [2] which led to eating and trading in wildlife which in turn sparked Covid 70 years later, the resulting famine, the horrors of the Cultural revolution, the great leap forward, the one-child policy, Vietnam invasion, Tiananmen, Xinjiang internment camps, One-belt-one-road, and finally President for life.<p>All this not-withstanding, the pace of decision making has picked up and on-the ground observers in India are far more optimistic than a journalists writing in from Hong Kong nestled in the echo-chamber that is elite journalism.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thehindu.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;national&#x2F;manmohan-criticises-ngos-for-protests-in-kudankulam&#x2F;article2924905.ece" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.thehindu.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;national&#x2F;manmohan-criticises-n...</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=ojOmUWLDG18" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=ojOmUWLDG18</a>