India Arriving: How This Economic Powerhouse Is Redefining Global Business

304 Pages·2007·2.46 MB·English

by  Rafiq Dossani

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INDIA ARRIVING
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India Arriving
HOW THIS ECONOMIC POWERHOUSE
IS REDEFINING GLOBAL BUSINESS
a
Rafiq Dossani
AMERICAN MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION
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Shanghai • Tokyo • Toronto • Washington, D.C.
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LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Dossani,Rafiq,1954-
Indiaarriving:howthiseconomicpowerhouseisredefiningglobalbusiness/Rafiq
Dossani.
p. cm.
Includesindex.
ISBN-13:978–0-8144–7424–2(hardcover)
ISBN-10:0–8144–7424–1(hardcover)
1.India—Economicconditions. 2.Globalization—Economicaspects—India.
3.Nationalcharacteristics,EastIndian. 4.India—Socialconditions. 5.Political
culture—India. I.Title.
HC435.3.D67 2008
330.954—dc22
2007026894
(cid:2)2008RafiqDossani
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India is arriving: make sure to take me along.
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CONTENTS
Preface ix
1 India:NotWhatItSeems 1
2 Nehru’sIndia:TheRiseofStatePower 17
3 TheRiseofStates’Power 31
4 TheDiverseOutcomesofFederalism 47
5 Corruption 63
6 TheEnglishLanguageandIndia’sFuture:MentalWorkersorMetal
Bashers? 83
7 WalkingonWater,orGettingintoanIIT 93
8 IndiaandtheITIndustry 109
9 TheOverseasIndianandtheMultinationalFirminIT 123
10 FaithandTolerance 153
11 TheABCD,NRI,andOtherSpecies:IndiansLivinginAmerica 187
12 TheStockExchangesofIndia 199
13 RuralIndia 219
14 TheMediainIndia 243
15 DifferentApproachestoDevelopment? 255
Notes 273
Index 279
AbouttheAuthor 291
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PREFACE
INDIA IS A LAND OF oddities, puzzles, and paradoxes. Consider, for
instance,thesouthernIndianstateofKerala.Itwaslongconsidered
an oddity within India: literacy was universal, the male to female
ratiowaslessthanone,lifeexpectancywasnearlyonparwithdevel-
oped countries—and economic growth was well below average.
Given India’s social backwardness and Kerala’s pre-independence
history of severe caste discrimination (including the prevalence of
slavery in some districts), Kerala’s subsequent era of rapid social
developmentwasaparadox.Giventhesocialprogress,itseconomic
backwardnesswasapuzzle.
TheeconomicconditionofKeralabegantochangeinthe1990s.
Kerala is now India’s eighth richest state and, excluding the tiny
western state of Goa, the fastest growing since 1990. Its social de-
velopmentcontinues tooutpace therest ofIndia.
India offered its own national puzzle: Poor economic and social
developmentcoincidedforyearswithakeenlydemocratictradition.
By certain measures—the state of women’s health or children’s nu-
trition, for instance—India fared worse than countries in sub-
Saharan Africa. Given its social backwardness, the preservation of
democracy was a puzzle. Given democracy, its poor economic per-
formancewas equallypuzzling.
As with Kerala, some of this began to change in the 1990s. In-
dia’s economy now sizzles. By some measures, such as the size and
depth of its software or telecommunications industries, it is as so-
phisticated as any other country. Meanwhile, its democratic tradi-
tions havestrengthened.
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