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About 3 days ago I was sent a email by a friend about the new version of the Ant and Grasshopper fable.
Here it goes:
First the original version:
Ant & Grasshopper The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter. The Grasshopper thinks the Ant is a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the Ant is warm and well fed. The Grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the cold.
Now,
The new Indian Version:
The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and laying up supplies for the winter. The Grasshopper thinks the Ant's a fool and laughs & dances & plays the summer away. Come winter, the shivering Grasshopper calls a press conference and demands to know why the Ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others are cold and starving.
NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering Grasshopper next to a video of the Ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with food. The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor Grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?
Arundhati Roy (a booker prize winning author) stages a demonstration in front of the Ant's house. Medha Patkar (an activist) goes on a fast along with other Grasshoppers demanding that Grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter. Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticizes the Indian Government for not upholding the fundamental rights of the Grasshopper. The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the Grasshopper (many promising Heaven and Everlasting Peace for prompt support as against the wrath of God for non-compliance).
Opposition MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for "Bharat Bandh (India Closed strike)" in West Bengal and Kerala (two states where leftist are in power) demanding a Judicial Enquiry. CPM, the party in power in Kerala, immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among Ants and Grasshoppers. Lalu Prasad Yadav (the railways minister) allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'.
Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the ' Prevention of Terrorism Against Grasshoppers Act' [POTAGA], with effect from the beginning of the winter. Arjun Singh, another cabinet minister, makes 'Special Reservation' for Grasshoppers in Educational Institutions & in Government Services. The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left to pay his retroactive taxes, it's home is confiscated by the Government and handed over to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV.
Arundhati Roy calls it ' A Triumph of Justice '. Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice '. CPM calls it the 'Revolutionary Resurgence of the Downtrodden ' Koffi Annan invites the Grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.
Many years later...
The Ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi-billion dollar company in Silicon Valley. 100s of Grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere in India ... As a result of loosing lot of hard working Ants and feeding the Grasshoppers,
India is still a developing country!!!
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Well, the story kind of summarizes some flaws of coalition governments, hung parliaments, multiparty regional (rather than national) politics, and above all of democracy.
Now, I don't mean to degrade any of them as they have their own advantages and I believe in the power of democracy. For this blog though I wish to focus on a completely different aspect of Indian economy and want to argue why that has been a hindrance factor for growth.
The factor which I am talking about here is the 'social web'. It is one of the most powerful forces which at times is said to have kept the Indians glued with each other but at the same time it has created a wall too hard to crack or break if you wish to grow.
This social web pervades almost all aspects of Indian being. For example, an entrepreneur running an SME or a larger organization has to hire first from family and relatives rather than most deserving candidates. Some would argue it is not the case anymore and might quote a few examples however, when seen from the general perspective one may be able to find large number of organizations stifled due the incompetences and ineffectiveness of their employees.
In a professional organization, these employees won't be hired to start with and moreover, if they are able to cross that first hurdle and become employees would be fired to create space for deserving candidates.
I was talking to a very close Indian friend of mine who is a globe trotter and was visiting us for about a week in the UK and stated that the Indian system grows because of this social web. I somehow disagree. It actually hampers growth.
In a way, one can observe the positive impact of the 'social web' that it provides those incompetent and ineffective people a job which in turn help keep their families afloat. However, when this is done and observed over a longer period (as it is in case of India) it creates a web of ineffectiveness. It also makes those ineffective and incompetent people think that they can survive without improving much.
That fallacy has much larger an impact on growth than anything else according to me.
Tuesday, October 09, 2007
Why India can't grow as fast as China?
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Posted by Dr. Paurav Shukla at 10/09/2007 01:00:00 pm
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2 comments:
I strongly agree with what you stated last week, since I believe social web limits the development of a country, and consequently the development and growth of its economy. On one hand social web "protects" the family and assures its wealth, but on the other hand, because people know their position is secured, they don't fight for their professional life; probably they don't even study as much as they should or could. Besides this, it also limits those, who might be more responsible and more accurate for the job. Nevertheless, social web isn't the main reason for India's poor economy and development. India suffers from corruption at all levels and poverty is also a significant problem; India is the home of nearly 400 million poor people. Child labour, population rapid growth and crime explosion are further examples of many problems that India is facing. It isn’t easy to manage and solve all these problems at once, and although we don’t know how long this crisis might take, India is thought to be emerging as a global leader among developing countries. Unfortunately, and the way I see things India has plenty to do and improve, and its emergence will take much longer than it is expected. Indian people should be much more open-minded, they should respect each other. The same opportunities should be offered equally to people and social web should be avoided. These are the basic ones, much more has to be improved, developed and created. India’s government should also support economically emerging companies, as well as welcome foreign investment, as China did. As it is written in the text, “India’s entrepreneurial advantage” by Tarun Khana, companies in India emerged from entrepreneurial effort, while “companies in China exist because the government funnels money to them”. So this means that India has capacities to develop, it might just need some help and support. The question is? Will this support ever happen? Or will India be able to emerge by itself without any support?
Just out of curiosity, before writing my comment, I had to do some research as background, and I found an interesting article on the following website http://international.yorku.ca/faculty/ed/sondha.doc , that describes all problems I mentioned before.
Vera Neto
I strongly agree with what you stated last week, since I believe social web limits the development of a country, and consequently the development and growth of its economy. On one hand social web "protects" the family and assures its wealth, but on the other hand, because people know their position is secured, they don't fight for their professional life; probably they don't even study as much as they should or could. Besides this, it also limits those, who might be more responsible and more accurate for the job. Nevertheless, social web isn't the main reason for India's poor economy and development. India suffers from corruption at all levels and poverty is also a significant problem; India is the home of nearly 400 million poor people. Child labour, population rapid growth and crime explosion are further examples of many problems that India is facing. It isn’t easy to manage and solve all these problems at once, and although we don’t know how long this crisis might take, India is thought to be emerging as a global leader among developing countries. Unfortunately, and the way I see things India has plenty to do and improve, and its emergence will take much longer than it is expected. Indian people should be much more open-minded, they should respect each other. The same opportunities should be offered equally to people and social web should be avoided. These are the basic ones, much more has to be improved, developed and created. India’s government should also support economically emerging companies, as well as welcome foreign investment, as China did. As it is written in the text, “India’s entrepreneurial advantage” by Tarun Khana, companies in India emerged from entrepreneurial effort, while “companies in China exist because the government funnels money to them”. So this means that India has capacities to develop, it might just need some help and support. The question is? Will this support ever happen? Or will India be able to emerge by itself without any support?
Just out of curiosity, before writing my comment, I had to do some research as background, and I found an interesting article on the following website http://international.yorku.ca/faculty/ed/sondha.doc , that describes all problems I mentioned before.
Vera Neto
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