Has India Really Changed For The Better?

Tall claims are made but we all want to know if India has really changed over the last two decades. Nithin Rao who returned to Mumbai after a long stint abroad is convinced that things have dramatically improved. The benefits of economic reforms have trickled down significantly, lifting millions out of poverty, with evidence of change seen across the country.

A QUESTION that is often asked of me – a resident Indian now – by visiting NRIs is: has India changed? And if so, for the better, or has the situation worsened?

I am of the firm belief that things have improved for the better in India…and dramatically.

Having grown up in a typically middle-class family in a city like Bombay (now Mumbai) in the 1970s and 1980s, people of my generation have indeed lived through tough times. I ventured abroad for a brief stint of about eight years in the late 1980s to the Gulf and returned home in the mid-1990s – to an India that had changed significantly.

It might sound like an exaggeration, but it was indeed a Rip Van Winkle experience. The mid-1980s were the turning point for our generation in India. A young and refreshing new face had taken command in Delhi – Rajiv Gandhi became Prime Minister in the 1985 general elections and brought along with him dozens of young men and women, brimming with new ideas, who promised to bring about a generational shift in the country.

The first signs of change were evident on the city streets: colourful and zippy Marutis zooming around Bombay roads then dominated by ancient Premier Padminis and Hindustan Ambassadors. It was the first time that middle-class folk could dream of buying a car.

But even more importantly, more than a hundred years after the establishment of Bombay Telephones, ordinary citizens could actually aspire to own a telephone (a landline, for those of you who might not be very familiar with the device) before the turn of the 20th century. In some telephone exchanges in  the western suburbs of Mumbai, the waiting period for a phone was 15 to 20 years even during the
late 1980s.

We lived through an era of shortages. When Hindustan Machine Tools (HMT), a state-owned manufacturer (now on the verge of shutting down its operations), launched its line of wrist-watches in the 1960s, there used to be a waiting period before you could lay your hand on it. As with many commodities,  there was a thriving black- market in HMT watches. (Incidentally, even the Maruti 800 used to have
an unofficial premium for many years).

Ah, the dreams of owning another prized possession – the Bajaj scooter. One had to keep a deposit of Rs500 and wait for 10 to 15 years before you could get delivery of the two-wheeler. If you were lucky enough to have an NRI as a relative (in those days there were not too many overseas Indians), and who was willing to pay for the vehicle in foreign currency, you could jump the queue and shave off a few years and be the proud owner of a Bajaj scooter much earlier.

Television came to Mumbai in the early 1970s, and colour TV followed more than a decade later at the time of the Asian Games. NRIs could bring in colour TVs without paying duty – yes, there was a waiting period for TVs too – and Mumbai airport was flooded with these TV sets, as NRIs and even professional ‘carriers’ travelled to India with the much-envied sets.

Travelling abroad was also a luxury for a majority of Indians. Only the super-rich, celebrities, industrialists and the senior-most executives of top companies could venture out. Getting a passport was itself a major task. During the pre-reforms era, an Indian was entitled to a maximum of $500 foreign travel allowance – for the entire stay abroad, irrespective of the duration – if one was travelling to the developed world; if you were heading to some neighbouring country, or to the Soviet empire, the allowance would be slashed drastically.

It seems laughable today, but there was a time – till the 1980s – when the lucky ones who managed to travel abroad on work or leisure would be accompanied by scores of relatives and friends, who would garland them outside Santa Cruz airport and pose for photographs. There would be an average of 20 to 30 people waiting to bid goodbye or receive a single Indian (heading abroad or returning home) at the airport.

Indians began travelling abroad in larger numbers in the late 1980s, hopping over to Dubai or Singapore on shopping trips. India did not boast of any shopping malls, so many of us were awe-struck by the glitzy and sprawling complexes in cities abroad. Of course, today not just the metros, but even smaller Indian cities and towns boast of malls that are brimming with fancy stuff and at affordable prices.

The era of shortages continued in India almost till the mid-1990s. Long queues would be evident outside petrol pumps, which would run out of fuel unexpectedly. Power cuts were rampant in most parts of the country (they are so in many places even now) and water shortages too were the norm, especially before the monsoons.

Housing was another major challenge (and it continues to be so). For the middle-class, the biggest handicap was the absence of housing loans. One would have to work for 20 to 30 years before rustling up enough cash – including the money from provident fund, gratuity and insurance policies that would mature – before one could even dream of getting a one-room flat in cities like Mumbai.  Flats costing Rs 1 lakh (Rs100,000) were beyond the reach of a majority of Mumbai residents till the 1990s. (Today, of course you will have to add two more zeroes, making it a crore – or 10 million, for a modest apartment; but surprisingly, there are many more people who can raise such cash).

The economic reforms of the 1990s have brought about a sea-change in India. In just about 20 years, it has become an unrecognisable nation in terms of economic growth and even social transformation.

India is today a nearly $2 trillion economy, with a GDP growth rate of between five and eight per cent annually (depending on the economic cycle) and a per capita income that keeps doubling at least once a decade. And though it is a highly debated matter, the benefits of economic reforms have trickled down significantly, lifting millions out of poverty.

A renowned Indian editor had once succinctly highlighted the glaring disparities within India by declaring: ‘We live in India, they live in Bharat.’ Today, though the gap between India and Bharat is narrowing at a rapid pace. Travelling extensively across the sub- continent, especially in tier-II and tier-III cities, besides the countless villages dotting the country-side, one is amazed at the remarkable changes that are occurring.

For one, the poor are no longer willing to accept the inevitability of fate or the existing scheme of things. Many, especially the young, have realised that the surest way to breach the socio-economic barrier that keeps millions imprisoned in impoverished hovels, is to get an
education. Not surprising then that the commonest commercial sign-boards across small-town India is for IT and computer courses, English language skills, and other vocational courses including mobile-phone and electronic goods repairing and beauty parlour skills training.

Rural BPOs are sprouting up across many states as young rural and semi-urban Indians are waking up to the potential of jobs in the new economy. Even in cities such as Mumbai, the local civic body has been forced to shut down schools (which offer free education) as even the poor want their children to study in private institutions (with English as the medium of instruction) that charge hefty fees, but are increasingly being seen as a gateway to a better future.

India’s median age – signifying that half the population is below this average age – is a remarkably young 27, the lowest among the large economies. In contrast, the median age among other BRIC nations is much higher: 30.7 for Brazil, 36.7 for China and 38.9 for Russia.. Except the US (with a median age of 37.6), the rest of the developed world is ageing rapidly, with Japan and Germany having a median age of 46.1. Which means, in less than 15 years half the Japanese and German population would have retired and would be living on pension.

India’s biggest handicap over the past few decades has been stasis in policies caused by a ‘chalta hai’ attitude among politicians, bureaucrats and other decision-makers. But with a growing aspirational class, cutting across socio-economic parameters and class- caste-community barriers, there is growing pressure on the elite from below.

The Indian electorate is hungry for change and elections in recent years have seen the restless voter kick out incumbent regimes – irrespective of whether it is run by the BJP, the Congress, or even regional outfits – if they are seen to be non-performing.

Ironically, one of the most significant things going for India is the enormous infrastructure deficit in the country. Unlike many other emerging countries, India is not dependent on global markets for survival and growth. The pent-up demand for new cities and housing, bus, rail and metro services, airports and ports, roads and highways, power plants, telecom infrastructure, hospitals, educational institutions, hotels and resorts and other facilities is humungous. Meeting the infrastructure deficit will ensure that the engines of economic growth will continue to revolve at a brisk clip.

Hundreds of billions of dollars are needed to build this new infrastructure; a requirement which will ensure a growth momentum well into the second-half of the 21st century. In the last 15 years, India – despite its enormous problems – has seen remarkable changes. But the rapid pace of change that will occur over the next three decades will surely remake this country into a modern economy.

Nithin Rao is a freelance writer based in Mumbai.