145;Let this change be permanent146;

8226; Arun Shourie8217;s August 15 trilogy informed me of many things about India that I was not aware of. The facts on Indian electronic ...

8226; Arun Shourie8217;s August 15 trilogy informed me of many things about India that I was not aware of. The facts on Indian electronic industry hardware were truly astonishing.

My only concern is Shourie8217;s views on China. I think he still thinks of China as a threat. I feel the way forward for us is to move together. We should forget 8217;62 and move on. 8212;Abhilash

8226; Three more articles summarising India8217;s recent successes. But all this ink would be worthless without proper government. Look at America and Britain 8212; two countries that breed the most ignorant of all people, yet nevertheless lead the world. How do they do this? Talented governance and economic policy. Put a good government in place and just about any people can meet with success. Look at Singapore. Put a bad government in place and again, just about any talent can go to waste, like in India! 8212; Prashanth Reddy

8226; Shourie has presented a very thought-provoking series of articles. While all that he has said is true, one important aspect that8217;s missing is on how the real politik work. We are a democracy; vibrant and dynamic at the top level and vicious and suppressive on the ground. We are also still a rural economy, though as Shourie points out, it8217;s changing. Resistance to this change is inevitable because a large section of the population don8217;t figure in it.

8226; I take offence in being called a 8216;Negaholic8217;! Not when sitting here in the USA, I get comments from American colleagues who say things like 8216;8216;You have some of those institutes there which are as good as MIT8217;8217; or 8216;8216;What do you guys feed on that everyone is a software genius?8217;8217; Reading the SEI CMM Level 5 The best quality software firms list of companies is like reading an alphabetical list of Indian firms.

I do not know what generation Shourie talks about but 19 out of 20 Indians that I know are extremely positive and look forward to be successful. When I convey to a colleague that in India it is common to get a 710 in GMAT, her eyes pop out. I8217;m confident that the new generation that is coming up is anything but 8216;8216;Negaholic8217;8217;. 8212;Krishnan

8226; Here in Australia, what we get to know about India through the local media is usually negative. But we are trying our best to show more positive side of our great nation to the new Indian generation as well as the Australian community.

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Recently, one of the national newspapers wrote a small article on India and the title was Poor India going to Moon. The whole article was so negative that we felt very disappointed. But we have decided enough is enough and we are going to protest such pieces. Time to do away with 8216;8216;negaholics8217;8217;. 8212; Shashi B. Kumar

8226; Why criticise only Congress-ruled states? At least these states are not busy building mandirs and demolishing mosques? Not all public services can be corporatised. Shourie8217;s praise for winding up of Chattisgarh Housing corporation is a case in point.

Even in US, the state and city governments provide cheap housing to low income groups. Which company will build one-room tenements for the poor? CIDCOs and HUDCOs cannot be wished away for sure.

And thirdly, nobody, not even Shourie, can explain how to trust Indian business houses which are so adept at looting the government than creating value. A case in point is the Centaur hotel disinvestment 8212; sold to Batra hospitality, resold to Sahara.
8212; Roma

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Moreover, all our politicians are not as astute and intelligent and with a public school education like Shourie. So to make them understand the economics of change will not be an easy task. While we need to manage the change internally, we cannot get paranoid about how fast or slow we are doing it because if change has to be permanent then we better let people who are going to be affected by the change decide how soon or late they want it. Thrusting it upon them will only create more resistance. 8212; Sam

8226; One simply cannot agree more to what Shourie has been advocating from day one he stepped into the office: Make the industries competitive by allowing healthy competition and invest the crores that are poured into inefficient PSUs towards the infrastructure.

The true value, goals and the results of disinvestment and reforms ultimately will prevail over what our babus have been cribbing about in today8217;s global economy. Only when there8217;s an efficient capital market will industries become productive and companies become innovative. 8212; Shashi Kanth

8226; Arun Shourie8217;s articles are interesting, but will perhaps fall on deaf ears. Take the example of Air-India. Simply put, its mission is to pay fat salaries to its employees. As an airline, it is truly pathetic. Are you aware that Air-India has stopped flying to Singapore after the Sars scare? The other airlines operating from South East Asia to India are enjoying a boom. The fare from Singapore to Delhi is almost the same as the fare from Singapore to London.

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I wonder if anyone has ever assessed how much money has been 8216;8216;invested8217;8217; in Air-India since its 8216;8216;nationalisation8217;8217;? In any case, this airline should no longer be a national priority. If there is so much money lying around, it should be spend on building latrines in the country-side. 8212; P Mohan

8226; Shourie8217;s trilogy was a wonderful experience, but I would like to point out some facts which I think he has left out. The spread of AIDS will put huge pressure on the country8217;s financial resources and retard the pace of development. Next, millions of Indians are still uneducated and have no access to proper sanitation, drinking water and shelter.

Finally, the government should encourage entrepreneurship by giving incentives to venture capitalists and tax breaks for start-ups etc. We are an emerging market and our technology adoption is still quite low. With more capital flows, technology will be admired and adopted by the common man. 8212; Aravind

8226; The booming economy is doing wonders for the urban middle class. But one fears what will happen when the disparity between the urban few and rural majority widens to unmanageable limits. We8217;ve seen leaps and bounds in the private sector8230; let8217;s see if the new elite can force political and judicial reforms with the same vigour8230;.. a healthy economy also needs a responsive government that can quickly disperse development; and an efficient judicial system.

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Industrial and tertiary growth and accountability has to percolate to the village level. Otherwise, get ready for a nasty mix of caste and class wars. 8212; Bharat Singh