Two Indias

In the countdown to Vote 2004, many in this country argue that it will be a different kind of an Indian election: that for the first time th...

In the countdown to Vote 2004, many in this country argue that it will be a different kind of an Indian election: that for the first time the economy is a campaign issue. Others immediately point to the limits of this debate and the narrow tent it pitches on the ground. This week, TIME agreed with both propositions: 8216;8216;India8217;s surging economy has changed the political debate, but not the lives of the majority of its citizens8217;8217; it said.

This year, said the magazine, the 8216;8216;hot issue8217;8217; is the one that earlier drew all the yawns 8212; the economy. And then it counted out the reasons why it is necessary to talk of two Indias, 8216;8216;southern and urban, and northern and rural 8212; the former developing, the latter deteriorating8217;8217;. Nutrition studies, like the one published by the Australian National University show 8216;8216;calorie-deprivation and expenditure-poverty8217;8217; increasing in five states. 8216;8216;Unofficial surveys8217;8217; that suggest a nationwide rise in unemployment despite the new jobs in IT and outsourced back office work. The violence, episodic like the attacks on Biharis in Assam, unrelenting like the bloodletting in Naxalite areas in northern and eastern India. Farmers8217; suicides in upwardly mobile Andhra Pradesh.

For the magazine, Polls 2004 take place in an India subdividing into 8216;Goa8217; and 8216;Bihar8217;.

Not all in the Family

THE ECONOMIST was also looking at India and reported a stirring of a different kind. India8217;s success in the new industries 8212; computer software production and business outsourcing 8212; is 8216;8216;rubbing off8217;8217;, it said, on manufacturing which makes up 20 per cent of the economy. It said an increasing number of India8217;s 8216;8216;old economy firms8217;8217; have 8216;8216;quietly restructured8217;8217;. And 8216;8216;Old India8217;8217; is no longer afraid to go global.

The magazine spoke of how old family firms in India which earlier exploited political connections to their advantage are now becoming more competitive at home and growing abroad. Almost on cue, TIME shone the light on 8216;8216;The Families That Own Asia8217;8217; to make the case that they are now being forced to change their 8216;8216;clo-istered Confucian ways8217;8217;. The Family Ambani was one of the chosen six.

Be it because of the Asian economic crisis, free trade, information explosion or global competition 8212; families find it harder to carry on like 8216;8216;ancient tribes8217;8217; and 8216;8216;secret societies8217;8217;, said TIME.

In defence of BPO

But the western media are basically counting out the days to America8217;s presidential contest. Here, Howard Dean has 8216;8216;flamed8217;8217; out and Kerry8217;s 8216;8216;aura of electability8217;8217; seems sufficient to see him through to the Democratic nomination. Here, the debate keeps returning to India.

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Democratic candidates have made the loss of US jobs the centrepiece of their campaigns. The issue zoomed centrestage after Democratic presidential campaigns traveled affected industrial states such as Wisconsin, Michigan and Missouri. Then, Bush8217;s top economist said outsourcing was 8216;8216;probably a plus for the economy in the long run8217;8217; and was forced to backtrack.

Influential sections of the media are dismayed by the protectionist stances being taken as well as the futility of the 8216;8216;remedies8217;8217; on offer 8212; such as offering tax breaks for domestic hiring.

In an op-ed piece in the NEW YORK TIMES, Jagdish Bhagwati, author of In Defense of Globalisation patiently explained 8216;8216;Why Your Job Isn8217;t Moving to Bangalore.8217;8217; According to Bhagwati, the panic is misplaced and jobs are not being 8216;8216;taken away8217;8217; from America. What is happening, instead, is that technological change is affecting labour-intensive services: 8216;8216;8230; when jobs disappear in America it is usually because technical change has destroyed them, not because they have gone anywhere. In the end, Americans8217; increasing dependence on an ever widening array of technology will create a flood of high-paying jobs requiring hands-on technicians, not disembodied voices from the other side of the world8217;8217;.

Found in translation

And in the NYT, the story of three women and their determination to bring more foreign literature and commentary into the US. The paper tracked the efforts of the editors of Words Without Borders, an internet magazine that features writers from around the world in English translation.

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The magazine8217;s founder Alane Salierno Mason told the NYT she was provoked by this statistic: a 1999 report from the National Endowment for the Arts estimated that about 3 per cent of the books published in the US were translations, compared with 40 to 50 per cent in West European countries.

The magazine went online with what the editors call 8216;8216;literature from the Axis of Evil8217;8217; 8212; essays, reportage, book excerpts from writers in North Korea, Iraq and Iran. They include stories, said NYT, that can seem 8216;8216;mysterious8217;8217; or 8216;8216;startlingly familiar8217;8217;.