As India celebrated its 60th Independence Day yesterday, the world news agencies, particularly the European press has focused in the recent weeks on “this day of pride for India” and “the arrival of a golden (Indian) age“. The world today has accepted India’s rise to prominence and its emergence as a force to recon with.
 
For last many days, mainstream British newspapers have been running ‘India at 60′ series. While The Times produced a special India supplement, The Guardian devoted its entire features pull-out to “The New India“.

The Guardian’s India special’s theme was expressed by its cover headline: “This is the best place in the world to be born right now”.

Tuesday’s India specials are the culmination of a fortnight-long focus on India by the British press. These include The Independent’s attempt to answer the question, “60 years after Partition, why is India doing so much better than its immediate neighbour & rival - Pakistan, who too got independence at the same time?”

The paper said, “Now, at the age of 60, India’s image is that of a resurgent, confident regional power racing fast to compete with China and the West.  Year after year, India’s economy is growing at about nine per cent a year, making India today, the third fastest-growing economy in Asia.
 
… But there are failures which are so evident. The genuine expectations of its masses are yet to be realized, the same press says.

The Daily Telegraph has headlined in the third part of its ‘India at 60′ series, that “Independence has failed to reduce poverty“. The paper points out that “without education or good health - 49 per cent of Indian children under six are malnourished, and after waiting for these 60 long years, it looks impossible to break the poverty trap”.

Every Western article about India’s remarkable rise is balanced by accounts of its poverty, casteism, corruption, poor governance and the growing divide between the rich and poor.

Will these issues be addressed on priority by India’s present & future governments,  so that its young generation feels proud to be Indian?
 

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 16th, 2007 at 3:01 pm and is filed under Economy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.