The Tipping Point in India

Submitted by williamkramer on October 19, 2005 - 13:55.
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"With the private sector booming, industry and services have overtaken farming to account for 54 percent of rural income."

This amazing factoid comes from an article that Rob Katz just posted from the International Herald Tribune: Poor rural India? It's a richer place by Anand Giridharadas.

I find it one of the most compelling items I've run across recently. Since the end of WW2, and the dawn of modern thought on economic development, the holy grail of development has been how to foster wealth creation in rural areas. While nobody might put India forward as the ideal model to emulate, it's clear that (as the article goes on immediately to suggest) that current Indian policies are helping to turn the corner. A welcome glimmer of hope.


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Underestimating India
Submitted by _Jacob Kramer-D... on October 19, 2005 - 15:34.
This seems to fit well with the earlier underestimation of rural India's voting rationality. Western commentators crowed about ignorance inspiring extremism when the BJP came to power in the '90s; and were then stunned when those same voters booted the BJP when they failed to deliver on their promises. Clearly, a huge oversimplification, but the too-typical essentialization of the "global poor" (which is an obnoxious habit of many mainstream media accounts, when they even bother with coverage) is a far bigger oversimplification.
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