India In 2020
India on the world stage.
‘The land of snake charmers, tigers, elephants’, ‘Buddha’s country’, ‘land of million Gods’… were epithets used to describe India not very long ago. The world’s perception of India has certainly changed drastically in recent years. ‘Silicon valley of the east’, ‘cradle of software industry’, ‘the fastest-growing economy’, ‘charging elephant’, and ‘the world’s outsourcing hub’ are titles now used for her. This change has been brought about over the last few decades by a change in Indians’ mindset. Till some time ago Indians were laid back people, content and fatalistic. But now it’s different- Indians are hungry for recognition, power and progress and anxious to see their dream take shape.
The world is moving fast but India is leaving it dazed with its speed. In the last 10 years the GDP has grown at an average rate of 6%, which is second only to China. The prosperity of an average Indian has also grown over this period. As India prospered, her diaspora spread to several countries, resulting in recognition of Indian talents and skills in fields of science, technology, finance, manufacturing and business. Indira Nooyi, Vikram Pandit, Mukesh Ambani, Narayan Murthy, Ratan Tata are some of the key Indians leading this surge. Giant companies such as Tata Steel, Reliance, ONGC, Wipro and Infosys have transformed into world-class players. The Mittals and Tatas have also bought stakes in big foreign companies. Who knows, maybe in a few years, foreign companies may consider it a matter of pride to be taken over by Indian companies.
Indian presence in global arena has largely been the result of growing spread of education. Indians, long known for mathematical skills, turned to software programming in the 1980s and now form a large chunk of employees at companies like IBM and Microsoft. Indian faculty members in foreign universities are shaping world thought.
The growing size and prosperity of the middle class has drawn foreign companies...
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