Thursday, June 23, 2005

Signs that a country is progressing

Here are some signs you notice when a country starts making its mark in the world

  1. The economy improves
  2. GDP and per capita incomes goes up
  3. Manufacturing plants get setup because the labour is still cheap or it becomes an outsourcing hub
  4. The Government starts opening up the economy
  5. It becomes a market for goods, there is an influx of foreign brands
  6. Consumer spending increases
  7. Government announces more projects for infra-structure development
  8. The automotive and airline industry starts booming
  9. The country starts doing well in sports

Can you think of more? Please let me know and I will grow the list. Let me know if you disagree with these observations

7 comments:

Balbir said...

Ideally, in a good economy wealth circulates. More employment is created as consumers spend.

H said...

Adding to your list :-

i) The country gets mentioned positively in all major international (read it as US ) channels .

Balbir said...

yes, good point. I just saw your post on the UN seat for India.

Unknown said...

Sorry I disagree. Mass welfare is true indicator of progress. And we have'nt progressed much here. Our administration has 0 value for human life for the common man, the health, justice and police system does not protect the common man. Economic disparity is too huge. If you read development literature you fill find the following:

The decision to categorize a country as
developed/developing/underdeveloped is decided by the UNDP based on what is called the Human Development Index (HDI) - a measure of life expectancy, literacy, education, and standard of living for the general population. It is a standard means of measuring well-being, especially child welfare. The measure was developed by Indian Nobel prize winner Amartya Sen,
Pakistani economist Mahbub ul Haq, with help from
Gustav Ranis of Yale University and Lord Meghnad Desai
of the London School of Economics.

Today India stands at 128 amongst 177 countries in HDI, it has gone down 2 positions since the last report in 2005. China is ranked at number 81. In the most recent report, the United Nations' Human Development Report (HDR) praised neighbouring Bangladesh for the rapid human development it has achieved despite its moderate growth, but notes that
while India has moved into the premier league of world economic growth, the pick-up in growth has not translated into a commensurate decline in poverty or increased global wellbeing.

QED.

Balbir said...

Your view is a very economist view of growth and backed up by facts I was not aware of.

Some of the points you've mentioned are difficult for India due to

1. Large population
2. Large scale corruption
3. Accessibility to people

Look at the Labour card program and benefits and how it's been mishandled. The signs of a strong economy are there and eventually the money should trickle down to the poor (the onus is on the government, given all the taxes we pay).

I believe that progress and it's trickling down to everyone takes time.

Unknown said...

>> Your view is a very economist view of growth

And that's the more useful view, is'nt it ? because our goal is to be a developed country, and we will be judged by such criteria
only , not on premium economic growth rate, right ?

No use calling India a nuclear capable,
country that sells indigenously designed supercomputers to Europe, where 30% of the people struggle to eat or live, cant have clean water or have still have places where the nutrition rate as per UN has been close or worse than SubSaharan Africa, leave alone
health facilties.

.. Do you know how important is this fact of having 0 value for human life, justice and police - really basic basic amenitites


I dont imagine it for me, I imagine it for my children or my parents and I imagine it for even the more worse-off fighting it out everyday for survival.


But I can understand, its easy for us to live in a big city, get good salaries and then imagine that the "metro view" of India is the reality for the rest of the country to. No, man, not.

>> ...trickling down
Yes I hope so but keeping what might be a false expectation of a HDI level progress as an imagined magical side effect of an economic boom could be dangerous. Try googling HDI India and you will find that the last two years India's HDI has fallen despite economic growth. So I am not sure
when you say things would trickle down.

Unknown said...

On another note, I like your blog , especially the links.

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