‘India’s decade could pave way for an Indian century’

Calling it “The Decade That Was India’s”, leading US daily Wall Street Journal says India’s ability to make the success of the last 10 years the norm across regions and industries, “could well pave the way for an Indian century.”

Calling it “The Decade That Was India’s”, leading US daily Wall Street Journal says India’s ability to make the success of the last 10 years the norm across regions and industries, “could well pave the way for an Indian century.”

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“Nobody knew what would happen when 1999 ended. Would computer systems crash and paralyse machines, power lines, lights, life as we know it?” the Journal said, recalling how the world turned to India to take on the dreaded Y2K bug.

“This was the decade that defined India — and India defined. Think back to the mid-1990s, as software services
entrepreneurs assure me, and Americans didn’t know India at all,” the daily said. “Ten years later, the world is in panic mode again — and some economists think India will come to the rescue yet again.”

“The backlash against outsourcing remains a very real threat, intensifying amid 10 per cent unemployment in the US,” it said. “But outsourcing — and the idea that companies must operate cheaply, efficiently, globally — has come to be an accepted, inescapable reality.”

“India can hardly be far behind, given its population projected to exceed China and its democratic form of government,” the daily said.

“What will distinguish India in the decade that begins Friday is its ability to now look inward, to clean its government, to uplift more of its population, to foster the businesses and innovations ... and make their success of the last 10 years
the norm across regions and industries.”

“That might just clinch more than the next decade — it could well pave the way for an Indian century,” the Journal said.
Indo-Asian News Service