changes in Locality

Positives:

1.       We finally have roads that we can really drive in. The modern 4-laned highways have allowed bigger SUVs and luxury cars.

2.      Atleast within its gated communities and swanky malls, India has become quite clean.

3.      Money or employment is seldom the problem for the middle class, compared to the dark eras in the 80s-early 90s.

4.      We have modern, organized retail come in. The likes of Landmark, Lifestyle, Future Bazaar have brought modern practices in retail and allow for more job opportunities for the middle class.

5.      Indians are no more enamored by things that are merely foreign. Our attitude towards the world is evolving to become more confident and more matured now.

Negatives:

1.       The said SUVs are making Indian roads highly unsafe. They are even worse than Indian lorries when it comes to accidents as they are often driven high speed and reckless. Accidents are too common now and if you are a pedestrian you are always near your tryst with death.

2.      Real estate is unreal. An average middle class home in a metro such as Chennai is 20x of average middle class annual salaries. Add that with 10%+ interest rates, owning an home is quite hard and unaffordable in the cities, forcing us on a urban sprawl and unwieldy cities.

3.      The friendliness of Indian cities have gone. Karol Baghs of Delhi, Andheris of Mumbai and Vadapalanies of Chennai used to be more personal and warm. Now, the interpersonal relationships are more strained. Road rage is very common and neighbor relationships in apartments are either non-existent or frosty.

  

Few days back while strolling through the streets of Hudson Line in Delhi, I came across a mild crowd near Laxmi dairy. Two young men were surrounded by people.

Someone told me, these men were involved in making indecent gestures to a young lady travelling with her father. Her father, showing exemplary courage, protested against the act. Hearing about the misbehavior of these men, people gathered around and prevented them from fleeing the scene. 

Someone called the police helpline and asked the control room to immediately send a PCR van to the place of crime. 

Those men would have not imagined such a response from the public, they were apologetic and were pleading to let them go but the crowd had decided to bring them to justice by handing them over to the police. 

The passions were getting aroused, people wanted to teach them a lesson by beating them on the spot, I intervened and asked them to wait for the police as mob justice is often injustice. 

It was encouraging to see random people stop and take the time out to register the protest against the act of out raging the modesty and provide comfort to the girl by mere presence.

Changes for the better:

·         More Indians came out of poverty in the last decade than in the the several decades preceding it due to the sustained strong economic growth and because the government had the revenues and borrowing power to introduce schemes like NREGA (that provides 100 days of paid work per year to poor Indians).

·         The middle class expanded and many Indians became very wealthy

·         Educated youth had many work options and opportunities in India and overseas for finding rewarding employment. They could take their pick from the best Indian and foreign companies and choose to work in a range of companies rather than be restricted to the middle easter countries as the previous generation had to.

·         India globalized rapidly with an increasing amount foreign direct investment coming into India generating employment and Indian companies buying companies all oer the world.

·         Economic reforms continued incrementally driving up foreign trade making the earlier scarce foreign goods accessible to Indians. As an example India's trade with China increased from USD10 billion in 2004 to USD100billion in 2012.

·         The so called "brain drain" reversed partially with many talented Indian professionals choosing to return to India to start new companies

·         There has been an explosion in entrepreneurship with a large number of young Indians opting to start their own businesses as well as work in the social sector by starting NGOs. This resulted in many successful small, medium and large NEW businesses

·         Mobile telephone density and low rates have made phones accessible to most Indians

Changes for the worse:

·         Living conditions and quality of life for both the poor and not so poor have deteriorated considerably. Both the rich and the poor have to breathe the same polluted air and use the same choked infrastructure. Most Indian cities face the same challenges resulting from unplanned economic growth - traffic snarls, law enforcement breakdown.

·         Corruption has increase manifold and the the amounts involved have risen to billions. Politicians and bureaucrats have become brazen about corruption and thwart every attempt at introducing new laws or even enforcing current laws against corruption.

·         The average Indian has become more cynical and percentage of eligible voters who actually vote in urban areas has fallen under 50%

·         Most of the gains of the previous years have been frittered away in subsidies, bailouts and ruinous oil and gold imports

·         Reforms, governance and law making have come to a standstill

·         Inflation is out of control

Reference Internet