The world awaits an Indian Product

Apple and Nintendos of the world create a feverish hype across world whenever they launch a product. Even Asus managed to get that sort of hype with their Eee PC. Now for the first time, an Indian Company has managed to capture the world's attention for their product launch.

Yes. It is the Tata's People's Car which is set to be unveiled in the next 20 days. This event should be remembered by all Indians. At least from now on, no one can claim that a world class product can not be created in India. Kudos to the Tatas.

Ramsey Clark - Some Insights on Globalization

I had just read about Ramsey Clark in the Hindu, through his interview with the newspaper. Several of his insights are really illuminative. some excerpts from this interview..

1. The sweep of globalisation, strongly associated with accepting U.S.-style capitalism, has spawned fresh inequities across the world. How do you perceive the phenomena?

It’s a terrible threat to civilisation, to humanity: not only a political threat, an obviously economic one, but at the most fundamental human level a threat to distinct cultures — the same technology, the same entertainment, the same fast foods so to speak. Based on economic power, it is pushing itself into different parts of the world. Consumerism and materialism have a power of their own and perhaps the greatest victim is culture that in a way represents the accumulative imagination, the pains, suffering, and history of the people

2. Globalisation is often perceived to be a mirror image of neo-colonialism. Would you agree?

The difference between the old imperialism and the new globalisation process is illustrated well in India. The country suffered the brutalities of foreign domination, the impoverishment that resulted from it. But until globalisation, if you look at the Indian movie industry for instance, its facial aspects remained Indian. Now, with the intensity of globalisation reaching into every little corner of life, even the comedians, the jokes, the rhythm of the music has started changing.

This really makes consumerism and materialism deadlier than armed occupation.

In the old colonialism you at least knew who your enemy was, you felt the knife on the back. You knew what had to be done if you wanted a better life. In the new consumerism you are captive and unaware. When the prisoner is unaware of his chains then it’s hopeless. If you look at globalisation you are completely captive in imagination and desires and this is where the greatest danger lies.

3. Why this fear of Islam? The U.S. government, its critics argue, is seized by paranoia. During the Cold War it was the threat of Communism. Now you say it is Islam.

As for Islam it is a faith that has served people well at a time when there seems to be no values, no principles, when economic power, greed and force prevail.

In the U.S. it has touched the lives of African-Americans who have had lives caught in street violence and are fighting for their lives. Suddenly Islam comes to them and they find peace, dignity and a faith they can believe in.

The fear is very real. The underlying value of globalisation is material. In this proliferation of unnecessary necessities, as Mark Twain said, you want to create more things, build more things, sell more things, accumulate more money. And the effect, the deadliest thing that can happen, is the enrichment of the rich and the greater impoverishment of the poor, in every country. Globally, the numbers of the poor are increasing fast, the concentration of wealth is greater. That is an unlivable position.

The U.S. government’s need for an enemy, its search for new enemies is really a way of uniting the country, covering its real motives and appealing for patriotism that is called the last refuge of the scoundrel. Patriotism is not the real motive. The real motive is domination and exploitation, and to get away with it you have to have a rallying ground, an enemy. That is where the military comes in. The U.S. spends more on arms than all other countries combined. While it is threatening countries with obliteration if they try to develop a nuclear weapon, it is developing a new generation of its own nuclear weapons, its own new rocketry that can hit any place in minutes.

Violence in Indian Schools

It's an uncanny coincidence that some events that happen in US after sometimes repeat itself in India. When a space vehicle fails in US, the next space vehicle launch in India does the same. Once a Pilot crashed his aircraft during an air show in US. The same thing happened in India that too within a short time.

Now, here comes a shooting incident that reminds us of the US incidents. The Gurgaon School incident tells us that the cultural environment across the globe is getting very similar. Our Media Diet is the same across the world now. Here is another sad incident :

Recently two class eleven kids in small-town West Bengal killed themselves. Saurav Das of Bishnupur High School had declared undying love for Mahima Jalan. The girl rejected him. The boy treated his friends and asked them to remember how badly he was treated if anything were to happen to him. Then he went home to die. Less than a week ago when Mahima returned to school, her friends started questioning her right to live. She too then committed suicide.

The IndiaDaily author blames it on the criminal negligence of the parents -

"The mainstream media are churning out endless clichés like increased violence on the television, increased consumerism and the decline of general morality as causes for the violence in kids.

There is another much simpler explanation. William Golding, a long time school master who won the Nobel Prize for Literature, in his twentieth century classic Lord of the Flies, had written of children turning violent and cannibalistic when left to themselves. He debunked the myth of the innocent child. His contention was that aggression is so innate that without adult support kids revert to pre-human times of animal predatorial behavior. The two kids who killed Tyagi just followed their instincts. Civilization failed to affect them. How is that billions who are watching violent movies are not being affected and only these two got touched by evil? They most probably had the seeds of evil in themselves to begin with. All this talk about outside influences affecting them is secondary and irrelevant."

Highflying Bridgeroom

In North India, Bridegrooms usual take a procession on a horse before arriving at the wedding hall, with great funfare. With growing affluence, some Indians are thinking big.. this farmer just boarded a chopper for his procession.. <link>

Infra spending to touch 9% of GDP to sustain growth rate

" Though investments in infrastructure have picked up significantly over the last few years, the pace of development has to accelerate if India is to meet its target of raising infrastructure investment to 9 per cent of GDP during the 11th plan (2007-12), said Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. “Investment in infrastructure is now no more a trickle but has become more of a stream,” Ahluwalia said while addressing the ongoing three-day India Economic Summit in the city today. “This investment now has to become a flow. Bottlenecks in infrastructure will be a critical constraint to growth in the future.”

The construction of the National Highways had accelerated India's economic growth. It also increased the value of the land/real estate along the road ways throughout India. The Infrastructure Construction Industry is the prime sector today in India. The Government is now announcing more investments, upto 9% of the GDP for the next five years. If this plan is implemented properly, would transform the Indian Landscape to that of the European / Chinese style.