Introduction
Being a country with diverse cultures, religions and languages, it becomes quite a hard task to maintain order, especially as terrorist-related tensions have been on a surge. On the one hand, there are threats from Pakistan on the Northern border, while Maoist rebels create havoc on the eastern front. The terrorist gunfire attack on the city of Mumbai has sent shockwaves throughout the country and has exposed its obviously weak security situation. As always, the government held certain ministers as scapegoats and removed them from power as sign of action before the forthcoming elections. However, the political tension between neighboring countries has risen and cross-border security has not improved significantly.
Main Text
Although the media has started to paint a picture of India making huge strides of progress, the majority of Indian citizens are literally left in the dark without electricity in small villages. While a minuscule group of millionaires consisting of politicians and industrialists have been invincible, there is another emerging segment of college-educated urban youth that has been ruling the roost in the information technology and IT-enabled services sector. The educational system in India has been almost the same since the British colonial times and most students are not ready to serve in a professional environment; the lack of vocational training has certainly helped its cause.
As the IT sector has been contributing to the recent rise in gross domestic product (GDP), the majority of poor rural Indians have nothing to celebrate. Since their lives depend on agriculture, a bad monsoon season could cause them more pain and terrorist threats are the least of their troubles. Farmer suicides owing to bad yields and no loans have taken up have lives than any terrorist attack. The absence of significant social welfare programs and an abundance of bureaucracy as well as corruption have ensured that the rift between the poor and the elite has been constantly expanding. It is staggering to learn almost half the country lives in poverty; the high infant mortality rates and number of malnourished children it bears is a saddening statistic for a rapidly developing country. Since most of the Indians are below 25 years of age, grooming the youth intellectually in a healthy environment is the primary issue the government has to focus on.
Conclusion
Being a part of the global economy, the recession in America has certainly slowed down economic progress and raised inflation in India. The labor laws have to be restructured to encourage industries to open up large-scale operations. The infrastructure has to improve and comply with global standards to encourage more foreign investment. The population explosion in cities has to be managed by moving trade operations to smaller cities and towns as well. If India has to develop any further and be recognized in the world arena as a progressed country, it has a long way to go in grassroots level issues such as healthcare, education, electricity and providing clean drinking water. Unless these basic amenities are provided to every Indian citizen, only a select group will flourish and the rest of the country will remain helpless, continuing the trend of inconsistent progress.
Reference
Astill, J. (2008). An elephant, not a tiger. The Economist. Web.