Tue 28 Feb 2006
Incredible no? Mallika Sherawat, with Jackie Chan
[Got a minute? take part in our poll on India]
India is in, India is cool, India is the new China - investors are literally scrambling over each other to get there.
And it’s not just investors. From Bush to Will Smith, everyone’s visiting India.
So how did India get to achieve what we, Sri Lanka, can only dream of?
- By actively and agressively courting foreign tourism, and investment via the Incredible India campaign
- By having a sense of national pride: - it isn’t just a campaign. Indians genuinely are proud of their nation. They believe in Jai Hind - Sure, we get patriotic too - about booze. Even then, only if its imported. In our defenise, its hard to have national pride when you live in a country famous for having the largest number of drunkards and suicides (Ed: before you label me unpatriotic, please refer the original article and see who made that particular quote)
- By having a booming economy, an educated workforce, and an infrastructure (oh, sure, we have those…)
- By becoming the talk of Davos.
“There is no better case that illustrates what currently pre-occupies Sri Lanka and our big neighbour India than the way the two countries approached the five-day 2005 World Economic Form that was concluded Sunday January 29 in Davos Switzerland. India used the summit to showcase its economic and development achievements and to advertise its status as a rapidly emerging global economic power. In contrast Sri Lanka paid hardly any attention to the event. The Sri Lankan media almost ignored Davos. The country, as usual, was preoccupied with war and politics. ” From Kandy News
“As you got off the plane in Zurich, there were large billboards extolling INCREDIBLE INDIA. Davos itself was plastered with signs. WORLD’S FASTEST GROWING FREE MARKET DEMOCRACY! proclaimed the town’s buses. When you got to your room, you found an iPod Shuffle loaded with Bollywood songs, and a pashmina shawl, gifts from the Indian delegation. When you entered the meeting rooms, you were likely to hear an Indian voice, one of the dozens of CEOs of world-class Indian companies. And then there were the government officials, India’s “Dream Team,” all intelligent and articulate, and all selling their country” - newsweek magazine
So, hats off to India, for achieving what we, here in Sri Lanka, can only dream of.
Why, the way things are going, pretty soon our local TV channels will be full of Bollywood Music. Oh wait. They already are.
While we spend all our time arguing about politics, and trying to solve our so called economic ethnic crisis, our neighbors are busy overtaking us.
Related: My two lives: a fascinating article on what it is like to Indian, in America.
[Ed: it’s quite possible I’m entirely wrong about this article: see this excellent comment by sittingnut]
[Ed: India is, also someones pet (memo to w: what were you thinking?)]