By Liz Mathew
New York, Sep 25 (IANS) Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his colleagues may be facing flak from the Left parties back home, but the country’s new face – young and resurgent – is a matter of pride for NRIs living outside the country and particularly in this bustling US city.
“You will no longer have to sell the India brand. India is already on the market,” remarked by Sam Kannappan, president of Houston-based ABI Enterprise that specialises in wastewater treatment.
Many Indian Americans gathered here to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Indian independence echoed his comment.
Complementing the four-day Incredible India@60 event being held here is the two-day Pravasi Bharatiya Divas New York being conducted over two days.
Participants at the two events proudly said that India was no longer seen as the land of snake charmers and one where only woes and miseries prevailed.
“Now, when there is an Indian function, the locals do not look at it a programme of an obscure country. I have seen people increasingly getting interested in Indian affairs,” Kannappan maintained.
“It was so wonderful to see the Indian posters when I was driving here,” said Vedanta Capital chairman Parag Saxena.
“There is a lot of change in the people’s attitude towards India. Everyone talks about the fast growing economy,” Saxena told IANS.
Jack Thekkekkara, a garment exporter who has been in New York for the last three decades, agreed.
“There have been a lot of advancements. For instance, there are numerous direct flights from India to New York. Previously, I never used to think of flying Air India. Now I think I should check them out. I heard they are good,” he maintained.
“People here are more open to India now,” he added.
The difference was very visible in conference halls where political bigwigs and business leaders discussed India’s development and how the process could be taken forward.
What was significant was the response of the audiences. Instead of complaining about red tape or lawlessness, most of them wanted to know how they could invest in India.
However, none of them hid their concern about the still-miles-to-go infrastructure development, the too-little investment in education and health and the need for sustaining growth and development.
“India’s growth is in its infancy. It will take some 50 years to be a completely developed country. What we need to do is to focus on infrastructure development and common value added manufacturing in IT and Telecom,” Saxena pointed out.
“If we continue to build infrastructure, growth will accelerate,” he added.
Ramalinga Raju, founder chairman of the Satyam Computers Services Ltd also told IANS: “India still has miles to go in creating a system for effective implementation of the health and education programme in the country.”
Raju, the driving force behind India’s Emergency Management Research Institute (EMRI), said the country should introduce new technologies like telemedicine to improve healthcare delivery in rural areas.
EMRI has been instituted to provide emergency response services across India in line with 911 and other such services in the US.
Knowledge Commission chairman Sam Pitroda felt the time had come for shifting the focus of development to the districts.
“The real development now should take place in districts, not in Delhi,” he said.
Commerce Minister Kamal Nath had a different take on this.
“We have problems because what we are doing is new to India. The first part of the investment was in trade and industry and now we are investing in governance,” he explained.
What the country needs now, according to eminent management guru C.K. Prahlad, is “national inspiration to bind India like the ‘poorna swaraj’ (total freedom) call in 1939 (at the height of the independence struggle).”