Indian Politics

If there is any one area where India has been let down in a big way, it has been politicians who ruled this country post independence. Winston Churchill once said “If the British left, India will fall back quite rapidly through the centuries into the barbarism and privations of the Middle Ages". Looking back on the past 58 years of independence seems like Churchill was not quite far off from the reality we see today.

Indian Business

I think for Indian Business there have been 2 eras. The License Raj era before 1991 and the Globalization and Liberalization era post 1991. The first I would say to a large extent the legacy of Nehru and the second a gift from our then Finance minister and current Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. India may have attained freedom on 15th Aug, 1947 but Indian Business became truly free to a great extent only after 1991. Before 1991 we were proud when any Foreign Multinational took a stake in an Indian firm, today in 2006 we see many Indian companies in IT, Pharmaceuticals, Steel just to give a few examples, taking over companies in the US and Europe. Information Technology has been instrumental in the rise of India on the international scene and the same is now happening in new areas like Bio Technology where Women Entrepreneurs like Kiran Muzumdar Shaw are showing the way forward to India as well as Indian Women.

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The English Advantage

Since I was born after Indian Independence in 1947, I don’t know how much we suffered or gained from 200 years of British Rule in India. But one thing we should be thankful for to Britain is the gift of English Language. And I think it’s a tribute to Indian Culture and Civilization that we have always been open to accept and adapt to new languages and new cultures. This I believe will be one of the key to success in the global scenario. Even with our heavy Indian accents most Indians are quite fluent in English which has allowed us to gain access to business and work in various parts of the world and has allowed us to become the preferred destination for Outsourcing of various kinds of work. Being an IT professional who deals with Customers from various Countries in the world, I can say quite safely that with all the skills in various other subjects that I learned in school and college, the English language is one subject which has allowed me to market my various skills to Customers all over the world. If it had not been for English I would have been limited to working only within India.

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