But this week, about 200-odd artists and artisans have descended on the Big Apple to give New Yorkers a real-life experience of Indian art and culture, under the aegis of the CII-Government of India-sponsored extravaganza called the ‘Incredible India@60’ campaign.

At Bryant Park, under a huge model of the Taj Mahal several hundred New Yorkers and tourists braved a rather sharp, sunny day on Monday to watch popular Bollywood dance numbers such as the sizzling Bipasha Basu song from Omkara ‘zuba pey lagaa lagaa rey namak isque ka’ or the Amitabh-cum-Shah Rukh Khan peppy number ‘khai kar paan banaraswala’.

As people tapped their feet, whistled and swung to the dances choreographed by Saroj Khan, who was personally there to take the several rounds of applause, one wondered what the scene would have been like if the original stars, such as SRK or Bipasha had been present at the spot!

But the Tourism Ministry, under the supervision of Ms Ambika Soni, had pulled out all the stops to invite Americans to “Experience India” through such events as well as hoardings and banners that adorned prominent spots at Times Square, including the Nasdaq edifice. Ensnared in the Ram Sethu controversy back home, thanks to the insensitive affidavit filed by the ASI in the court, Ms Soni decided to skip this extravaganza, but everybody here is talking about how she was the real driving force behind all the colour, grace and elegance of the ‘Incredible India’ campaign. Also in the vicinity, artisans and craftspersons from Bengal, the North-East and Jammu and Kashmir displayed colourfully woven and embroidered shawls and stoles, dupattas, cushion covers, etc., which were snapped up by enthralled Americans.

Elsewhere, in conference rooms the cream of India’s corporate world, including Infosys’ Nandan Nilekani and Bharti Enterprises’ Sunil Mittal, apart from the Commerce and Industry Minister, Mr Kamal Nath, talked about the vibrant Indian economy growing at a robust 9 per cent. When such corporate czars talk about the “unleashing of entrepreneurial energy and initiative”, everybody listens because both are examples of people who have not inherited corporate kingdoms but created them.

They are also quintessential representatives of the economic growth of a new and resurgent India on the back of technology — a language the most developed nation in the world understands, respects and sometimes even resents as it takes away some of its jobs vis-À-vis outsourcing.

In New York, corporate and political leaders invited the entire world to seriously engage with India, which was ready to take its place in the sun after 60 years of Independence and 16 years of economic reforms. The usual promos were offered — the largest young population of the world, rising incomes providing the mouth-watering promise of a booming consumer market that was set to explode in the next 10-12 years, consistent economic growth, skilled manpower and laws that work, providing exciting investment opportunities and profitability.

But it was good to note that along with the promises and the bullish voices on India’s achievements so far and its great potential, the CII as well as the ministers have not lost sight of the ‘other India’. Addressing a meeting of overseas Indians and inviting them to “seriously engage” with India in initiatives that went beyond the “remittance matrix”, both Mr Kamal Nath and Mr Sunil Mittal sombrely acknowledged the presence in the same India of 300 million people who survived at or below mere subsistence levels.

While the Minister admitted the “complexities” of economic and political management of a country with such a large number of poor people, Mr Mittal underlined the need for educating and providing special skill-sets to the 300 million young Indians in the 6-16 age group who would, in the next 10 years, move into the 16-26 age group and aspire for the kind of employment that the well-educated and well-off urban Indian young were managing to get.

At a panel discussion organised jointly by the Yale University and the CII, and moderated by its president Richard C. Levin, panelists such as Mr Nilekani, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, Roopa Purushotam, Director, Future Capital Research and co-author of the Goldman Sachs BRIC report, historian and writer Ramachandra Guha, Prof T.N.Srinivasan, the Samuel C. Park, Jr, Professor of Economics at Yale Univeristy, and Ernesto Zedillo, the former President of Mexico and Director, Yale Centre for the study of Globalisation, debated the weighty topic “India 2050: A grand strategy for India Rising”.

Against the bullish voices of Mr Nilekani and Mr Friedman, known to be an admirer of India, both Mr Guha and Prof Srinivasan sketched the grim realities that stared India in the face. The former said that a “much bigger story than the unleashing of entrepreneurial energy was that for 60 years we’ve survived as a multi-cultural and multi-religious society despite several forecasts of doom” led by a person such as Winston Churchill.

Among the threats that could derail India were the extremism of the Right, which wanted to convert India into a “Hindu Pakistan”, as well as extremism of the Left. Globalisation, he pointed out, had two sides; “the benign one”, as represented by the success of organisations such as Infosys, and the negative one, represented by the exploitation and displacement of tribals.

In a grim reminder of the reality, Mr Guha described how “a civil war is being played out in the heart of India, where the victims of globalisation have become cannon fodder for Maoist revolutionaries” who had captured 50 districts of India.

Mr Friedman eloquently explained how “India has become a miracle for me”, and how during his several visits to Iraq he kept wondering “what would happen if India was like Iraq”. Unfortunately, Mr Kamal Nath’s press conference and the bundling of journalists to it prevented one from asking him about this very puzzling comparison and, more important, who was responsible for the present chaos in Iraq.

But he soon reverted to a more logical comparison between India and China, and raised a relevant concern on the dwindling interest in art and literature, as most Indians scrambled for engineering degrees.

Prof Srinivasan regretted that the vision of the “founding fathers and mothers” for a more just and equitable India where there was development and opportunities for all citizens remained a distant dream. He also raised questions about the way in which several hundred economic zones were attempted to be created at one go, and said there were huge concerns on mass poverty; India might have got political democracy but was yet to enforce “social democracy”, he said.

Mr Zedillo added that despite India’s impressive economic growth, the areas of concern that remained related to the continuing existence of “over-regulation”, infrastructure and the fact that despite a high rate of economic growth, the employment generated remained a modest figure.

As long as the reality of India and the huge income and social disparities are not lost sight of, one can comfortably participate and celebrate at the arrival of India on the global platform as a confident and credible nation.

More Stories on : Events | Economy

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page