A set of articles look at India’s present and future, and reflect on the past. Arun Shourie in Part 2 (Part 1) of his series writes:
The point is the successes we have encountered are not fortuitous. India has a score of strengths that others do not.
Cost is one of them. Nor is it a marginal advantage. Indeed, the difference between the cost at which we can provide services and many commodities of comparable quality and what those cost in the developed world is so vast that, should those firms and economies shut themselves out from our supplies, they are the ones who will be severely disadvantaged, they are the ones who will be making themselves un-competitive.
Why not look upon the opportunities positively? Why not institute courses in our law colleges on Germanys legal system, in the accounting systems of the US and thereby capture the markets there? Why not multiply the number of nurses we train, and have them learn Japanese? Why not enable private firms to open world-class universities in India, and thereby become educators to the world?
A couple articles by Shashi Tharoor talk about India’s early scientific heritage [via Atanu and Reuben]: Why Indian Science Scores and The things Indians knew first.
