[mehuln]

Funnily enough, after reading the first paragraph, it still sounds like a recent article even though it has been years. In fact, the country probably has taken two steps back under Manmohan Singh.

To a certain extent, even if the article was recent, it's not a surprise. Democracies are SLOW and India is still a social democracy trying to be a capitalistic democracy - so even slower.

Democracies move fast only during a crisis. Otherwise, they are inherently slow.

Even in the US, a majority of top issues have not changed much since the 90s. Politicians have been debating pretty much the same thing without much progress...

[gnufied]

Factually if we take each point in the Article, a lot has changed and yet not enough:

1. You can get cross country SIM card easily in India today.

2. Taxes for IT business is uniform (no incentive for export per se)

3. Indian IT industry did just fine during bubble burst so Author's cyncism was bit misplaced.

4. Indian aviation industry is fierecly competitive. Today no one worries about future of Air India not because Air India has become good but there is enough competition.

5. I would argue that a lot has been done to ease Foreign investment since Article was written. Why just yesterday new measures were announced (http://indianexpress.com/article/explained/no-mat-on-fii-why...)

[a9entroy]

Sim cards charge heavily for "roaming" in other states. A sim card still truly belongs to only one state.

Despite the tax reform, doing any business in India is still a hassle nevertheless.

Indian aviation industry may be competitive, but can a middle-class family really afford an airplane ticket ? No. They are only afforded the option of a second class train ticket which have toilets worse than the one shown in Trainspotting. And I haven't even touched the topic of trains being overcrowded. Seriously, who thought letting any number of people with a ticket on the train was a good idea ?

[mehuln]

The Raj - or the consequence of The Raj are still ubiquitous. They were moving in right direction with BJP in charge (and talking about capitalism only not other issues). Last 10 years of Congress has stifled lot of the progress that Narshima Rao's Gov started.