[drucat]

It's bizarre that the Indian subcontinent is now known for poverty, high inequality and the caste system, when its ancient civilizational counterpart seemed to be the opposite.

Genetically and linguistically, it's indisputable that the Indo-Aryan languages were transplants brought in by a small external group. This was followed by Islamic invasions and then British imperialism, followed by partition, and the recent ascendency of Hindu nationalism, yet the core people have been remarkably stable over thousands of years.

Online, at least, the levels of hatred and resentment seem off-the-charts. China, on the other hand seems to be growing by leaps-and-bounds, while India seems to be getting consumed by internal hatreds, and Pakistan seems to focus on the security threat posed by India, enriching a corrupt political and military elite at the expense of its own development.

I have to wonder if we'll ever find out the exact point where it all went wrong.

[dyauspitr]

Put away your tears. Amidst all the chaos India is doing remarkably well. If it can maintain its current growth rate for another 15-20 years it’s going to be a behemoth. They’ve been able to keep it going for 10-12 years so far so no reason to think that might not happen.

The amount of infrastructure being built right now is incredible. Thousands of miles of roads and railways per year, hundreds of new airports, many terawatthours of new energy generation, lots of skyscrapers, large scale urban metros, a dozen new planned cities, hundreds of millions of people worth of poverty alleviation, free healthcare for a large part of the population, rapidly growing GDP, a dying caste system in urban areas, women emancipation, dams, huge megaprojects, the beginnings of semiconductor manufacturing, rare earth mining, military exports etc. There are a lot of wins, it’s going to take time.

[satvikpendem]

That's what I've been hearing for the last decade or two but so far I haven't seen a huge change, especially compared to China.

[mlmonkey]

China had a ~25 year head start.

A lot of the work going on currently (rail electrification, dedicated freight corridors, highways, deep water ports, etc) will pay off in the future.

[SanjayMehta]

Where do you live? The city I live in was connected to the next city via a two lane road. Now it's a 6 lane expressway way with service roads on either side.

The infrastructure between cities, including roads and airports has been drastically improved in the last ten years.

The cities themselves are not improving at the same pace. Corruption, especially in the money making states like MH and KA, is still rampant.

[dyauspitr]

China is in its own league but a decade is roughly right. Dive into it a bit, there’s a lot of good going on and I’m a cynic.

[dwa3592]

what a weird comment. did you make this account to sway the conversation from the actual article?