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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bruce L who wrote (154443)	12/20/2004 1:46:44 PM
From: arun gera	Respond to of 281500

>)STIFLING INDIAN GOVERNMENTAL BUREAUCRACY >I swear this is an absolutely true story; 6 other Americans will sign affidavits.> 10 million indians will sign such affidavits with you. Believe it or not, things are better now than before. That's why a snapshot analysis has its inaccuracies. Did you travel by the new domestic airlines - Jet Airways and Sahara? They are so much better than domestic flights in USA. Superb service. And they have been around for only 6 years. I forgot to mention this in my earlier post, but it is something that I observed - and experienced! - in my stay. Paperwork and uncaring, lazy clerks; my "funniest" experience follows: When our group of 15 arrived in Delhi, half of our luggage did not; we had to file reports which took 3 hours. The ownership of lost luggage was not random; each couple had one who had luggage and one who didn't. After the first hour, we asked the one clerk if there wasn't another clerk who could help out. There was: he had been standing there all along doing nothing 10 feet away! The worst was the next day after Air India told us it had recovered our luggage. They wouldn't just send it to us in our hotel; we had to go Air India's office outside the airport to file a claim so they could pay us ~$10 for our inconvenience! Then we spent 30 minutes filling out more forms so the security guards would allow us in the airport. After that, before other clerks would release our luggage, we were required to fill out more forms, sign a log, and pay them storage fees (~$1) for the luggage they had lost! Then fill out another form so Air India would refund the storage fees. Then we were given our lost luggage, but had to take it to 2 customs clerks, who made us fill out more forms; then before we could leave the airport, we had to carry the luggage to a station for it to be x-rayed; then back to customs, and from there to the security guards who could have, but did not, detain us because somewhere along the chain some clerk had lost our entrance pass! I swear this is an absolutely true story; 6 other Americans will sign affidavits.

To: Bruce L who wrote (154443)	12/20/2004 1:56:06 PM
From: arun gera	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

>In the early 1990s, India had little or no growth. It began to grow rapidly only after 1995 when the BJP party came to power.> India has had steady growth from 1980 to date. I recall reading an article that the 1980s had fast enough growth (will have to dig up the numbers). What happened in 1990 is that India ran out of foreign exchange reserves. It was the Congress Party under Narasimha Rao that decided to free the markets. Manmohan Singh was the finance minister who carried out the reforms. The consensus in Indian politicians (congress as well as BJP) is: Let the economy but take a percentage of everything. > The BJP party, espouses free-market principles,but BJP, unfortunately, is also the "Hindu-first" party. That creates sectarian problems which I'll discuss below. In 2004, the national elections were won by the Congress party - headed by the Italian-born Sonia Gandhi - which traditionally has been the party of Fabian socialism. Initially, the Indian stock market fell precipitiously, and only recovered when Sonia declined the PM job, and a pragmatist was appointed.> -Arun