money.cnn.com — If you read the book by Edward Luce "In Spite of the Gods", you would have to agree with this latest article. The statistics that India has in respect to the amount of people that live under poverty is staggering.
Feb 11, 2007 View in Crawl 4
jerryparidFeb 11, 2007
Lets not forget the caste system; it is still legal to abuse "untouchables" in any form without legal consequences.
argoffFeb 12, 2007
I wouldn't be so down on India, the fact that India's problems are out in the open like this is a very healthy sign. Even with all those problems, India is still on course to bring hundreds of millions of people on line into the world economy. That alone puts them in superpower territory. Unlike China, the economic freedoms raking of India has been improving almost every year, and they are a democracy (even though a chaotic one). Also, English is widely taught and spoken which gives them a competitive advantage. India also has huge amounts of natural resources, especially coal (for electricity production). Most importantly though in my humble opinion, is their cultural disposition for using gold as a means of savings and money - it makes the poor extremely resistant to economic chaos and fluctuations.