Chatting Up About India: When a $10 Trillion Economy Won’t Make a Difference

“India assimilated the worst stupidities of the democratic system.” – Charlie Munger

It is August, the month of our Independence Day — a time to look at the state of the nation, or for me, its different facets. One of the ways to look at things — to develop a perspective on things — is by questioning all the information we have and challenging the axioms we are programmed with. Looking at the stage we are in as a country, I wonder whether the time has come to MODIFY the phrase “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”, especially in the context of taxpayers and honest citizens. For one, those words by JFK seem like a “perpetual one-sided idea” and therefore, not sustainable. It could be used as an excuse by politicians when their performance falls short compared to expectation and responsibility. I feel as taxpayers, we need to ask: “We do what we should do for our country, but is my country doing what it is expected to do for me and everyone else?”

Most of us seem happy to see many wonderful things around us as India marches towards its aims. At the same time, we are also concerned about much of what is happening around us. Thinking more deeply, I have come to conclude that the problems can be articulated and classified under these causal categories: