04-04 The Future

Any serious talk about the future of India is about how such a decentralized and inefficient nation can ever be a world power. Just being a nation with the fastest growing population doesn’t ensure anything.
Following the political successes of the current Prime Minister Narendra Modi gives us hope for the future. India must become more efficient like China and more centralized like China. And that is the direction Modi is trying to take his country.
During my active years with the International Small Business Congress, we were continually examining what is called the black economy in the various nations of the world.
Nations with a large black economy or a large part of their economy that is unrecorded are nations that are poorly governed, and nations in which there is very little pubic trust.
And India has been one of those nations. Easier to operate underground than pay all the bribes to get the necessary permits to do business. If there was ever a nation that needed to deregulate, it is India.
India’s so-called democracy, in many ways, is a measurement of its many tribes, religions and gods. China is much easier to govern because it does not have so many ethnic groups. Mostly Han Chinese. In India, it’s a continuous challenge to get the Hindus, Sikhs, Muslims and Christians on the same page singing the same tune.
I have participated in several public initiatives to bring our own nation together. Canada has federal-provincial issues. Canada is multi-cultural. Canada wants to encourage foreign investment. And Canada wants to have everyone share a common vision of who we are.
It is the same in India. Only it is a more difficult challenge when you are dealing with over a billion people.
Initiatives to strengthen the role of the central government, usually include increases in military spending. More good news out of India, with a new military alliance with the Philippines, that keep that nation from falling into the Chinese orbit.
India’s only real enemy is Pakistan which is almost a subservient state of China. So, this means India strengthening military ties with the US, Japan and Australia.
And of special interest is India maintaining close relations with Russia. Russia, India and the US should be allies.
I agree with President Trump who wants to keep good relations with Russia. Trump wanting to build a Trump tower in Moscow at some point in the future is a side show. Russia interfering in US elections is a side show. US interference in the politics of other nations is part of their history. They even invaded Grenada.
India strengthening its military and maintaining good relations with the US and Russia is real politics.