A Tale of Two Countries: Comparing India and Pakistan’s Economies

Zafar:

``Don’t you think that such a club has great potential to become a nexus for all the negative interactions each of these countries has with India, as opposed to being one which is balanced out by some constructive agendas``

So basically if we interact, we will be criticized as dominating coz we are big, and if we don`t we will be target of their internal agendas. Screwed if we do and screwed if we don`t. What a position to be in.

I wonder sometimes if there is any advantage to being Indian. Be it getting grren card, where we are always last in line along with the Phillipinos, or dating, where the gender ratio is heavily favorable to women, anything at all...

Everybody is taking the world bank numbers as gospel truth. Is the glass half empty or half full for India ?? Poverty in India might be as low as 26% and NOT 44% if the following report is to be believed :

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2002/06/deaton.htm

Also, for people interested in state wise differences in poverty in India as well as the poverty decline from 1987-2002 to assess impact of reforms, there is an excellent study at :

http://lnweb18.worldbank.org/sar/sa.nsf/Attachments/adp/$File/prices+poverty+55thRound+all.pdf

Usruly 32:

You are right that MNCs cannot raise per capita income. People who work for MNCs do raise your income.

Name one Chinese company that makes a product we have heard about. Other than M-11 missiles and nukes Pakistan has.

Most of the ``made in China`` stuff is made by foreign companies.

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India and Pakistan: Ignoring each other.

A dead white man wrote that a relationship is most antagonistic when its protagonists completely ignore each other.

Conversely, deep conflict always springs from the womb of a deep relationship. None hate each other more than two brothers who have decided to fight.

We forgive the transgressions of strangers. Of our brothers, we remember, we resent, and we are ready to kill for.

The deeper the affection, the greater the rage.

Take it from someone who knows both what affection is, and what rage is.

Reply Rsax #20

“...but we are going to two separate and very distinct destinations, even if we started in the same place... “

Yaar, even if we are determinedly looking in opposite directions we remain geographically (and perhaps culturally and emotionally) joined at the hip. One of us cannot go down without profoundly impacting the other, and one of us cannot rise without some sort of benefit flowing on to our neighbours. The Black Market knows this, it’s only our Govts which live in imaginary splendid isolation. (For example: the bright idea of dropping a nuclear bomb on a place whose breezes can reach us in less than an hour….)

Reply ERaman #21

“Efforts or the lack of them to bring the Bharat part of the country on par with the Indian part of the country.”

Agree, but Bharat is never too far away in India – every dhaba next to a polytechnic is Bharat benefitting from India, right? (And every student buying cheap chai and vada paon is India benefitting from Bharat.)

“Lopsided development in some respects - metros Vs. smaller centres-> The Govt needs to open the way for development in smaller centres condiering the fact that we are still not an open economy.”

This is urgent, IMO.

“Change cultural bias to wards professional education such as Engg. and Medicine , we need qualified people in just about every profession , not widgets produced by assembly line engg colleges.”

Yeah, but HOW to make this change? The economics of it was affecting social status attached to different jobs (tractor mechanics make more than school teachers in a village, for eg), but very very slowly. IT, of course, reinforces the older paradigm.

“And from the chaos emerges the news about the ``Diamond network`` that should connect the four corners of the country by the year 2007. Positive indeed.”

Tell me more, I’m sadly out of touch.

Regards

Reply Dost-mittar #28

“No Pakistani seems to be prepared to accept his/her country to be a Canada to India`s America.”

But WHYYYYYYYYYYYY? I have no desire to live in the US again, but I sometimes think that living in (French) Canada would be kind of fun. And India/Pakistan don’t have that weather ka lafda either, Pakistan would be definitely ahead.

Reply Shankar #24

“What I got out of this article is that both countries have failed to live up to their potential...& the biggest problem is that our mutual antagonism has hampered our potential & dragged us down...”

Shankar, our mutual antagonism has been a godsend to our politicians. The patriotism of the people has been (is being) manipulated to keep them from asking some difficult questions about management. (Just IMO.)

“But; hey, thats PRIMARILY Pakistan`s fault...I mean,.. that goes without saying....:)) “

Mashallah. I knew your heart was in the right place.

(Hey, I just thought of the Kanchi Shankaracharya’s comment on Hindus and Muslims in India….what about if we apply it to India and Pakistan…it works out to “India and Pakistan are like Ram and Lakshman”…wait for the screams….also begs the question, who plays Sita, Bharat, Dhritarashtra and, of course, Keikei…and what about the maid servant? No prizes for guessing who Ravana is…)

Regards

Reply Stuka #22

“I`m assuming you`re Zafar from down under.”

The same!

“On a serious note, you say that India and Pakistan have to travel together. Why? It would either be all of South Asia, the entire region, or it would be each country on it`s own.”

Pakistan and Nepal, or Pakistan and Bangladesh, can decide to ignore each other and carry on with life regardless. That is not an option for India – what happens with us affects our neighbours, what happens with them affects us. This is particularly true of Nepal and Bangladesh, given the very porous borders we have with them, but I think it’s also true of Sri Lanka and (DESPITE both our Govts’ best efforts) of Pakistan.

“I think India should at least in the short to medium term future, adopt an isolationist posture with regards to it`s immediate neighborhood, including withdrawal from SAARC. The lack of Indian interaction will give less ammo to play India as the bogey man.”

True. But without India there, what is the point of SAARC except as a club of countries which have to deal with India as a much larger neighbour? What else do they have in common? Don’t you think that such a club has great potential to become a nexus for all the negative interactions each of these countries has with India, as opposed to being one which is balanced out by some constructive agendas – agendas which, largely, are only implementable with India’s active participation.

Aho! jee, etc.

Arjunm

I fail to see the connection between your last post and the topic under discussion. And also I am not interested in finding out the point of view of some Mr. Naveed Ahmad. I want to know what you know that makes you so mad.

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arjunm

``I can understand your frustration at seeing the Indian economy doing great ...``

No you dont understand, because anti-Muslim hate and prejudice has clouded your thinking. I say this because none of my post so far is ``India-bad-Pak-good``. The topic under discussion, as started by this article, and the article itself, is a technical subject. I have raised technical questions, based on subject of (Macro) economics. If you can refute them, I will thank you for increasing my knowledge base, but I see that you can`t. So either you don`t know the subject or as I said, are too preoccupied in your prejudices, so you make noise. Probably, you think that by doing that you are serving your country or parivar or something.

re: bharaatvasi #34

...ouch, careful with urstruly...he`ll go jump into lake michigan if you keep that up... :))

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