French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrived in India recently; he followed Obama, the great! Russian President Dmitri Medvedev and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, it seems, are in queue to visit India.
Obama visit generated a rosy picture about India-US relationship. However if recent wikileak's exposé is anything to go by, it is not all that great. USA is pragmatic and wants India and its ever-expanding market of middle class.
Obama focused more on job creation; Sarkozy came in with businessmen to ink multi-billion dollar deals. Areva, a French state-owned firm, would help construct world's biggest nuclear power plant in Maharashtra.
With a GDP of $3.75 trillion (by purchasing power parity), India is already the world`s fourth largest economy. We have advantage of young work force and that would remain a crucial factor for many years.
Just remember the fact that most of Europe is aging. Same is the case with Japan.
Investment in infrastructure - housing, roads, bridges, power plants is the key. And the field is open for every country worth its might.
There is no need to be a spoil-sport. However we need to fix our governance. Urgently.
And more importantly we need to concentrate more on ties with Nepal, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, China, Sri Lanka, and last but not the least Pakistan.
Terrorism, Naxalism, J & K, Urban-Rural Divide, Agriculture are topics for home work! And like an intelligent student India needs to solve these problems!
