2010
India – views from the “man on the street”
So here I am – with my Blackberry – in India (along with one-sixth of everyone else in the world).
As a labor economist, one of my favorite ways to collect information on what’s happening wherever I might be is to ask taxi drivers. They are “in the know” – they interact with dozens of people every day from all walks of life, and they have time to talk. So from them you can get the well-informed view from the proverbial man on the street.
This is especially true here in India, where the scope of traffic jams is truly astonishing. So there’s plenty of time to talk, the drivers like to do so, and for the most part they speak pretty good English (which has major economic implications in and of itself).
So as I sit with them in the midst of polluted, congested streets in cities that have grown far too fast, I’ve been asking them all one simple question: is life better now than it used to be? Without hesitation, their answer has been YES. Then something of this sort invariably follows: “More people have jobs now, and wages are higher. Life is getting better…”
Despite all the congestion and pollution, people are optimistic. These problems – while very, very real – are, to some extent, symptoms of success. And there are some hopeful and creative efforts underway (especially here in Mumbai, where I am at the moment) to deal with the city’s most severe problems (slums and pollution).
So there’s a strong sense that India is on the rise, with benefits that are evident and tangible to a great many of its billion people. The country’s tourist slogan is INCREDIBLE INDIA.
Indeed.
Tagged India, today's world