Passionate About India

Since the story of India’s apocalyptic growth rate and its inclusion in the coveted and prestigious BRIC Report of Goldman Sachs became a daily affair, another issue that became equally regular, is the Great Indian Rural-Urban Divide. Though ironic, there has been reality in this evolving contrast, and much of it also has been substantiated by empirical studies across the nation. It is also true that this divide has not been brought about by default, but more of a manifestation of policy designs. This “intellectually safe and morally right” issue is becoming more ‘passé’, particularly after the Planning Commission stated that poverty is on a decline in rural India and the trend is reversing in the urban areas. To understand this conundrum, one doesn’t need to have access to the most confidential governmental files. A simple walk around the A-plus category metros of the newly crowned trillion dollar economy would suffice by itself. Whether it is Dharavi of Mumbai, the Jhuggi Jhopdi colo...