Is India a Bannana republic?

Good that you agree on one point, the other point is resilience.

Which is predominant in India, put them to task they will excel.

I appreciate the old leaders vision of “Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan,” manufacture on your own soil.

The best example of banana republic is Philippines. As vast readers and experts you’ll are, you’ll could be well versed with its economic and social situations.

India on the contrary is striving towards betterment with slow though sure steps. Because transformation what the urban sector is talking about does not come radically.

Governments are obviously a big part of global governance, but corporations are also taking an increasingly large part in global governance. Like TATA coming out with Budget automobiles and now housing schemes.

Once every Citizen understands the basic principle that growth is for everyone, and not for One alone, I think that will be the biggest Milestone for India.

Antie people, low economic activity......welfare infrastructure.......

My God!! How people are giving strain on their vocabularies!! Just to prove that "India is a Banana Republic".

Despite of all these jargons, fact will remain that, India is not a Banana Republic.

When put to the harshest test by time, India will prove much more resilient than China.

No...India is not a banana republic...the current rescission scenario proves it all...

That's right Mr. Jayant Vishnu, India has it's own steam to keep it afloat, where economies dependant on the US of A are in trouble

I completely agree with Mr.Jayant.Not only India has been the lesser affected country because of recession... it has still managed to have a constant growth even in times like these...This tells us about the huge potential of growth this country has and it is not dependent on other economies of the world for its growth.

The fate of ITI makes one very sad.  They did not even get a level playing field.  There was a time when Rahul Gandhi played a role in improving a branch/subsidiary of ITI which came under his constituency leaving the parent in the lurch. 

However, what is this debate of appreciation against the US dollar.  Where is it?  It is feared now as the reserve currency.  It is a flat currency.  The world is actually on the look out for a reserve currency and can not find it.  Indian rupee can not reach that level the way things stand.  A product can not take its place... I have an idea... Look at Collective Resources Value of each country and place them on a scale of 100.  Also arrive at individual resource indices.  All currencies of the respective countries should conform to the valuation pattern on these indices.  All resources have to be divided into suitable units worldwide.  Within the country and abroad, these resources are valued on the demand/supply/quality parametres.  We can attach weights on import/export of the resource. 

I have been working on this for the last two months.  I am considering this under a revolutionary proposal of a taxless regime in a country.  I can suggest sufficient revenue generation methods in lieu of taxes.  It can benefit and aply to  individuals, corporates, traders and Government/social organisations. 

I also have been thinking on the priorities/responsibilities of a Government.  The matter is quite complex and is taking lot of time and effort even to propose a debatable proposal.  May be a debate is in order 

I wish to congratulate Mathew for having given an intellectual dimension to the debate.  Not many debates on this platform conform to high intellectual standards.  He started a debate which was well participated by persons with impressive credentials.  He confirms that he has read every view.  He has not summed up now but seeks to give a direction to the debate.  All points where he implies that there is lot more to happen, are valid points.  I wish to throw a little more light :

1) Peole in India fall under three categories : 1. Those who can act right  2.  Those who are forced to act depending on circumstances they face and with a worry on outcome of their action, they only abstain from action.  3.  Those who do not bother about outcome of their action. 

2)  I would place the blame on the citizens who are not up to the mark 

a) I agree  we are lacking in our time sense.

b)  I dont believe in luck/previous birth outcome/religious beliefs etc.  but only in my personal capacity to achieve something in life. 

c) All I can say is that a human being should not suffer regret that he has wasted his life - when he is on his death bed.  I have seen enough of death and regret at the time of death.  I don't want to be in this category

d)Indian society looks at a person as either an achiever and non-achiever.  Achievement per se is relative to the knowledge levels of the person apprising the other person.  The sad part is that the majority in India have very low standards when it comes to achievement aims.  Because they are a majority, the minority, who have higher standards and are struggling to reach, are being confronted with more hurdles.  If a person with higher achievement aims just fades away because of social hurdles, it is a blot on the society

In spite of the above, India is a vibrant, potent, solid, intellectual, superpower.  When we look into the future, India will be the leader.  The term Banana Republic does not apply to India!!

Dear Mr Paul,

A few years back we had to hypothecate our gold reserves as our financial condition was awesome. Our foreign exchange reserve at present is over 250 billion dollars and we have already got back the gold that we had hypothecated earlier. Also, our unemployment rate  was under control in the immediate past. The business acumen dictates that we should keep our currency at present level, have some patience to see the present global downturn pass by,try to get back as much business in IT,BPO and KPO sectors as possible so that we are able to control the wave of current unemployment.

There are quite a few sectors of our economy that merits attention of our policy makers. It is for Indian public to choose their representatives and Government carefully so that our condition improves fast.

We need not be pessimistic. India's rate of economic growth is only lower than that of China at present and India has already been recognised as a force that will be helping the global economy to revive.

India is not a banana republic in any case.

Dear Mr. Singh,

I agree that a weak currency is advantageous for a country that export more and import less.   China is a copy cat of Japan in seizing the US market with agressive pricing and later inflating it.    

In India, we export our precious natural resources and human resource as raw materials at throw away price and import finished products and expatriates at sky high price and continue to be dependant on them. 

Look at our booming telecom industry. The foreign exchange outflow for its systems and networks and S/W will be astronomical. China had acquired the capability of manufacturing for their needs and for export while our telecom manufacturing industrial units like ITI are languishing. 

For example, look at how different are the value of the currencies of two adjacent countries, Malaysia and Indonesia, against dollar and how it happened.   What I mentioned is that, gross devaluation of local currency is sure sign of moving towards becoming a "Banana Republic".  My opinion is that, advantage of devaluating currency is a short sighted policy for short term gains and harmful in long term.

• S: (n) banana republic (a small country (especially in Central America) that is politically unstable and whose economy is dominated by foreign companies and depends on one export (such as bananas))

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This is the precise definition!! (courtesy wordnet.com)

Does one need more to understand that we are not an Africa (central) or a America (Central).... We are India!! And we are forging ahead!

I have read the summary of arguments made by Mr. Mathew.

He has rightly narrated the features of ideal relations between citizens and Government.

It makes a good reading. But all these knowledge pieces and arguments  should not be used to jump to the conclusion that "India is a Banana Republic".

During the discussions, the angle of minorities opression and leader's irresponsible statements is also added. India is a country that stands for freedom of speech. Some people also take disadvantage of this. But in the end, it should be seen , how much weightage Indian citizens give to these statements.

India, being a country, with diverse, multi-linguistic  culture has got it's own problems. We all are aware of this. But we should not bring out all these to this forum, just to prove that India is Banana Republic.

Dear Shri Upendra Singh,

If Indian economy is so strong, why our currency is getting devaluated against the US $, even when Rupeee has more purchasing power in terms of essential commodities, in comparison to US$ and inflation down to zero?

Banana replublic or not; the leaders of the politicial parties here have no time to worry about these things. They are trying hard to make the situation in India worse than that in Pakistan by propagating various fundamentalist ideologis. Worse I said because, it is heard that minority communities are not being persecuted there as much as in India.

Indian economy is in reasonablely sound health and is quite resilient. While the world's most powerful economy is struggling to find its feet to stand up to the looming depression and to save its economy from disaster, Indian economy has withstood the downturn remarkably well and there is every reason to believe that our economy will recover reasonably fast.

There is no doubt that our political leadership had been quite reckless in offering avoidable subsidies and loan waivers which have set  very bad precedence and are  injurious to the financial health of the nation. The downturn in global economy has definitely resulted in job losses, slowing exports and reduction in industrial production. But,there are subtle signs of recovery.

The financial annual results of IT companies have been mostly as per expectation in this  global downturn and their future projections are also cautious but not alarming. FDI in India this year has been satisfactory which shows the faith of global investors in our country. Most of the leading financial experts of developed nations are of the opinion that recovery in Indian economy will be quite fast and may be by next year.

The apprehension expressed by our friend, Mr Abraham Paul, that BJP/NDA will turn this country into a religious country are unfounded as we have a constitution which is based on secularism which even BJP does not contest. The fear psychosis has been spread by the oldest political party to divide the people and the country purely for vote considerations.

India can not be termed a Banana republic by any figment of imagination.

The views expressed by Mr Prakash Saitwal are quite in order and is appreciated.

To the strict definition, "Banana Republic", a country, which is politically unstable, dependent on limited agriculture and ruled by small, self-elected and corrupt clique.

1.Politically unstable?. India had constitution which provides solution in all types of political situations. There may be political crisis some times, but never unstability. Recently, countries like Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Thailand have witnesses political unstability. India can never be compared with them.

2.Limited agriculture? Even though, agriculture is main base of India, India maintains GDP growth of 8+, despite of agriculture growth of 3-4%. Arrive at your own conclusion.

3.Small, self-elected & corrupt clique? India forms Government thro' election process and not by self-elected group. As for corruption, as per world rating on corruption in public places, India stands on rank 73 (on par with China's position of 76) in the list of 180 nations. Eventhough, corruption is a problem India has to deal with, we can not say, India run by corrupt group.

Some of the recognised " Banana Republic" countries are Honduras, El Salvador, Belize etc..

Can you imagine India, besides these countries??

People, who term India as "Banana Republc" are making Grand Display of their ignorance  

Points highlighted by Sudeep are all correct.  Infiltration, corruption etc. are perennial head aches India has.  We have not developed our resources and are not finding proper value for what we have in abundance.  Our agricultural output is pathetic in comparison with land use.

I can not however say that India has not performed.  I am looking into the future where I see only India as the emerging star shining to the maximum.  I have pride as an Indian that we can grow in spite of the above. 

When we look into the scope for further growth, there is no limit - we can go beyond the sky into the universe 

India is the only economy to resist recession. After China, India is the only economy to grow at a consistent growth rate. India is the only country where the layoffs are not much compared to other countries. India is still a strong economy to handle recession in a growing manner. U can see USA economy it has crashed down with some banks bankrucy. But in India eventhough there is corruption, insolvency, poverty, other developmental costs, etc still it has the potential to grow. India is not growing because of the leaders it has. The leaders lack the vision of developed India. Only one person saw the future of India and he is Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, only he can change the destiny of India and no one else.

Both Mr. George and Mr. Sultan have adequately reasoned why we are not! We are definitely not a nation on single product economy. As stated we are still growing at a healthy rate of 6 - 7 % of the economy. We may have seen a major upward trend in IT, Telecom and HR exports recently doesnt indicate that thats the dependence sector for our economy.

We are not a BANANA republic at all!

Dear Mr. Mathew; after watching the current economic position of India, do you still think so? India is one among the very few countries where recession is having its minimum impact. India is still growing at a decent rate of 6-7% which is only due to the capacity of our strong economic and banking systems and policies. If you look at the stock market for last few weeks, India is the only market which is going up continousely..