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A 'Superpower' That Couldn’t Keep the Lights On

Cheetah786

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First it was corruption of staggering proportions, then an ill-conceived tax to claw back capital gains from foreign companies; that was followed by slowing growth and a swooning rupee. Now a power blackout in India has left 700 million people without electricity.

India has fallen a long way from 2009 when Hillary Clinton, on a visit to New Delhi, declared unequivocally that “India is not just a regional power, but a global power.”

India’s policymakers have been fixated with pursuing major strategic ambitions with the hopes of one day becoming a superpower. The country has tripled its defense expenditure over the last decade to become one of the top-ten military spenders. It has been lobbying for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council and it has been trying to raise its profile globally through public diplomacy and events such as the Commonwealth Games.

In 2010, the London School of Economics argued in a report that despite India’s impressive rise, the country shouldn’t get carried away and pursue global ambitions, rather it should focus on solving its deep socio-economic problems.

“The bright lights of great power diplomacy may serve only to distract from the pressing requirements of India’s domestic development, which to date has neither locked in its successes nor laid out a sustainable path for the future,” the report said.

Yet, the government has failed to pursue economic reforms and has flip-flopped on key policies such as letting foreign supermarket chains enter the country. That has hurt sentiment among foreign investors, who for many years were willing to fund India’s large trade deficit.

As a result, India’s benchmark Sensex Index has fallen nearly 18 percent from its peak in November 2010, and over the past year the rupee [INR=X 55.47 -0.08 (-0.14%) ] has slumped 25 percent against the dollar. Growth slowed to 5.3 percent in the January to March quarter, the slowest pace in nine years and a far cry from the 9 percent growth rates in recent years.

Creaking Infrastructure

India’s government says the country needs $1 trillion in infrastructure investments by 2017 to fix the dismal state of its roads, ports and power supplies. The government was hoping the private sector would provide most of this funding, but the head of India’s Planning Commission admitted just this month that the country won’t be able to meet the $1 trillion target.

India’s power sector problems have also been well documented. Several major private firms which began building large power plants in recent years have been forced to abandon or delay them because of government-set electricity rates that no longer make sense in the face of higher fuel costs.

Reliance Power, for example, has decided to delay a $3.2 billion coal-fired project in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. Unless India’s government steps in and raises the rates these power companies can charge, the power crisis is likely to worsen.

The growth outlook has darkened so much that Ruchir Sharma, the head of emerging markets at Morgan Stanley and the author of a new book called Breakout Nations, sees only a 50 percent possibility of India regaining its fast growth trajectory.

India’s Prime Minister seemed to recognize the urgency when he took over the finance minister’s post last month and assured investors he would pursue reforms.

But Taimur Baig, chief economist at Deutsche Bank told CNBC earlier this month: “the rhetoric needs to be followed with concrete actions expeditiously as investors are unlikely to give policy makers a prolonged period of benefit of doubt.”

Without those urgent reforms, India may finally have to turn the lights off on its lofty ambitions of superpower status.

A 'Superpower' That Couldn
 
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A breath of fresh air. Hmmmm smells gooood :)

I'll post a comment from the quoted link:

Quote:
Not only is the country one of the most corrupt in the world, it's tax collection policies are ridiculous. For one thing if you bribe the income tax authorities you can get away with cheating to an extent that people in the West will get shocked. Secondly, 95% of small business ventures (ma/pa stores) do not report their income correctly nor do they collect sales tax that is due from buyers. It is a win-win situation for the consumer and the seller - the seller doesn't pay income tax that is owed by them and the buyer saves by not paying sales tax. What a system!!

:)
 
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usa also faced power grid failures. During katrina time we had no power for 4 days. Only one plug worked after two days. We all friends used to go to that apartment to cook food. If power is not there we can live in india people know what to do when there is no power like having ups etc. But in countries like USA , it is extreme climate and there is no backup.
 
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One black out and people are questioning about everything in India.

Get a life guys, develop your own super computer, space program and vehicle, send orbital to moon, build own SSBNs and ACC, ICBM, ABM, a robust IT industry etc....then come and question us.

Only Chinese can come and make fun of us....for rest, come to our level then we will talk.
 
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One black out and people are questioning about everything in India.

Get a life guys, develop your own super computer, space program and vehicle, send orbital to moon, build own SSBNs and ACC, ICBM, ABM, a robust IT industry etc....then come and question us.

Only Chinese can come and make fun of us....for rest, come to our level then we will talk.

You called? :cheesy:
 
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Unbelieveable how pakistanis enjoy problems in india. pakistan's total production is 8000mw, a shortfall of 50%. On the other hand india shortfall is only 7%. India currently has over 80000Mw of power plants under cons, with a total investment of bigger than pakistan's ecnonmy. Just because one day of cut, doesn't change the fact that india is rising ahead, with massive power addition.

Shame to pakistan, its people and gop.
 
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usa also faced power grid failures. During katrina time we had no power for 4 days. Only one plug worked after two days. We all friends used to go to that apartment to cook food. If power is not there we can live in india people know what to do when there is no power like having ups etc. But in countries like USA , it is extreme climate and there is no backup.

Please move back to India to live with the back-ups.

In due course, as it seems, in her dream to become a very powerful country, tripled the defence expenditure and became one of the ten largest defence spenders in the world. The current leadership forgot that the last leadership which led India followed the slogan of shining India and lost.

What Indians also fail to understand that they have massive internal security problems as well. Their security forces are allowed to carryout massive human right violations and get away with these.

With their economy dying down to almost Hindu growth level coupled with massive internal problems, the dream of becoming a big power are likely to remain dreams only.

I honestly support you in this venture of remaining a big country in the region without becoming a big power. :)
 
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One black out and people are questioning about everything in India.

Get a life guys, develop your own super computer, space program and vehicle, send orbital to moon, build own SSBNs and ACC, ICBM, ABM, a robust IT industry etc....then come and question us.

Only Chinese can come and make fun of us....for rest, come to our level then we will talk.

Sir, most of these things run on electricity. :)
 
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Please move back to India to live with the back-ups.

In due course, as it seems, in her dream to become a very powerful country, tripled the defence expenditure and became one of the ten largest defence spenders in the world. The current leadership forgot that the last leadership which led India followed the slogan of shining India and lost.

What Indians also fail to understand that they have massive internal security problems as well. Their security forces are allowed to carryout massive human right violations and get away with these.

With their economy dying down to almost Hindu growth level coupled with massive internal problems, the dream of becoming a big power are likely to remain dreams only.

I honestly support you in this venture of remaining a big country in the region without becoming a big power. :)

loll indian growth rate falling to 6.5, and Pakistanis start jumping. It will come back up soon. Anyways retartds have noo life. :wave:
 
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