You automatically equal "mainstream media" as western media, in the context of our dialogue, I was referring to getting information from the mass media like "Times of India" , "Hindu" or alike, as oppose to personal "in depth research".
Like I said the data from structural changes in deep behind the scenes (but extremely crucial) things like education, health etc take much more than 2 years to come out...there is generally about a 4 - 5 year lag for such indices in most cases past data that is macro in nature (like literacy rate, life expectancy etc) which tend to have a lag of around 2 years (as seen in say the HDI by the UN).
The media tends to focus on numbers that come out way more frequently that can then be "touted" as an example of something with little to no context. GDP growth etc.
The "window dressing" part of my comment was meant to direct to countless "xyz India" slogans we have heard so very often in Indian's mass media since Modi took the office, and I realized that it could be offensive to die-hard Modi supports like yourself. I apologize if it was. The reason that I brought this up is that we yet to hear "Education India" in Indian mainstream media among many "xxx India", and that might indicate Modi administration have not yet taken education reform as the top priority, at least from a foreign observer point of view. For me, it is much more fundamental and meaningful reform than any of those those "xyz India" that may or may not follow through. Hence, the "window dressing" comment.
Actually I am far from a die hard Modi supporter. You just haven't stumbled across the things I feel he is underperforming in.
But thats ok given you are not an Indian so you can generically lump things across the board with few specifics. Just dont expect it to be a very constructive discussion. There is really no need to apologise at all. It is still an interaction about 100 times more qualitative than the average interaction on this forum.
If you want to learn whats been done past the media labelling and assortment of short "chest thumping" and severe self-critical articles (with little in the middle)....again the question format is the best approach....rather than also participating in the blanket labeling strategy....that all modi govt labelling is just hot air and chest thumping, nothing is being done...because the indian media generally sucks and overinflates etc etc.
I understand that you need to fix the leaking bucket before pouring in new water, but wan't preventing corruption a major advantage of a democratic system over dictatorship system? Or Indian wan't a true democratic society until 2014? Why you can't take care both at the same time? You know once you delay education for a few years, you could delay a whole generation of young people.
India is not a true democratic society before and it is not so right now either. It is a very slow process to bring true democracy and it was foolhardy for Nehru to attempt to bring it in when he did. But that is another story altogether.
Now its about what we have inherited, working with it and improving it. But "it" is not a true democracy, not even close.
The intermixing of corruption is yet another story as well. That happens with any system of government. Democracy has ideals....just like communism has ideals and religion has ideals. Ideals mean little to me....pragmatic reality means a lot more.
If China's experience in early 80's of any reference value to India, Mr. Deng cut the military budget and kept it at absolutely minimum for more than 10 years despite of the strong opposition from the military. The money saved was then poured into the infrastructure building, education, social and market reform. Without his very unpopular decision, Chinese economy would not have taken the trajectory of last 30 years, and today's China could be very different.
I admire Deng and what he did and there is a lot India can learn from China during that period. I am also a fan of keeping the military budget minimal, but the thing is China has no equivalent of Pakistan in India's case....and neither is Indian spending ridiculously high as % of GDP (And the military bureaucracy also suffers from the unspent funds phenomenon as
@Abingdonboy will tell you). Its what...2.0 - 2.5% of GDP for India.
So again I would say the bureaucratic reforms must be allowed to take place in a major way before large sized changes of spending components can be done....for them to have any real effect on the ground anyway.
