To speak of India using generic terms is as nonsensical as speaking about the world as such. India offers striking differences between those who are extremely rich and poor, between traditional, transitional and modern patterns of life. It represents a large picture of different ethnicities, languages and religions. People in India are living in different historic times. If you're anthropologist or ethnologist, you don't need to go to the library to study past cultures; they are still unfolding before your eyes. To end up with the complexity of the Indian society, it has developed along very different climatic and land conditions. The image of dry soil desperately waiting for rain applies to some regions for some seasons. Other regions may look more like the Amazonian rain forests or the European Alps.

That's why India can't be described using popular stereotypes, because anyone will unavoidably put whole regions, ethnicities, religious groups and climatic zones outside the Indian character. Before going deeper into the specific opportunities that may arise of India as a destination for investors, we shall at least get the impression of the civilization variety that stands before our eyes.

Born out of the British colony some 57 years ago, India tries to build its national identity using as imagined national ancestors the irrigational communities that have existed for thousands of years along the rivers Indus and Ganges. Although no more than 30% claim Hindi as their mother tongue, it is the nationalist rhetoric, imported by colonial power, the country has always been one nation that waited to be awaken. This primordial claim hides the fact that many Indians aren't still ready to accept their Indian identity. There are still many illiterates, especially in the small villages and the illiteracy is a mortal enemy to any form of nationalism.

Indian society experiences unparalleled modernization. The traditional social and caste structures in many places are gone forever. The social mobility, the ability to change status, to rise or fall, has become widespread. The traditional social nets that prevented people from falling too low are gradually replaced by the market distribution of gains and losses. For the advanced societies this has become trivial; for many people in India this is still a cultural shock they still try to understand and to live with.

For the first time in history the population outside the upper castes begins looking at their bodies, trying to make them more fit for the more industrious way of life that the new urban civilization imposes. Whole generations of people have discovered the hygienic goods during the last 10-20 years. The sickness is no more God's punishment that has to be accepted without contradiction, it's the responsibility of the human being to be clean and in good health in order to produce more and to live better.

Making money is gradually becoming an obsession for hundreds of millions. You no longer have a constant position within the society, determined by birth; it's the money you have which determine who you are. This obsession is widespread from the top to the bottom of the social scale. The poorest among the poor in Kolkata, this museum of the world's deepest misery, hope to see their children getting richer. Their hopes are so big that we can only point at the social dangers that will come if they aren't met. If the social misery of millions in India is similar to that of Paris and London some 150 years ago, how can we be confident about the future social peace in this country? European modernization period had its antiheroes Stalin and Hitler. Who will be the Indian modernization antiheroes?

India and China both represent unique cases of billion-sized societies undergoing modernization, meaning destruction of the traditional way of life. If they succeed they will forever change the way the world economy is running. If they fail, the consequences for everyone will be disastrous. We can't expect to remain mere observers seeing Supernova stars blowing up close to our planet. India gradually becomes a country that captures our attention regardless of our economic and investment intentions.

India country profile:

• Area: 3,287,590 sq km
• Climate: varies from tropical monsoon in south to temperate in north
• Population: 1,065,070,607 (July 2004 est.)
• Population growth rate: 1.44% (2004 est.)
• Life expectancy at birth: 63.99 years
• Total fertility rate: 2.85 children born/woman (2004 est.)
• Ethnic groups: Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other 3% (2000)
• Religions: Hindu 81.3%, Muslim 12%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, other groups including Buddhist, Jain, Parsi 2.5% (2000)
• Languages: English is the most important language for national, political, and commercial communication; Hindi spoken by 30% of the people; 14 other official languages.
• Literacy: 59.5%
• GDP per capita: purchasing power parity $2,900 (2003 est.)
• Population below poverty line: 25% (2002 est.)
• Labor force by occupation: agriculture 60%, services 23%, industry 17% (1999)
• Main trading partners: US, China, EU countries.
• Internet users: 18.481 million (2003)

(Source: CIA - The World Factbook 2004)

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See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of India.