More than ten years ago India decided to open its economy and ever since it has shown one of the best economic performances in the world. This economic growth however cannot hide several facts, some of which are the following: India still remains a poor country in desperate need of modernization; some social factors that made this poor country remarkably stable politically since its independence begin playing negative role in its chances for quick modernization; political focus on some modernization projects leaves in disorder many other projects that also need constant care. Without disapproving anything from what we have already stated about this country*, it seems that India has so far passed through the easiest, not the hardest section of its program of modernization.

India cannot modernize without sustainable and long economic development. In many provinces this process already hits roadblocks of social misunderstanding and many vested interests. Some of them represent local competition to foreign capitals. In this case industrial join ventures have proven to be a good solution. Another kind of problems comes from the sea of peasantry, still a predominant part of labor force. Almost any new industrial project in one way or another endangers small peasantry ownership on land. India is a relatively large country even taking into account its one billion plus population. New industrial projects, however, as well as large part of population, are concentrated predominantly along the ocean coast, which makes the fight for land especially ferocious. Giving land to big companies may pauperize millions of peasants that represent essential base for local political elites. A compromise should be found; otherwise modernization might be jeopardized.

It seems India is predominantly focused on how to attract more foreign capitals than on how to bring up local workforce and improve local infrastructures, making the country looking better for investors. Education and healthcare are really neglected stepchildren of Indian modernization. The result is that many companies, including foreign, have already experiencing shortage of qualified personnel. The danger isn't that millions of jobs may flow from West to India; the problem is that India isn't prepared even to take jobs that are offered. Local authorities look at the foreign companies as those mainly responsible for workforce training. Within certain modest limits their expectations may be warranted, but they shouldn't expect this to become a norm. Anglo-Saxon capitalists are accustomed to a very different model, where public authorities and workers care about workforce training, reeducation and healthcare.

So far it seems that India has passed through easiest stages of economic reforms. Available pool of qualified personnel is already engaged in world economy, and new projects haven't heavily endangered interests of peasantry, small business and local competition. In order to keep modernization going on, India should focus on infrastructure projects, on improving education and healthcare, and on liberalizing legal regulations within land, capital and labor markets.

India country profile:

• Area: 3,287,590 sq km
• Climate: varies from tropical monsoon in south to temperate in north
• Population: 1.08 billion (July 2005 est.)
• Population growth rate: 1.40% (2005 est.)
• Life expectancy at birth: 64.35 years
• Total fertility rate: 2.78 children born/woman (2005 est.)
• Ethnic groups: Indo-Aryan 72%, Dravidian 25%, Mongoloid and other 3% (2000)
• Religions: Hindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.4%, Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%, other groups including Buddhist, Jain, Parsi 2.5% (2001)
• 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 $3,100 (2004 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 2005)

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