The Hindu : Opinion / Letters to the Editor : Reality check

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 25, 2007
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Opinion

Opinion - Letters to the Editor

Reality check

The article “Need to wake up to the realities” (Sept. 22) exposes the myths we have created about ourselves. The agrarian crisis is going from bad to worse with the farmers’ woes increasing by the day. We have failed in sustaining and cashing in on the Green Revolution.

A significant percentage of our population is malnourished and deprived of the basic amenities. What is the progress we are talking about? Instead of creating myths and believing in success stories about ourselves, we need to gather enough courage to face the reality.

Ratneshwar Jha,

Darbhanga

* * *

The article provided an excellent insight into the least talked about side of our economic growth. India’s exports show continued predominance of raw materials which is a clear indicator of our technological backwardness. We export metal oars and import machines for use in our mines. India is the second largest producer of cotton and the second largest in the textile industry. But we import textile machines because of our inadequate engineering capability. To say and believe that we are a knowledge economy would amount to deceiving ourselves. As for the IT field, all we have are millions of youngsters capable of cost-effectively working on computer keyboards obeying commands that come from the other side of the globe.

S. Ganesan,

Hyderabad

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