>the reality is that we are a dirt poor country with not just deep institutional problems, but also moral and psychological ones.

I was searching for the words to express this for more than ten minutes before I read your comment. The key here is 'moral and psychological problems'.

To cite just one example, there was a lot of ruckus about the 2G Scam and the Lokpal bill recently. We believe that the guy who got 17200 Crore rupees in kickbacks is a corrupt SOB and should be punished to the maximum extent, but when it was revealed that a leading anti-corruption crusader was actually stealing money from the sponsors who invited her for talks, we dismissed it as a 'small amount'. This kind of 'it's not a crime if its done at a small scale but it's a crime if its done on a large scale' mentality is present among nearly everyone.

Also, another huge problem with Indians is that we as a people do not wish to risk anything. As a result we will never fight for something that should be rightfully ours (like a Government that does it's job). Urban voters are generally brainwashed by the charisma of our politicians or are bought wholesale with a few thousand rupees and a bottle of liquor. Rural voters don't really care who they vote for. As a result we keep alternating between the same two sets of thugs. Will we get out on the streets and protest for better governance like the arabs did? Never.

So, the West can paint many pretty picture and call it India, but this is a country in massive disarray, and the fact that it hasn't already collapsed is purely by chance.

Ironically, I agree with the comment you're replying to but not with you. Political hypocrisy favoring people you like is seen everywhere. Even if that were NOT the case, I find it difficult to get less worked up about 1,72,00,00,00,000 rupees than maybe 5-10,00,000 rupees.

The middle-class attitude to not risk much is also something we should not blame Indians for -- remember that most of the middle class (that's in the 'service' sector) is actually Bramhin, which means that it's a step down in status from what their ancestors enjoyed. And when you look at the looong way down you can fall in India socioeconomically... it's hard to blame someone for being risk-averse.

How many people have you heard stealing 1,72,00,00,00,000 rupees? And how many have you heard stealing 10,000 rupees? My point was that we get worked up for one time theft of XXXX rupees, whereas we consider thousands of class C government employees demanding anywhere from 1000 to 10,000 rupees from hundreds of people everyday as passable.

Also, why should I not blame middle class Indians for what they are (not) doing? The middle class in India is a huge section of people. If you want something you should be prepared to risk everything and fight for it. If you are not willing to risk it, then you deserve what you get. Imagine the benefits we can reap in future if we are willing to duke it out now.

Also, this risk averse attitude is the reason why we were ruled by the British for 200 years. Only once people started risking everything they had did we get the Independence we deserved. Why should fighting inept politicians who are ruining my country be any different from fighting a foreign aggresor?

Well, I mean, obviously. Not that it's passable, but do you want to spend energy bringing every pickpocket to justice or do you want to spend energy bringing justice to ONE man who scammed the country out of as much money as HALF IT'S POPULATION makes in a YEAR?

I mean, prioritize.

A bigger problem is the insane benefits someone rich can reap with just a savings account in India. The large interest rates that you get in the State Bank and the enormous loopholes that everyone exploits essentially means that there's an entire class of people whose interest earned on savings is sufficient to land them in the top 5% of the population.

Why would anyone be motivated to take risks after such a deal ?

Also, no government can solve India's problem. 600 people (few uneducated, several underqualified and some with a shady past) to make decisions for a diverse 1 bn population? That doesn't scale in any way whatsoever.

Well, one can get many multiples of the investment if they focus on real estate as opposed to the savings account. The rich are indeed getting fabulously rich.

And all the while the conditions of the real poor are in fact getting worse. And as someone whose family/ community falls into the capitalist class I see condition of most of the employees degrading first hand. The so called middle class is in some sense living in a bubble, working semi-coolie jobs for MNCs (for the most part) and thinking that their more hip lifestyles are in some ways representative of a sea change in India.

I am sure the benefits of savings accounts (4% p.a. return on average?) are not sufficient to foster an entire class of people living on them. Most businesses would give returns far higher than this, making the risk-free saving account not a great option.

a question..

Many other countries with corruption problems see a huge increase in skilled worker outflows..namely Russia with a 2 million outflow every 10 years..

Is India also facing a killed worker outflow due to corruption conditions? Outflow in the sense that the number is higher than the net difference between the birth and death rates.

That's a nice observation, and definitely true in India's case.

Out of curiosity, is this a robust thing? Is corruption a good indicator of 'brain-drain'?

"we are a dirt poor country"...man only u r dirt cheap one... how could one say so confidently to whole nation,...any nation? rethinking needed here...