Former 'Times of India' editor speaks at IU

There is more to India than it just being a country to which jobs are outsourced. It is an example of a democracy that works in its truest sense. This was the message of Gautam Adhikari, former executive editor for The Times of India, a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a consultant at the World Bank, who spoke Thursday evening in the Student Building.\nAdhikari delivered a lecture on "Democracy, Development and Stability: The Indian Case," which was organized by the India Studies Program. He dispelled the generally held notion that nothing really changes in India because of the size and nature of its politics. Adhikari said it was precisely because of these reasons that the democracy in India works. \n"With a billion-plus population, 17 official languages and thousands of dialects, India has an 8 percent growth rate," he said. "With all the problems, democracy becomes a help and not a problem." \nExplaining further, Adhikari said India's issues are not are due more to its mismanagement of scarce resources that its democratic status.\nHe compared India to China to explain how the democracy works in India.\n"India, with all its malnutrition problems, never had a famine since 1947 (the year India became independent). But India did come close to famines due to periods of drought. But there was no famine because of the democracy. The press in India covered the drought and asked the members of parliament what they were doing about it and this in turn brought pressure on the government. This is the way India overcame many problems," he said.\nIn contrast, however, China had close to 16 million deaths due to causes including famines, Adhikari said. This was due to the fact that the lower-level officials in China could not point out the facts to those higher in the government. Additionally China does not have a free press, which only complicates the problem.\nWhen there was a question whether agriculture in India was leading farmers to suicide, Adhikari said this was not so. The impression people get from media reports is that many farmers are committing suicide. This is not exactly the case, Adhikari said.\n"To say agriculture is driving farmers to suicides is not correct," he said.\nBalu Pulipaka, a graduate student from Andhra Pradesh state in India, where most farmer suicides were reported, sought to add to Adhikari's reply. He explained that the deaths were not a result of hunger. Instead, some resort to killing themselves because of a lack of finances due to crop failures and an inability to get loans, he said.\nAdhikari said farmers are also in financial trouble because of the gradual withdrawal of subsidies by the government that further affects their finances.\nIn response to a query from graduate student Yogesh L Simmhan on how China was competing with India for software jobs, Adhikari said, though China was ahead in the manufacturing sector, it lagged behind India on the software front, as China still needs to set up its training for this sector, he said.\nAddressing the issue of U.S. investment destinations, Adhikari said, "U.S. investors move in herds, and many U.S. companies involved in venture capital have not gone to India because many Indians are already into this market."\nHe also said there were some changes in the way the United State companies are now doing business in India. "G.E. is setting up a unit in India that will outsource jobs from the (United States), but in this case, the jobs outsourced from the (United States) will mean that they are going to another U.S. company."\nAdhikari also dispelled the notion that the coalition governments in India are a problem for the democracy and the country's development. \n"Because of coalition politics, the government has to ensure a consensus on all decisions. A wider coalition thus means a wider discussion," he said. \nAdhikari also said there should be no doubts on the economic policy of the country because, despite government changes in the last 15 years the policy has remained constant.\nHowever, he said fears about the high-tech sector in India taking jobs from the United States was misplaced.\n"This sector contributes 3 percent to the (gross domestic product). The outsourcing is a result of the industrial boom in India and not the other way round," he said.\nIndia, Adhikari explained, is ahead in the software sector because of the low costs. A software engineer in India can be hired for a salary of $20,000 to $25,000 a year, while in the United States, the employer would have to pay about $60,000 for the same work. But as living costs increase in India, Adhikari said, this gap will reduce, and it is likely that the jobs will move to an economy where the living costs are lower.\n-- Contact staff writer Hina Alam at halam@indiana.edu.