I've been glancing over the discussions spurred by the recent black out and I feel that something is missing.
All things considered the primary debate here shouldn't be about the quality Chinese hardware, but rather the utter mismanagement by successive governments in India which is very telling of the trajectory the nation has taken since independence. Normally in a democratic nation one would expect that the most logical response to the "lights out" for hundreds of millions of its citizens would result in a "lights out" for the governmental establishment which has perpetrated a failed model of governance. Yet this is not what happens in India. Oh well.... farewell "shining" India you had a good run, but now it's time to go back to the default setting- darkness.
Ok well maybe that's a bit too dramatic, but clearly India has been doing something wrong, and unless that is corrected no amount of reactionary superficial changes will change anything (the perennial Indian conundrum). The ability to identify and implement radical change in a failed system is exactly why China will become a global power and India won't. India, as Ramchandra Guha rightly points out will at best muddle along- a fact Indians need to accept unless they implement real change.
Everyone knows India's infrastructure is pathetic, but what are the causes? Where is the discussion about the actual problem? I see all this uproar about BHEL, why? Even if the Chinese components are as bad as they are made out to be (which they aren't because clearly they are working everywhere else) they are still better than anything BHEL has to offer; you know why?.. because BHEL hasn't offered what's actually needed. And this is also why the answer to the great internet debate is that the JF17 is better than the LCA... because it actually f**k!g flies in service. For all the accolades listed on wikipedia, BHEL hasn't really delivered, much like the LCA and a barrage of other white elephants with imposing Sanskrit names.
India lacks the manufacturing base to build the necessary hardware even for the woefully inadequate infrastructure it currently has let alone what's actually needed. Years of governmental control over industry stunted it's growth and development (much like that of most Indian children). It was the classic tale of inept governmental behemoths which produce crap but are able to proclaim wiki-accolades like "this is the __th largest company in the world supporting the worlds largest ___". That both the company and its client are utterly inadequate and antiquated is somehow never mentioned on wikipedia. Also the second blank should now say "blackout"
Ah... but then there's the counter argument about the new "liberalization" of industries and all these new deals with acronyms like PSUs fancy historical references like "navratna" and big name collaborations. Really? The only difference the facade of liberalization has made is conversion of outright government theft to crony capitalism. The list of beneficiaries however still remains small, much like the girth of Indian............um... roads.
The real change needed has not materialized because the people responsible for it don't want it to happen. If the government does what it's actually supposed to do... which is effective regulation and imposition of the rule of law, then how will the benefactors benefit? How can the government keep a leash on things if the it facilitates access to capital for any tom dick and harry with a great business proposal thereby spurring a litany of small and medium businesses which can collectively crank out various components that makes one big piece of equipment? How will the poor remain poor if they suddenly have access to things like highways, schools, banks and electricity? Such things would *gasp* actually get them out of poverty. Then how will the Indian politicians and bureaucrats feed their kids if not for the scores of government initiated poverty "alleviation" schemes (the worlds largest scam)? How does one exploit the caste system by keeping it alive if the scores of people become economically independent and literate and realize that their so called "culture" is a sack of $h!t?
The fact of the matter is that the whole system is screwed, centralization (with or without a mask) will never work in India. As the olympic medal count clearly shows, India is not China, and unless Indian citizens don't push for change, they are essentially complicit. The blackout is merely a symptom of what happens when a government does not fulfill its role.
The problem is not the grid, but rather the institution that runs it.
All things considered the primary debate here shouldn't be about the quality Chinese hardware, but rather the utter mismanagement by successive governments in India which is very telling of the trajectory the nation has taken since independence. Normally in a democratic nation one would expect that the most logical response to the "lights out" for hundreds of millions of its citizens would result in a "lights out" for the governmental establishment which has perpetrated a failed model of governance. Yet this is not what happens in India. Oh well.... farewell "shining" India you had a good run, but now it's time to go back to the default setting- darkness.
Ok well maybe that's a bit too dramatic, but clearly India has been doing something wrong, and unless that is corrected no amount of reactionary superficial changes will change anything (the perennial Indian conundrum). The ability to identify and implement radical change in a failed system is exactly why China will become a global power and India won't. India, as Ramchandra Guha rightly points out will at best muddle along- a fact Indians need to accept unless they implement real change.
Everyone knows India's infrastructure is pathetic, but what are the causes? Where is the discussion about the actual problem? I see all this uproar about BHEL, why? Even if the Chinese components are as bad as they are made out to be (which they aren't because clearly they are working everywhere else) they are still better than anything BHEL has to offer; you know why?.. because BHEL hasn't offered what's actually needed. And this is also why the answer to the great internet debate is that the JF17 is better than the LCA... because it actually f**k!g flies in service. For all the accolades listed on wikipedia, BHEL hasn't really delivered, much like the LCA and a barrage of other white elephants with imposing Sanskrit names.
India lacks the manufacturing base to build the necessary hardware even for the woefully inadequate infrastructure it currently has let alone what's actually needed. Years of governmental control over industry stunted it's growth and development (much like that of most Indian children). It was the classic tale of inept governmental behemoths which produce crap but are able to proclaim wiki-accolades like "this is the __th largest company in the world supporting the worlds largest ___". That both the company and its client are utterly inadequate and antiquated is somehow never mentioned on wikipedia. Also the second blank should now say "blackout"
Ah... but then there's the counter argument about the new "liberalization" of industries and all these new deals with acronyms like PSUs fancy historical references like "navratna" and big name collaborations. Really? The only difference the facade of liberalization has made is conversion of outright government theft to crony capitalism. The list of beneficiaries however still remains small, much like the girth of Indian............um... roads.
The real change needed has not materialized because the people responsible for it don't want it to happen. If the government does what it's actually supposed to do... which is effective regulation and imposition of the rule of law, then how will the benefactors benefit? How can the government keep a leash on things if the it facilitates access to capital for any tom dick and harry with a great business proposal thereby spurring a litany of small and medium businesses which can collectively crank out various components that makes one big piece of equipment? How will the poor remain poor if they suddenly have access to things like highways, schools, banks and electricity? Such things would *gasp* actually get them out of poverty. Then how will the Indian politicians and bureaucrats feed their kids if not for the scores of government initiated poverty "alleviation" schemes (the worlds largest scam)? How does one exploit the caste system by keeping it alive if the scores of people become economically independent and literate and realize that their so called "culture" is a sack of $h!t?
The fact of the matter is that the whole system is screwed, centralization (with or without a mask) will never work in India. As the olympic medal count clearly shows, India is not China, and unless Indian citizens don't push for change, they are essentially complicit. The blackout is merely a symptom of what happens when a government does not fulfill its role.
The problem is not the grid, but rather the institution that runs it.
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