In some high-tech areas, such as computer software, the country is now a global player. Yet things haven't turned out the way it was hoped for. The Indian subcontinent has the world's worst poverty, the most widespread malnutrition and the most extensive use of child labour. People of the East Asian countries, who were not more advanced than us a few decades ago, have now incomes ten times higher than those in India. Nearly half of India's adults and two-thirds of its women are illiterate.
Millions are without access to clean drinking water even today.
And a large part of the country suffers from power shortages. Environmental degradation is widespread and the forest wealth fast depleting. Demographic pressure on land and on the swelling urban areas is intensifying. Religious, ethnic and caste conflicts continue to dog economic and social advancement and India remains a highly divisive society. And so also the unending dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir.