THE ONLY PLACE WHERE ‘INDIA’ IS A BAD WORD

INDIA is a case study in economic growth and “big brother” approach to the world.

The country’s economy is growing by 6.9 per cent this year, one of the largest in the post-Covid-19 world, the cost of living is being tamed, and there are major investments by domestic and international corporations.

Some 415 million people have been lifted from poverty since Narendra Modi became Prime Minister in 2014, more local wealth is being generated, and credit ratings and trade balance are in the right columns.

India is “one of the bright spots in the global economy right now,” International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said.

Ms. Georgieva anticipates India “leaving a mark in the world for years to come”.

Tech billionaire Bill Gates hailed the country’s modernism, investments in health, climate change and other fields, and the general dynamism and creativity.

“The country is showing what’s possible when we invest in innovation,” Gates said.

The World Bank said a few months ago that India’s economy is “remarkably resilient to the deteriorating external environment…”

The respected New York Times newspaper said that “major economies are stalling … but not India.”

Apple’s CEO Tim Cook said: “India has such incredible energy.”

And so the credits roll for the Modi administration’s people-centric governance.

“The world is looking at us with hope and confidence and as a capable game-changing, creative innovative ecosystem” the Prime Minister has said.

“We are witnessing a new confidence among the citizens to come out of the mentality of deprivation and to dream big.”

He said India is on course to developed nation status in 25 years.

The Prime Minister is spreading the ideals of self-reliance and international partnerships.

The country is investing heavily in industrialisation, infrastructure, new energies, digital technologies, food security, and other crucial sectors.

As current president of the G7, the world’s largest economies, Modi is working on “international collaboration on important global issues affecting humanity.”

It is not surprising that several countries have been cooperating with India for various forms of support, including credit lines, investment stimuli, transfer of technology, healthcare and measures on poverty alleviation.

Guyana, with its flourishing energy sector and thrust toward overall economic development, has tapped into the Indian resource.

President Dr. Irfaan Ali and Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo have been in New Delhi this year, negotiating on energy and other investments.

India’s influential Foreign Affairs Minister Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar has just spent four days in Georgetown, cementing economic matters.

Caricom Foreign Affairs Ministers held bilateral talks with Jaishankar, who offered assistance through various State agencies.

The Indian minister promoted cooperation in pharmaceuticals, small business, agriculture, ICT and other primary fields.

Trinidad and Tobago, once the dynamic regional leader, has shown little interest in ties with India, with only minimal economic and diplomatic engagements.

There have been no trade initiatives, or outreach on any of the several sectors being offered by the Asian tiger.

While T&T has the largest Indian diaspora in the Caribbean, the Government seems disinterested in deepening ties with a country that could aid the struggling domestic economy.

The ethnic bogey that has crippled T&T’s politics seems to have spilled onto national affairs and essentially frozen relations with an economic powerhouse.

India seems to be a bad word even as the T&T economy declines as a result of the absence of diversification from reliance on the energy sector.

T&T, with energy infrastructure, modern telecommunications, and an able workforce, could reap tremendous benefits from creative ties, in the process creating jobs and boosting the manufacturing sector.

Instead, Trinidad and Tobago is hamstrung by the exhausting and paralysing effect of its domestic politics.