Changes in India in Last 60 Years

CHANGES IN INDIA IN LAST 60 YEARS

India being a vast country, here people inhabit four climatic zones, form the temperate north to the tropical south, from the parched west to the inundated east, speak one or more of 15 official languages, follow several religious and personal beliefs, differ enormously in their food habits and social customs and live together under varying states of human development, from highly affluent to the utterly destitute. Around three fourths of India’s population lives in rural areas and contribute one third of the national income. This diversity is also reflected in the market for consumer products. Here consumers present a complex and bizarre group.

Since independence India has transformed, from a socialist economy, into a liberal free-market economy that rewards free enterprise and entrepreneurship. Today, we proudly stand as the second fastest growing economy in the world with a robust and resilient financial system that has proved to be immune, to an extent, to the global economic recession when other countries such as the USA, UK and Japan are engulfed into the economic meltdown.

As in 2007, India was the fourth largest economy in the world with a GDP of $3 trillion (Purchasing Power Parity basis). Thanks to the regulated banking industry and the culture where people tend to save. India has evolved, socially and economically, and grown significantly in the last couple of decades. The Judiciary has played a critical role in formulating laws to overcome evils including exploitation of women, dowry, child labor, preservation of Flora & fauna. We seem to have overcome the stereotypes of gender roles, to a great extent, and see that women do not fall behind men in any field.

In the last decade or so, there has been a significant investment in infrastructure projects in road, port, power and telecom sectors leading to the employment of millions of people across the country. In 1998, the government created National Highway...