Superpower India? Unlikely, says LSE report

Superpower India? Unlikely, says LSE report

 

India's economic progress and increasing power will not ensure superpower status for the country in the foreseeable future according to a report published by the London School of Economics and Political Science .

 

Corruption, poor leadership extreme social divisions , internal security threats and religious extremism are holding India back. the report says.

 

"There remain deep and pervasive fault-lines within Indian society. Crony capitalism, the collapse of public health systems, a rising !Maoist insurgency, rampant environmental degradation all call into  doubt India's superpower aspirations . Rather than seek to expand its influence abroad , India would do well  to focus on the fissures within" according to the report which has contributions  from !Indian experts like Ramchadra Guha, Harish Wankhede and Mukulika "Banerjee.

 

"The hope of those in the West who would build up India as a democratic counterweight to Chinese superpower are unlikely to be realised anytime soon" says the report. Indian economy, defence, government , democracy, culture, environment  and society to analyse the strength and weaknesses of the country and its chance of becoming a superpower.

 

Indian historian Ramchandra Guha who is Phillipe Roman chair in history and international affairs at LSE IDEAs, the research centre which has listed seven reasond why India will not become a super power.

 

The seven reasons he has listed are-- challenge of Naxalites, the insidious presence of the Hindutvawadis , the degradation of the once liberal and upright Centre, the increasing gap between the rich and the poor, the trivialisation of the media, the unsustainability, in an environmental sense , of  present patterns of resource consumption and the in, instability and policy incoherence caused by multi-party coalition governments.

 

"To this, so-to-speak objective judgement of the historian, I will now add the subjective desires of a citizen--which is that "India should not even attempt to become a superpower" he adds.    .  .