NEWSWEEK COVER: 'The New India'

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A F NEWSWEEK NEWSWEEK In the March 6 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, February 27): "The New India," Newsweek takes a look at old stereotypes and new hype to explain what has been pushing India forward, also a special guest essay ...

    NEW YORK, Feb. 26 /PRNewswire/ -- The world -- and particularly the United
 States -- is courting India as it never has before. Fascinated by the new
 growth story, perhaps wary of Asia's Chinese superpower, searching to hedge
 some bets, the world has woken up to India's potential, writes Newsweek
 International Editor Fareed Zakaria in the current issue of Newsweek. "Over
 the past 15 years, India has been the second fastest-growing country in the
 world-after China-averaging above 6 percent growth per year. Growth
 accelerated to 7.5 percent last year and will probably hold at the same pace
 this year. Many observers believe that India could well move at this higher
 rate for the next decade," Zakaria writes in the March 6 cover package, "The
 New India" (on newsstands Monday, February 27).
     (Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20060226/NYSU006 )
     "Indian companies are growing at an extraordinary pace, posting yearly
 gains of 15, 20, and 25 percent," writes Zakaria. "Five years ago, the
 automobile-parts industry's total revenues were $4 billion. This year they
 will exceed $10 billion. In 2008, General Motors alone will import $1 billion
 of auto components from India. That's outsourcing-as it is any time an
 American company buys goods or services from abroad. It's also called trade or
 globalization or capitalism. Those who want to stop it-and it's not clear how
 you could do that-should remember that the United States' prosperity has come
 from its very willingness to open itself up to the world," writes Zakaria.
 "Over the last 60 years, manufacturing employment in the United States has
 plummeted as those industries went abroad-and yet average American incomes
 have risen to be the highest in the world. Over the last 20 years, as
 globalization has quickened, American companies have outsourced first goods
 then services-and American incomes have risen faster than those of any other
 major industrial country. Globalization highlights some problems for America,
 but the solutions are all at home. As they have in the past, Americans must-
 and can-make goods and services that people will pay for freely, not because
 the government forces them to by shutting out the competition. That is the
 only stable path to economic security."
     "At this point, anyone who has actually been to India will probably be
 puzzled," writes Zakaria. "India is home to 40 percent of the world's poor and
 has the world's second largest HIV population. But that is the familiar India,
 the India of poverty and disease. The India of the future contains all this
 but also something new. You can feel the change even in the midst of the
 slums. Many Western businessmen go to India expecting it to be the next China.
 But it never will be that. India's growth is messy, chaotic and largely
 unplanned. It is not top-down but bottom-up. It is happening not because of
 the government, but largely despite it ...  it has vast and growing numbers of
 entrepreneurs who want to make money. And somehow they find a way to do it,
 overcoming the obstacles, bypassing the bureaucracy," Zakaria writes.
     "What is happening today is the birth of India as an independent society-
 boisterous, colorful, open, vibrant, and above all, ready for change," writes
 Zakaria. "India is diverging from its past, but also from most other countries
 in Asia. It is not a quiet, controlled, quasi-authoritarian country that is
 slowly opening up according to plans. It is a noisy democracy that has finally
 empowered its people economically. In this respect India, one of the poorest
 countries in the world, looks strikingly similar to the world's wealthiest
 country, the United States of America. In both places, society has triumphed
 over the state."
     Also as part of the cover package, Associate Editor Ramin Setoodeh
 profiles successful young Indian-Americans who are doing more-and less-than
 what's expected of them. They're moving beyond science and engineering into
 fields like business, journalism, literature-even acting. But what sets them
 apart is a strong work ethic combined with the grace of people comfortable
 with living among strangers.  Detroit Bureau Chief Keith Naughton reports on
 the disappearing stigma of outsourcing jobs to India, and in a special guest
 essay, "My Two Lives," Pulitzer-winning writer Jhumpa Lahiri describes her
 experiences growing up as an Indian-American.
 
   (Read entire cover package at www.Newsweek.com. Click "Pressroom" for news
                                   releases.)
 
     Cover: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11571348/site/newsweek/
     Guest Essay: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11569225/site/newsweek/
     http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11571580/site/newsweek/
     http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11571582/site/newsweek/
 
 

SOURCE  Newsweek