Students Witness Dichotomies in India’s Growing Democracy

Over winter break, a group of SPP students, accompanied by SPP Professor Desmond Dinan, traveled to India -- the largest democracy in the world -- to study its emergence as a major global player in the information technology field.

The experience gave them a close-up view of a country affected by some of the issues they had discussed in public policy classes. “Now these students should be able to look differently at issues having to do with economic development, outsourcing and off shoring. They will have a real-world perspective on the impact of foreign direct investment on economic development,” Dinan said.

Through lectures, site visits and, merely, by walking through the streets, the students searched for signs of prosperity and growth, which have arrived in India since its liberalization in 1991. However, they soon realized that the changes are not reflected throughout the entire country. “I was surprised at the high level of poverty and the high level of rapid development -- all in the same country,” said SPP student J.J. Messner.

In Bangalore, the city at the heart of India’s hi-tech boom, the students visited European, American and Indian companies benefiting from the country’s relatively cheap labor pool – both unskilled high school-aged workers and some of the brightest college graduates of India’s engineering and technical schools.

The travelers were surprised at the high level of outsourcing in India. SPP student Lewis Freeman, said, “We visited an Indian company that processes claims for an American insurance company. While we were observing the employees at work I glanced at one computer screen and saw that the claim being processed was that of a patient from Manassas, Virginia. At an adjoining computer terminal, another claim being processed involved a doctor in Herndon, Virginia. That observation truly underscored the reality of outsourcing.”

The trip also forced some students to consider the need for policies that could help countries to adapt in a global marketplace. “As someone who is not very pro-business, this was a real wakeup call to the positive changes that businesses are having in developing countries,” said SPP student Aimee Fullman. However, Fullman also noticed that more needs to be done to narrow the gap between rich and poor.

She said: “As we exited Honeywell, a well known international company with all the latest high tech equipment, a new building was being constructed adjacent to the premises. The ground was dug and then removed -- not by a crane but by women with hand-woven baskets carried on their heads. This snapshot of India's extreme dichotomies has stayed with me.”