You write that India is emerging as the new frontier for America.
Strategic and business interests dictate that. America still has a pioneer mentality, and it is this mentality that sends top university professors and deans from Harvard to Ann Arbor to Austin to Palo Alto to India. A decade ago if you were to invite the president of a big university, say Harvard, you might have had to wait for a long time to hear a response and most probably it would have be a 'No.'
But today, when we make the request, the question is 'When do you want us there?' For the new India, which is vibrant, fast-moving, innovative and transparent, shared more qualities with America than any other nation on earth. India is also one of the fastest growing markets for American products from movies like Spider-Man3 -- which was dubbed into half a dozen languages -- to automobiles.
By 2020 one half of the world's population of people under age 25 will be here in India! Their new spending power will make India the biggest cash-drawer worldwide for consumer goods and services. Many foreign manufacturers in India at times complain saying they are not entirely happy to be doing business in India. And yet they stay put; they are not moving away. The reason is very simple. They are looking at the year 2020, if not tomorrow.
Photograph: Natalie Behring-Chisholm/Getty Images
Also read: India is China's economic equal? Bah!
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