Meanwhile, the old road has huge trenches in the middle of it shielded in the old fashioned Indian way with filthy walls of corrugated metal. The builders of the new road make no effort to ease the flow of traffic, so it takes even longer to get to Electronics City.

By the time I got to the glittering campus that Infosys has created as its private oasis I had ample time to study the squalid conditions in which people live in our most happening city.

We must stop fooling ourselves. The only real change since economic reform began fifteen years ago is that the license-quota-permit raj has ended for businessmen. This has speeded up economic growth and created a huge and growing middle class and all of this is good, but it’s time we paid attention to the things that have not happened.

Infrastructure, both physical and social, has not happened. There is a lot of talk about the need to improve our airports, ports and roads but there is more talk than action and no visible sign of urgency. We are running out of time and nobody up there seems to notice.

In the area of social infrastructure, everyone agrees that with the largest young population in the world the most important thing is to improve mass education. But, again all we have is talk and a Knowledge Commission.

Everyone agrees that massive private investment in schools is urgently needed but the licence-quota-permit raj still operates in education, so setting up a school is such a lengthy, bureaucratic process that only those with deep pockets and connections in high places even attempt it.

... contd.