An Indian Winter?

I think it’s pretty well known that after having worked for Wipro and travelled there on numerous occasions, I have a bit of a soft spot for India and Indians – whilst the country isn’t as pristine as I might like, and without wishing to generalize about a population of 1 billion, I’ve never met a group of people who are so kind, welcoming and hard working. I always tend to read the various India related Economist articles when I find them. However there have been a few articles and a letter recently which make me wonder about whether or not there is a chill wind blowing over the country… This article confirms that winters are indeed getting colder in Northern India, http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21569439-north-indian-winters-are-short-increasingly-bleak-numbed-bones-choked-lungs However on a more philosophical note, the following article suggested that India is lacking something of a new political vision which is preventing it from carrying out the economic reforms that everybody accepts are necessary http://www.economist.com/node/21563720 And the positivity I felt after reading the more upbeat article about the reaction of middle class Indians to a despicable crime in Delhi recently (http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21569031-horrible-attack-could-prove-turning-point-indias-women-rape-and-murder-delhi) was dampened when I read the following letter from Vineet Bewtra in London, especially the last two lines… “Sir – Your leader on the shocking gang rape in Delhi placed much hope on India’s emerging middle class to promote women’s issues. Yet the middle class themselves are just as culpable for the deeply ingrained gender bias in Indian society. A study published in the Lancet in 2011 by Prabhat Jha et al found that the selective abortion of girls had increased in the first ten years of this century compared with the 1990s, and that wealthier families and educated mothers were statistically more likely to abort girls. To paint the middle class as modernisers because they are better educated and earn more is naive. Cultural norms in Indian society run deep”. When you combine this with the general view that outsourcing and offshoring are going to go into reverse and that we will see more and more “re-shoring” (http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21569739-outsourcing-jobs-faraway-places-wane-will-not-solve-wests), it all makes me wonder what the future might hold for India, especially because the evidence has shown that globalization is not progressing as fast as one might think http://www.economist.com/news/business/21568753-world-less-connected-it-was-2007-going-backwards). Has India missed the chance to make enough hay while the sun shone?