Rising India

Abstract

India, the third country on my list, is also going through enormous changes. Some of those changes, although not all of them, are positive. The rate of economic growth has picked up; in 2015 the country was the fastest growing of all large economies in the world. It has an international presence that reflects its geographic and economic size. It has the largest number of poor people in the world who are still living in absolute poverty, and the government headed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is committed to using the power of the state to help the poorer segments of the population. It is one of the world’s leading countries in information technology and the movie industry.

Notwithstanding these positives, the country is faced with three internal problems: political and economic power distributed between the central government on the one hand and the three almost autonomous states on the other, treatment of religious minorities in the country and the country’s relations with its immediate neighbors. New Delhi is tempted to look beyond the South Asian region to develop relations with countries near and far. Its “Look East” policy has resulted in closer relations with the ASEAN nations and with the United States. Under President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Washington and New Delhi have developed close working relations. The growing American interest in India is motivated by both economic and political factors. India is a large and growing market of considerable interest to American businesses. The policymaking elite in Washington is also working on using the “rising India” as a counterpart to the growing presence of China in Asia.