Which is the developed country?

Another contentious and polarized US Presidential election is upon us, and it is funny to read from a so-called developing country about the travails of a developed superpower. To vote in America either you can go in for any identity card or elsewhere even no ID card. There appear to be few clearly accepted, vetted, and updated electoral rolls. There are no electronic voting machines and paper ballots are counted by hand. Some votes come in late and take days to count with allegations of ballot stuffing à la Bihar of the 1990s.

India in contrast has EVMs, voter ID cards and a dynamic voter database which can be checked online. The electoral process in India is seamless. And it’s not just the voting. The Aadhaar ecosystem is probably the best in the world. UPI is also the world’s leading online payment system and will keep getting into more and more countries as the clout of BRICS grows.

Another area we won out is the smartphone and mobile broadband ecosystem, which is again, arguably the best in the world. The JAM trinity has really taken off. (Jan Dhan Aadhaar Mobile) The last decade or so has seen the rapid advance of banking into the rural areas. While we are still paying catch up with California’s Silicon Valley and the startup ecosystem there, the US government is way behind and not even playing catch up with the Indian government. Nobody among the common populace is really using terms like e-governance and digital governance because it has already become part of the main governance backbone of the country.

The tables have already turned. In the 1980s we had the Khalistan problem and today Canada is plagued by the same. In the latest spat, Canada threatened economic sanctions on us which is laughable. We are a $4 trillion economy while Canada is a $2 trillion one.

Coming back to America, there was a time when Indians used to defecate in the fields in large numbers. But with the toilet revolution of the last decade, now more Americans are probably defecating in the streets. The homelessness problem and shanty towns of rich America are reminiscent of Mumbai at its worst. Election malpractice claims and news of stores being looted regularly are reminiscent of the Bihar of old.

There was a time when the Westerns economists divided the world into 4 neat worlds: First World: The West. Second World: USSR and its satellites. Third World: Developing countries like India. Fourth World: Underdeveloped countries like many in Africa.

But today sometimes it is difficult to tell which is the developed country and which is the developing one.

sunilr@cybermedia.co.in