The New Boom

Better Off Than Dad

Services Sector: Growth Engine

Faces: Adventure Capitalists

Adapters: Tradition Meets Technology

Industry: Being Indian

Careers: Techies Line Up For Jobs Online

The Scindias: Will Power
The contentious will of Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia virtually disinherits her only son Madhavrao Scindia. This controversy threatens to mar the reputation and respectability of one of India's best- known and highly regarded royal families.

Gujarat: Shaky Regime
Confronted with a monumental disaster, the Gujarat Government is at the centre of relief operations. Was its reaction timely and efficient? Could more lives have been saved?

And Greed Hits Home
More than anything, it was corruption that killed people in Gujarat as buildings constructed by getting around norms came crashing down.

Public Sector: Shotgun Exit
First large PSU where workers agreed to leave the company.

THE NEW ECONOMY: OPINION POLL

The Future

The next 10 years will get better even though job insecurities are on the rise

On parameters of income, spending and saving people certainly are better off than they were 10 years ago. But in intangible terms things aren't rosier for this generation.

Despite higher income levels, economic insecurity has increased. Only 23 per cent respondents said they felt economically secure. The highest insecurity levels are in Kolkata, where 25 per cent of respondents (up from 14 per cent a decade ago) said they felt very insecure.

Upwardly Mobile: Son of a landless labourer, Pradeep,28, started out with washing clothes in 1992. Today his laundry service employs 10 and has contracts including a nursing home. Future plans include a branch in Kuwait.

The main causes for this insecurity are fears about retaining jobs, maintaining upgraded lifestyles, providing for emergencies, finding children appropriate occupations and the post-retired life.

Job insecurity is on the rise. Only 35 per cent respondents said they were secure in their jobs (down from 43 per cent in 1990). Fourteen per cent said they were "very insecure". This feeling is the highest once again in Kolkata where the level of insecurity has risen four times. With the exception of Mumbai, people are putting in longer hours, with Delhi clocking in the longest: in the early 1990s, only 17 per cent worked for more than 12 hours a day, today it is 28 per cent.

THE FUTURE The best is coming but economic security is on rise; government jobs are passe
% respondents: multiple options		% respondents; figures have been rounded off and may not add up to 100

Yet, optimism rules. An astounding 83 per cent of the respondents believe that lifestyles will improve in the next 10 years; the figure was highest among professionals (92 per cent). As many as 69 per cent believe that India would emerge as an economic superpower (not surprisingly, in hi-tech Bangalore, the figure was 77 per cent).

Despite the vote of confidence regarding the country's economic well-being, over half the respondents harbour dreams of seeing their children settle abroad. Better career opportunities and pay are the main reasons. Government jobs are no longer favourite career aspirations and more and more parents want their children to become professionals.

As the fruits of prosperity continue to show-more vacations, better homes, luxury consumer durables-the consuming classes show no signs of slowing down. And if the trends continue, there's no reason why our children will not be better off than us.

MetroScape
Random Readings
Arvind Krishna Mehrotra would rather be "accurate" in his latest undertaking, a book of Kabir's poetry in English, even if he says "Kabir's greatest hits may not have been written by him at all".
more...

Looking Glass

Kolkata: Restaurant

Bangalore:
Art Exhibition

New Delhi: Play

Who says Indian theatre is dying? Playwrights--both veteran and budding--in the country had a chance to interact with those from the Royal Court Theatre, London, at its first residency workshop in Bangalore recently.
It was a fortnight
of enrichment, concludes Principal Correspondent Stephen David in Despatches.

"I was very much against the idea of India," says William Dalrymple, author, The City of Djinns: A Year in Delhi. In conversation with INDIA TODAY's Sonia Faleiro, he talks about his old girlfriend, Delhi and his "enormously exciting" next book, The White Moghuls in Interviews.