Looking quickly through any Indian paper, one notices the blatant trumpeting of the economic advances being made by India and Indians abroad and the national pride behind it. However, IITs, Bollywood, political parties and big businesses don't seem to be able to function or at least break any new boundaries without consultation with, and approval from, a host of elements that definitely belong to a past age.
A Boost for India's Shipping Looms...
Recently the Hindi nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party leader Subramaniam Swamy filed a petition against the proposed Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project in Tamil Nadu. The INR 23.3 billion project involving the construction of a sea route through the waterway that separates Sri Lanka from the Indian mainland would greatly decrease the distance between the west and east coats of India, speed up shipping times and boost the development of thirteen proposed ports on India's south eastern coast. Not surprisingly then, many politicians and industrialists in the south of the country were anxious to see the deal go ahead.
