The Week-end Stock Pot Watch, Thursday, November 28th-December 1st. Holiday Edition!

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88. India Falls Behind: Corruption Plagues Rising Economy

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/corruption-and-poverty-cause-india-to-fall-behind-a-935882.html


It rumbled and thundered, then India's first Mars rocket shot into the sky above the Bay of Bengal, trailing a long tail of fire behind it. It was one of those rare moments when Asia's third largest economy showed its modern side, with everything running punctually and precisely. On the ground, the head of India's space program rejoiced, and declared: "Any mission is not beyond our capability."

That was early November, but this country with a population of 1.2 billion could celebrate its actual triumph 10 months from now, when the Indian-designed space probe is scheduled to reach the red planet and orbit it several times. If the mission proceeds as planned, it will make India the fourth space-going power to successfully reach Mars, following the United States, Russia and Europe. And, most importantly, India will achieve this step before its greatest rival, China.

The space mission shone in the sky above India like a glimmer of hope for a country where back on the ground hardly anything is going according to plan. The competition with China for dominance in Asia -- colorfully described for years by Western authors as a duel between the dragon and the elephant -- has long since been decided, economically and thus geopolitically as well, and not in India's favor.

Hailed for two decades for its miraculous ascent, India's economy is now faltering. Growth, once around 10 percent, is now less than half that. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts it will ultimately be under 4 percent for the current year, as it was last year as well.