My father frequently mentions that the income gap is rising and the poor is becoming poorer. I however contest his ideas and suggest that today is relativley a better environment for anybody in India to grow, and to reduce his/her socio-economic gap.
Apart from the arguments that i give to him to suggest that things are not so bad, yesterday Shekhar Gupta (Indian Express) gave me a good anecdote to use while moderating a discussion with Tata and Murthy at the Times Entrepreneurship Summit (TES.)
He was recollecting his visit to Infosys where he asked his audience a couple of questions.
q. How many of you have come from an English medium background?
a. not all hands went up.
q.How many of you went to the Mayos, Loyolas, and Doons?
a. only a few hands went up.
I can't recollect all the questions that he mentioned or the exact answers that he received, but the point that he was trying to make is that today we have many people from not so great backgrounds that have the opportunity to go far.
A similar point is made by Raghuram Rajan in the book "Saving Capitalism from Capitalists." He notes that it is only in democratic capitalistic society that there exist so many rich people that were born in families with humble means.
Apart from the arguments that i give to him to suggest that things are not so bad, yesterday Shekhar Gupta (Indian Express) gave me a good anecdote to use while moderating a discussion with Tata and Murthy at the Times Entrepreneurship Summit (TES.)
He was recollecting his visit to Infosys where he asked his audience a couple of questions.
q. How many of you have come from an English medium background?
a. not all hands went up.
q.How many of you went to the Mayos, Loyolas, and Doons?
a. only a few hands went up.
I can't recollect all the questions that he mentioned or the exact answers that he received, but the point that he was trying to make is that today we have many people from not so great backgrounds that have the opportunity to go far.
A similar point is made by Raghuram Rajan in the book "Saving Capitalism from Capitalists." He notes that it is only in democratic capitalistic society that there exist so many rich people that were born in families with humble means.
