A "developed" India still a mirage...

Over the last decade or so, there has been tremendous talk about India's rise in terms of the growth rate, the economy, the outsourcing of jobs to the country, the real estate, the rapidly expanding middle class and rapid urbanization. While all of that makes me very proud, there are three things that a broad generalization about "India's rise" gloss over and unless we get those three right, we are far away from being a developed country.

And these three are- infrastructure, education and clean administration.
Infrastructure is probably the mose important. Roads are archaic, not well maintained and are light years away from being world class. Electricity and power are thoroughly undependable even the biggest cities like Delhi and Mumbai. Power 'cuts' are still the norm during the summer months and that is unacceptable. Water supply is a gamble too in terms of both regularity and quality. I dont need to explain why getting these right is crucial.
The second is education. This may come to some people who've lived abroad as a surprise as they come across Indians who speak english reasonably well and are generally strong in math and science. What gets missed is that this is small minority of the Indian population. India still have more illiterates than the entire population of Europe! Walk through any street of any city to ask for directions and you will know what I am talking about. People want to succeed, want to do well, have a great work ethic but if they dont know how to read write and communicate, we have a real issue on our hands!
The third a "clean" administration- minimal corruption, good sound thinking at the top and through the ranks to make things work like the first two I pointed out. While we have excellent administrators at the very top of the house, I get the feeling that we have a "frozen middle" in our government ranks, and these are the guys who get "stuff" done or alternatively, block the passage of a well thought out policy.

Unless we have these three, we will continue to grow but not at the pace we really want- at the same time, we will continue to have civic unrest, inter-religious conflict, fight for the few opportunities, corruption in the ranks and burgeoning population in urban areas ill equipped to deal with the demands of the rising populace. Which is why I think that despite all our progress so far, a developed nation status is still very much a mirage...