I have been traveling in India for the last few weeks. The contrast between the economies of US where I live and India can not be more dramatic. Things looked pretty gloomy in the US when I came here and exepected the slowdown to be evident in india as well. I was quite surprised to see people are still spending and there is still tremendous amount of construction going on. Sure, the IT industry has taken a hit as it depends quite a bit on the US and the west. But the local econonomy is still thriving.
India is a very chaotic place. You will see this on the roads where 10 vehicles pass through the space meant for 2. It is scary for people from countries like US to experience. Heck it is scary for me who grew up in India and travel here often. But some how people get from point A to point B without losing their limbs. it is quite amazing. The same thing is true in life in general. For some one who is not familar with the place you would think the society can not function in this type of chaos. It not only functions but gallops. India is even more advanced in some things compared to US. For example, one can make reservations and book tickets for trains (and soon buses) online. I get a mobile alert from the local repair shop where I checked in my laptop to fix its monitor. I can open a bank account without leaving my desk. A bank official came to me and took care of all the paperwork. I am serius. This is not because I am a big shot or anything. Almost anyone can do this. You can call the local grocery store with a list and they deliver for you (I know you can do this in US in some places). I can go on.
I see order in this chaos. I also see tremendous opportunities in this chaos. India is quite becoming. Some one said it is a functional anarchy. Quite true. I think there is no other way to grow this fast as a democracy.