Talking Point

Danny Boyle’s, eight Academy Awards winning yet controversial film Slumdog Millionaire, set and filmed in India, gave the country another name derivative – the Slumdog Land. The name tagging apart, the film also carried a deeper symbolism for India, a land of many contradictions.

As India surges forward in taking big strides of development, there are millions of slumdogs, aspiring to become millionaires all over the country in their own entrepreneurial ways. The making of new India thus needs a thoughtful blend of big ticket macro development as well as the inclusive growth of micro-small-mid sized enterprises for a sustainable growth path.

28th Feb 2009: It was the last day of my trip. In the morning I went for my customary eye check up at “Sushrut” the eye hospital set up by my uncle, Dr. Sunil Bagchi, a renowned eye specialist. Sushrut offers low-cost but quality eye care to the masses.  For a modest fee of Rs. 50 one can avail of the best in eye care. Even the rates at the in-house spectacles shop seemed unbelievably low. I have always admired this great initiative and this time discussed with Dr. Bagchi the possibility of taking the concept to the districts and rural areas, where quality eye care was not available.  Unnecessary (and preventable) blindness resulted in a massive loss of productivity, especially in poor families. A lot of this can be prevented through timely eye check-ups and minor corrective operations. Also, as Dr. Bagchi pointed out, children must undergo a compulsory eye check-up, between the ages five and eight. Defects identified at this stage could easily be rectified, thus freeing up our youth from future eye defects and leading to fulfillment of careers that required a clear vision.

Why not open up basic eye centers at the district level with just a technician to undertake basic eye check ups? These centers could be connected to the Sushrut main hospital though the internet, thus enabling ‘online’ check-ups, diagnosis and treatment advise by the specialists. Finally, for cases requiring operation, the patients could be asked to visit Sushrut.  This would really be a great health initiative for the masses. Dr. Bagchi seemed intrigued by the idea. For the time being though, he was busy planning for the utilization of an adjacent plot of land offered to him by the government for setting up a “Center of Excellence”.

That night having completed the immigration and security check formalities, as I waited for Singapore Airlines to make its boarding announcement, I reflected on the experiences and insights of my mini ‘bharat darshan’ i.

Millions of slumdogs were aspiring to become millionaires all over the country! Most by fair means and some by means not so fair. Indeed, the Reserve Bank of India had a daunting challenge, reforming the financial system, trying to ensure maximum openness to technology- induced inclusiveness and at the same time ensuring minimum possibilities for misuse and fraud. By all accounts, it was doing a great job! It had already okayed mobile banking in a limited manner and had put in place an innovative policy for branchless banking to ensure financial inclusiveness.

Today, a poor migrant worker in a remote village can open a bank account with a commercial bank and carry out small deposit, withdrawal and remittance transactions without ever setting foot in the bank’s daunting premises! 

What came out over and over again was the fact that great levels of creativity, innovations, diligence, industry and ambition flowed from very modest infrastructural support and low-cost operations! This is something that is unbelievable in the western world and indeed even in other Asian countries. The end result is value-for-money and competitive strength in Slumdog-Land that is perhaps unparalleled.

Consider for example, the fact that the Indian Microfinance industry thrives on a 15% interest on their microloans whereas in the Philippines (and many other Asian countries), MFIs charge between 36 to 40% interest. The difference becomes all the starker when one realizes that the rate at which the MFIs themselves borrow funds is more or less the same in both these countries!

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i Bharat Darshan: Tour of India