Indian bureaucracy and the 'boom'

A correspondent for Fortune spent 3 weeks travelling around India investigating the ground realities of the 'Indian Boom'.

Technology also has issues. "Incredible" India's image today is one of cutting-edge innovation. One of the best products I've seen is a nifty Reliance Industries broadband laptop card from India that connects to mobile cell towers. But try logging on to the net conventionally in Bangalore, India's Silicon Valley, which advertises itself as having the world's fastest broadband — "warp speed" — or being trapped in darkness in the elevator of an average but overbooked hotel you've paid $US200 a night for. Yes, Indian engineers are performing programming miracles in the back offices of Bangalore's myriad companies at a tenth the cost — and with twice the education — of their Western counterparts, but their skills aren't being evenly spread, or perhaps they are just reserved for penny-pinching Western clients, and dollar-hungry India Inc.

This flowering of entrepreneurship has made Indians richer than they've ever been. I'm fascinated by it, I love India and I think it will muddle through. But as I fly and drive around it, I just hope its long-overdue boom doesn't kill me.

Full story: The Age.