In the midst of the smog and pollution concerns, there were a couple of news items that caught my attention in the recent days. For those who react with the “anti- national presstitute rant” and the questions like “don’t you not see the make in India deals and all the other good stuff?” hold your breath. Please make the effort of clicking on this link which addresses make in India developments. http://www.netamaker.com/newsDetails.php?id=1111226

Now coming to the two other news items - bullet trains and Pakistani ballistic missiles, they seem to share a common thread.  

Japan just sold India a $ 12 billion ( Rs. 98,000 crore) bullet train. To put this in perspective that is about almost 3 years of India’s healthcare spending. Health spending for India is now down to $ 4.8 billion (Rs.39,000 crores) which 1.2% of GDP, down from 5% of GDP in 2013, while in Pakistan it is a paltry $ 200 million (0.42%, down from 0.69% in 2014).

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-28/india-curbing-health-outlays-blunts-push-to-give-poor-safety-net

India’s public health spending is still less than Haiti, Sudan, Gabon and Afghanistan by some measures. Well one might argue that the bullet train loan is financed by Japan etc, but a loan is a loan, soft terms or hard.

In other recent news, Pakistan successfully test-fired the medium-range Shaheen-III surface-to-surface ballistic missile which can carry nuclear warheads up to 2,750 kms bringing many Indian cities within its range. My first reaction is – “Nice, that missile solves all of Pakistan’s problems”.

Let’s look at global defence budgets as well. India has the ninth largest defence expenditure in the world ($ 40 billion) and Pakistan the twenty seventh ($ 9 billion). These two countries have a total defence spend close to $ 50 billion…

http://www.globalfirepower.com/defense-spending-budget.asp

This to me seems to be the most expensive sibling rivalry in the world for two sibling countries separated at birth. Interestingly does this $ 50 billion keep both these countries at peace? One interesting fact is that we are making someone else rich with these purchases while poor citizens die of sickness starvation. India is the second biggest importer of arms from the US.

Let us check some other facts here. About 30% of India and 50% of Pakistan live in poverty. These numbers keep changing depending on how you adjust the definition of poverty. (defined as below $2.4 dollars per day per Indian Planning Commission).

http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/02/asia/india-poor-census-secc/

http://www.dawn.com/news/1110248

So one cannot but wonder about if our priorities are in the right place. Could we use Rs 98,000 crores, to fight tuberculosis, or contain pollution, or fix our public distribution system?

If only bullet train technology could feed the UP family living on grass rotis or if only the Shaheen Missile take out tuberculosis?

For more perspectives, please visit http://www.netamaker.com/zing.php