India Poised A Times of India celebration
Till some time back, India was the poster child of globalisation. A country which opened out to the world in the early 1990s and the world responded enthusiastically. The Indian economy grew. A section of people in the country prospered.
The poster child now seems poised for adulthood. So believes a leading daily of the country: The Times of India.
It ushered in the new year with a campaign called "India Poised'. "The idea behind the campaign was to boost the qualitative change that our country has undergone and the new phase that it will embark upon,' says Rahul Kansal, brand director, Times Group.
Cinestar Amitabh Bachchan's baritone voice announces the beginning of this new phase at the campaign's site www.indiapoised.com. "History is a bad motorist, they say. It rarely ever signals its intentions when it is taking a turn. This is that rarely ever moment. History is taking a turn,' he says.
So criticising the country's development trajectory is like impeding history from happening or to use the campaign's terminology "leashing back'.
But make no mistake: the campaign is not entirely laudatory. It sometimes does take up on what the country lacks: the poverty has been highlighted, educational shortfalls too, and so has the toll on the environment.
But to go back to Bachchan, "There is one India straining at the leash.' Let's not hold it back. Let not any glitches take away anything from a poised India.
Besides what better agency to celebrate India poised, than The Times of India.