Traffic: a microcosm of Indian economic life

I think India is a country of contradictions. On the one hand there is a young and burgeoning middle class made up of talented, educated people. On the other hand, there is an immense number of poor people who are not engaged in the formal economy. So while India is full of promise and has a bright future ahead of it, there are significant problems that need to be addressed. The pictures in this post are all taken of things we saw on the roads while driving through the country.

What really put India into perspective for me was taking a long drive from Delhi to Agra where we spent the day sightseeing at the Taj Mahal. To me, driving in India is a microcosm of Indian life in general. You have a lot of people trying to go from point A to point B on roads that don't have the capacity to accommodate everyone. In the same way, you have over one billion people who are trying to get ahead in an economy that is supported by an industry that employs so few Indians, relative to the whole. In the process everyone improvises and makes do with what’s given to them.

Because the roads are still so bad, you get a lot of improvisation out there. People are routinely breaking all sorts of major rules, like driving on the wrong side of the road…for what seems like long stretches of time! But it’s how they get from point A to point B and everyone understands that how it is and they adjust to that wild card. There a ton of variables out on the road. Not only are you fighting against cars, busses, trucks and auto-rickshaws, but you have to include the animals as well! There are cows, water buffalo, camels, and dogs running around on the highways.

From an economic standpoint, we’re seeing the same thing: people are essentially improvising and doing what needs to be done to survive. So everywhere you see what are essentially unlicensed and illegal shops everywhere on the side of the road that sell their wares from helmets to produce. There are roadside barbershops and, of course, beggars. They do this to make ends meet and adjust to the conditions of life in India’s poor class.

What would help the roads is the same thing that could help India get its underprivileged active in the formal economy: investment in infrastructure. More roads, wider roads, newer roads would allow more people to have access to these highways. The result would be a more efficient transportation system, more road travel and a more organized highway system. From an economic standpoint, building infrastructure would create a lot of jobs and move labor away from the tremendously inefficient agriculture sector to the more productive construction and manufacturing sectors.