Goa beyond India

India is in the global headlines again, and this time for all the bad reasons. It now has a Prime Minister who is deemed to be an “underachiever”, its economic growth sank to “a mere” six per cent, and foreign investment is “rejected” in the midst of large corruption scandals. The golden reforms era that propelled the country to rookie superpower status in the early 2000s seems to have come to a sudden stop.

| JULY 27, 2012, 10:29 AM IST

Who toblame for this gloomy scenario? Many,for sure, but India’s regional states inparticular. Whether on foreign investment in the retail sector, water sharingagreements with Bangladesh, or the establishment of a National Counter TerrorismCentre, India’s big states are all playing an increasingly influential and –yes, let’s face it – obstructionist role that New Delhi is struggling toovercome.

This ispart of a centre-statebalancethatis threatening to tilt in favour of thestates, especially big ones.In the minds of Delhi’s federal politicians andpolicymakers, the competition between these colossal regional forces, fromKashmir to Karnataka and from Gujarat to Assam, will always smash tiny Goa intooblivion.

That is thecost for being a disproportionately wealthy and small state in a large electoraldemocracy. Goa represents only 0.1 per cent of the India’s total population andterritory, 0.4 per cent of the country’s total wealth, and it sends a mere twoout of 545 representatives to the Lok Sabha (0.004 per cent of the voting share).

But Goa isalso India’s richest state with a per capita income almost three times higherthan the national average, the Eleventh Finance Commission ranks it first ininfrastructure, and it offers the best quality of life according to the NationalCommission on Population.

There aretwo ways Goa can respond to this paradox. One is to remain sitting at thesidelines of Delhi’s giant matches, whining and hoping for some fortunateattention. Another, more productive approach is to change its perspective and,instead of the traditional inward look across the Ghats and towards theNorthern hinterland, now shift its focus to the ocean and revive the dormantlinks that once made it a strategic hub in the first wave of globalization afterthe 15th century.

Thisextrovert reorientation does not preclude Goa from continuing to lobby Delhiand perform its federal obligation by advocating for its interests domestically,also because these may be for the common good of other small, and maybe evenalso big states. But no longer can Goa’s comparative wealth and advantageremain ignored and unexplored, especially in an era in which other Indianstates have started to develop their own foreign policies and respective institutions,whether to attract foreign investment or manage their regional diasporas.

Goa is in aprivileged position to ride this new wave of globalization and explore thegeo economic shift from a world traditionally revolving around the Euro-Americantransatlantic axis to one anchored in the Asia-Pacific. No other Indian statehas such rich historical links with, and expertise on a variety of crucial countriesand world-cities, from São Paulo to Singapore, and from Maputo to Macau.Noother part of India had such a long connection to the modern West (451 longyears) and to South America, Africa and East Asia at the same time.

This is the old Indian Ocean region coming tolife again in an expanded version now also known as the Indo-Pacific (or maybeIndo-Atlantic?). Goa is close, but not too close to Mumbai, and it is small,but not too small to be reduced to a little casino paradise. This is the timeto think how to make bestuse of its global comparative advantage. If it playsits cards right, in a near future Goa will not only get New Delhi’s, but thewhole world’s attention.

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