[Delta]

India has one of the fastest growing economies in the world with an average growth rate of 9%. It has recently acquired nuclear weapons, and has a multitude of resources at its command. With the second largest military in the world, does India have a chance of becoming the next superpower?

[Glenn D]

Together with China, they will.

[Delta]

But what about poverty and illiteracy, won't that slow india down?

[Glenn D]

In terms of poverty, it will get reduced by economic growth. After that it'll be up to the Government to try and cut down the rich poor gap.

Are you sure about illiteracy? I thought India's got a good education system which gives them skilled workers and which attracts companies to outsource to India.

[Delta]

20% of Indians are illiterate but thats going down because of the new programs and educational funds.

[Spike Spiegel]

India certainly has potential to become a new superpower,
although I don't see them having global influence like US.
They'll probably get a permanent seat in the UN Security Council which will increase their influence, but I think they'll stick to their own subcontinent, since they were always a peaceful country.
Their biggest problem is uncontroled population growth that will cause more poverty.
Their biggest advantage is cheap and qualified labor and the fact that they are the largest
English speaking country certainly helps.

[Torwan]

India already is a world power, it's just a very silent one.

Poverty and stuff won't block that. The same things apply to China.

The 21st century will be more "pacific centered". The 20th century was "atlantic centered" with most major things happening to "atlantic nations" like US, Europe, Russia. The 21st century will see more action in the "pacific area" with US, Russia, China, India (OK, technically not "pacific", but more "pacific" than "atlantic"), Japan, Indonesia and others. Europe and the Middle East won't be that interesting in a while...

India has all it needs for being a world power - size, manpower, eagerness, power.

[Delta]

According to Goldman Sachs the potential for the next world super powers are Brazil, Russia, India, China, and the European Union. I guess size does matter.

[NewEra]

According to Goldman Sachs the potential for the next world super powers are Brazil, Russia, India, China, and the European Union. I guess size does matter.

Of those listed above, those I believe would truly be considered a 'superpower' to the true extent of the term's definition is China and the EU (if you consider the EU a 'country' and not a simple union). The others would certainly become world powers, but my personal hunch tells me that there is something lacking in those countries that the E.U. and China have (perhaps, a history of being long-time superpowers or maybe the fact that the people indigenous to those locales have always seemed to succeed wherever they go...). Anyways, it's just my wild speculation with little detailed evidences.

[Delta]

Russia has the largest deposit of nukes (over 13,000), China has a sizeable amount of nukes, India only has like 2 or 3, and only some parts of the EU have nukes. I'm not sure about Brazil though.

[tallus1]

india is full confusion
tribes exist there
the people are followers

india may have high activity there, but world superpower or positive world influence, highly unlikely

[tallus1]

the key to a society.. local society or world society is literacy..

india literacy rates.. are what 60% or 70%?

they can hardly participate in their own society.. how will they be world leaders?

[Spike Spiegel]

Europe and the Middle East won't be that interesting in a while...

Well I certainly hope we won't be that interesting any more.

India only has like 2 or 3, and only some parts of the EU have nukes

India has more like 100 nukes while France and UK have about 550 together.

the key to a society.. local society or world society is literacy..

india literacy rates.. are what 60% or 70%?

I agree but having 70% literacy
means having 700 million people that now how to write,
from which 350 million speak English.

I have one question. If they all become superpowers won't
they just be regular (great) powers then.
I mean is it possible to have six superpowers.

[Torwan]

Do you really think that "nuke count" is important in terms of power? That's ridiculous. It doesn't matter if you have one or one thousand nukes - as soon as you have one, you're capable of making more and that's the only thing that matters.

Look at North Korea - they may have one nuke right now. That's enough to scare the hell out of its neighbors. It's not important if South Korea is nuked into a radioactive moon-like crater desert or if just Seoul is being nuked. Would be horrible either way.

India may be in confusion, filled with tribes, low literacy rate...so? Other countries have similar problems. Even if only two-third of Indians can read and write - that's still about 800, 900 million! More than US and EU have together. And look where India came from - a backwater colony about 60 years ago, now a nuclear-capable nation launching its own satellites with its own rockets, a big player in the global IT sector, blue water navy and eager to achieve more...

[NewEra]

I agree with what Torwan added to this. For those reasons, I believe India will soon be an even stronger world power in the future.

As I've said before, the term 'superpower' is being greatly exaggerated here. Let's not get ahead of ourselves by saying that India, Brazil, and Russia will be true superpowers. They just don't seem like potential candidates that will truly shake the world's politics like what the modern U.S., former British Empire, and the former Soviet Union did. I only see China and the E.U. being able to do those things within the next 1 or 2 decades. The other major world powers just don't have, in comparison, the same caliber of political, geographical, cultural, military, economic, and demographic prowess as the European Union and the People's Republic of China. Not to mention the fact that those two have a long tradition and history of being pre-eminent superpowers in the past, which certainly give their citizens high self-expectation and drive.

As the Goldman Sachs research stated, India's economy will be good- but only good enough to trail the U.S. and China. Regardless, they will be a major world power within this century.

[N'Djamena]

Former Indian National Security Advisor Jyotindra Nath Dixit has describing the characteristics of Superpowers:

First, the state or the nation concerned should have sizeable territorial presence in terms of the size of the population. Secondly, such a state should have high levels of domestic cohesion, clear sense of national identity and stable administration based on strong legal and institutional arrangements. Thirdly, the state concerned should be economically well to do and should be endowed with food security and natural resources, particularly energy resources and infrastructural resources in terms of minerals and metals. Such a state should have a strong industrial base backed by productive capacities and technological knowledge. Then the state concerned should have military capacities, particularly nuclear and missile weapons capabilities at least comparable to, if not of higher levels than other countries which may have similar capacities.

http://www.roseinfist.net/ir/superpowers.htm


I had hoped that a unified Europe would be the next superpower, but seeing as how they won't be getting any more unified anytime soon, I think India will beat them to it. They are certainly ahead of the other contenders, with the exception of China.

[proudtobeamerican]

no. they will be always offset by China. however, they will be an equalizer to china, and hopefully destabilize it so China will not be able to become a worldpower. There is a reason why the US has been pouring billions of $$$ into aid to India.

[jiam17]

proudtobeamerican thank you for pointing out that usa is a threat to peace and harmony half a globe away

[jiam17]

In this article, the author provides a list that affirms some of my claims.

http://groups.google.ca/group/soc.cultu ... 7eb2a91f37

India is an elephant - massive, slow.
One will conduct business around this elephant.

[Torwan]

India is an elephant - massive, slow.

Where was India in 1907? Some colony dominated by the United Kingdom, totally uninteresting.

Where was India in 1947? A colony of Great Britain, struggling for independence. A backwater place, totally uninteresting.

Where is India in 2007? One of few nuclear capable nations with their own space program, annual economic growth rates of nearly 10 percent, the worlds' leading IT-development and Outsourcing partner, growing in economic, political and military value every day.

Where will India be in 2057 if it made that jump in just 50 years? Don't deny reality just because you don't like it (and are able to find articles that back you up; I can find you a dozen who support my position).