President Abdul Kalam of India.


Here is a quote from this BBC News article.

"India's hopes of becoming an economically developed nation by 2020 depend on its continuing to drive forward through science and technology, the country's president Dr Abdul Kalam has said."

All I can say is that India's hopes are bordering the mystical. According to the World Bank statistics on India around 350 million Indians live below the poverty line and 47% of Indian children under 5 are malnourished. India "boasts" the highest number of Aids patients too. China is not second to India, so India's population does not really account for their Aids record. India a developed nation by 2020?

I even doubt Dr M's vision for Malaysia. The numbers just don't add up with our current economic growth. Our economy grows at around 5% a year. Our per capita GDP of 2006 was around US$ 2500. That means our GDP was US$ 62.5 billion. We need to achieve a GDP of 350 billion by 2020 to become developed according to the World Bank as we need a per capita GDP of US$ 10 000. We are not going to achieve developed status by 2020, it is a mathematical impossibility even with 10% economic growth! Get the picture?

Sometimes politicians can cause too much hype.

That's all for now.