金融时报:印度style：世界的缩影

印度style：世界的缩影

FT专栏作家吉迪恩·拉赫曼(Gideon Rachman)。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

manicured['mænikjuəd] adj.整修的；修剪整齐的

Uttar Pradesh 印度北方邦，北部与尼泊尔接壤。Badaun是北方邦的一个城市布道恩。

spree[spriː] n.狂欢；无节制的狂热

Jaguar Land Rover 捷豹路虎，是一家拥有两个顶级奢华品牌的英国汽车制造商，08年被印度塔塔汽车收购

categorical imperative 绝对命令。康德的表述为:“不论做什么﹐总应做到，使你的意志所遵循的准则，永远同时能够成为一条普遍的立法原理”（《实践理性批判》）。这一提法在于强调意志自律和道德原则的普遍有效性﹐体现了康德的伦理学原则。

outskirt ['aʊtskɜːt] n.郊区，市郊

malnourishment [mælnʌrɪʃm(ə)nt] adj.营养不良

scavenger ['skævɪn(d)ʒə] n.清道夫；清除剂；拾荒者；食腐动物

India is part of an upside-down world (914 words)

The highway leading out of Delhi is lined with adverts for new housing developments with names such as “Exotica Dreamville”. A typical hoarding shows a smiling young couple, standing on a manicured lawn, under the slogan: “Lifestyle is here.”

Keep driving, however, deep into the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh, and you will find lifestyles that are neither exotic nor the stuff of dreams. On the outskirts of the city of Budaun, many of the children show signs of malnourishment. Goats, buffalo, cows and camels roam the filthy streets. Unicef, the UN agency for children, is running a campaign to equip all the houses in the district with a modern toilet. It is also trying to find new work for the “manual scavengers”, who make their living by cleaning dry latrines by hand.

In Budaun itself, the sanitation project is making slow but steady progress. But for Uttar Pradesh – whose population is more than 200m, larger than that of Brazil – the task is still dauntingly big. Unicef estimates that only 21 per cent of the state’s inhabitants have access to a proper toilet. In India as a whole about 600m people – out of a total population of 1.2bn – still practice “open defecation”, either in fields or urban wasteland.

India’s sanitation problems are a public health disaster that helps explain other grim statistics. Last year, according to Unicef, 1.7m children under the age of five died in India – just under a quarter of the worldwide total – while 42 per cent of the country’s children are officially categorised as underweight. Although India is often bracketed with China as a rising superpower, it is a significantly poorer nation – with a per-capita income less than a third of the Chinese level.

Statistics such as these are sometimes used to pour scorn on the idea that India is an emerging great power. The truth, of course, is more complicated. After 20 years of strong economic growth, India is simultaneously a rich and a poor country. Its sheer size means that India is the 10th largest economy in the world – and it could well be the third largest by 2030.

The country’s consumer market is growing rapidly. It now has more mobile phones than toilets. India has more absolutely poor people than Africa, and more billionaires than Britain. It is magnet both for the world’s aid agencies and for its multinationals. Corporate India is so wealthy that it is going on an international buying spree – snapping up well-known western marques such as Jaguar Land Rover. A country that almost ran out of money during the economic crisis of 1991 now has foreign reserves that stand at a healthy $300bn. India has nuclear weapons and a space programme; it recently announced a plan for a mission to Mars. It is now also the world’s largest importer of weapons, and recently said it would spend $10bn buying new fighter jets from France.

Some regard all these contrasts as evidence that the Indian government has scandalously misplaced priorities. The reality is less clear-cut. The central government has a great many poverty alleviation programmes and spends a lot of money. The story is not so much one of outright government neglect as one of corruption, maladministration and rigid social structures. A decade ago the central government allocated about $300m to improve sanitation in Uttar Pradesh alone – but the money somehow disappeared between Delhi and places such as Budaun. Local residents tell stories of the small tragedies that blight lives and thwart official policy – such as government ration cards that are stolen by local officials.

Yet the numbers suggest that, even in rural areas, things are improving. Rural wages are said to have doubled over the past decade in India. Amid all the poverty in Budaun, there is plenty of commerce – from small workshops to roadside stalls. People are moving off the farms into rural industries or towards the cities.

It is this migration from rural to urban areas that brings together the stories of the two Indias. One senior official in Delhi says that his main reason for confidence about his country’s future is that the move to the cities will drive economic growth for the next 20-30 years, as it has in many societies in the past – from Britain in the 18th century to China today. “You stay sane in India by looking at the medium-term,” he remarks.

The fact that India is simultaneously a rich and a poor country is not just baffling for Indians – it is also a puzzle for outsiders. In Britain at the moment, there is a lively debate about whether the UK should continue to send foreign aid to India. If the idea is to help the world’s poorest people, then there are more of them in India than in any other country in the world. And yet India also has a smaller budget deficit and larger foreign reserves than Britain.

Indians could have their own version of this debate about aid and equity. For even as European countries send aid to India, India will be indirectly funding the bailouts in the eurozone – through its contributions to the IMF. Yet living standards in Greece or Ireland remain unimaginably lavish by the standards of rural India.

These kinds of paradox crop up in debates about everything from arms sales to climate change. They are characteristics of a world in which notions of “rich” and “poor” nations are being turned upside down.

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What does the writer try to do in the first paragraph?

A. To show that India's urban development is impressive.

B. To show that Indians are quite fashionable.

C. To imply that a housing bubble might appear in India.

D. To contrast life of Delhi-style with that of Uttar Pradesh-style.

答案(1)

2.Which of the following is not true about India?

A. Uttar Pradesh State alone is more populated than Brazil.

B. Its per-capita income is almost the same as China.

C. About half of India's total population do not have access to a proper toilet.

D. India is the 10th largest economy in the world.

答案(2)

3.What are the reasons for India's poor development in rural areas?

A. corruption

B. maladministration

C. rigid social structures

D. All of above.

答案(3)

4.Which of the following statement best illustrates "an upside-down world"?

A. India almost ran out of money during the economic crisis of 1991, now it has foreign reserves of $300bn.

B. India has more absolutely poor people than Africa, and more billionaires than Britain.

C. India now has more mobile phones than toilets.

D. India will be indirectly funding eurozone bailouts, yet living standards in Greece remain much higher than those of India.

答案(4)

* * *

(1) 答案：D.To contrast life of Delhi-style with that of Uttar Pradesh-style.

解释：出德里市的高速公路上的各种奢华地产广告让人印象深刻，但是，只要你继续开车到北方邦去，就能发现两地的生活方式和生活水平简直是天壤之别。

(2) 答案：B.Its per-capita income is almost the same as China.

解释：ACD项都是正确的，B项不正确，印度的人均收入不到中国的1/3。 第四段中作者说：···India is often bracketed with China as a rising superpower······a per-capita income less than a third of the Chinese level.

(3) 答案：D.All of above.

解释：ABC都是正确的。文中说：The story is not so much one of outright government neglect as one of corruption, maladministration and rigid social structures. 问题并非是简简单单的“政府失职”，事实上印度政府也做了努力、投了钱，但是腐败、管理不善和僵化的社会结构抵消掉了这些努力。

(4) 答案：D.India will be indirectly funding eurozone bailouts, yet living standards in Greece remain much higher than those of India.

解释：作者对“上下颠倒的世界”的阐释是：notions of “rich” and “poor” nations are being turned upside down，也就是说穷国竟然在支援富国，而不是富国支援穷国，这就让人困惑了。而A项是讲述印度经济发展的成果，BC两项则描述印度国内的贫富差距，因此不是对这一说法的准确阐释。