India Looks Set for Lift-Off as Western Eyes Start to Roam Away from China ; BUSINESS ANALYSIS

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There is a standing joke about the Indian development story which goes something like this: What's changed about India? Answer: the telephone system is much better, the traffic congestion is much worse, but otherwise, nothing very much.

It is almost exactly 20 years since I was last in India and I can confirm the first two observations to be absolutely correct.

The last time I was here, as a backpacker between jobs, you could expect to stand in line for hours at the local post office just to make a call and even then you were lucky if it succeeded. But it was still possible to travel, even in Delhi, safely by rickshaw, unhindered by anything more than auto …