India must set its house in order to be seen as model country: NRI Academician
London: India has to set its house in order if it wants to be seen as a model country, an NRI academician has said.
Speaking at the launch of his book 'Communicating India's Soft Power - Buddha to Bollywood' at the Nehru Centre on Thursday night, Professor Daya Kishan Thussu said "if India has to be seen as a model, it has to set its house in order".
Thussu, a professor of International Communication and the co-director of the India Media Centre at the University of Westminster in London, said, "Nobody is scared of India because it is too chaotic".
According to the book, India has emerged as a major economic and political power in recent years.
On the basis of purchasing power parity, it was the world's third largest economy in 2012. Yet the country's cultural influence outside India has not been adequately analysed in academic discourses, the book said.
"As the world's largest democracy with a vibrant and pluralist media system, India offers an excellent case study of the power of culture and communication in the age of mediated international relations".
Thussu observed that despite massive expansion, "India has the largest number of people - 300 million - below the poverty line and the country has the largest number of child labour."
Lord Bikhu Parikh, who chaired the discussion said,
"I want India, a multi-lingual and cultural country, to be voice of sanity."
He said while cinema in the West is a form of art, in India "it is a form of entertainment". He wanted to know whether Bollywood had its influence on anyone outside the country.
Secondly, he said Indian universities have to be restructured to attract foreign students. He said according to estimates far more Indian students study medicine in China than vice versa.
Virendra Paul, Deputy High Commissioner of India to the UK, who launched the book said, "We don't want to scare any country. We would like to have the best of relations with all countries. We want peace, stability in the Middle East where we have 6 million Indians working and accounting for substantial remittances." HSR NSA