The very first decade of the 21st century comes to an end today and this shall be the last post of the same. It has not been an easy decade for India, or for several other countries. It was a decade filled with many advancements -

Better communications: Mobile phone market has grown from a mere 36 lakh subscriber base in Year 2000 to nearly 51 crore connections as of Nov 2009. Last month alone, we added nearly 180 lakh more connections. Internet penetration has been extremely slow, growing to a mere 1.34 crore connections from 46 lakh connections in Year 2000;

Urban growth: At the helm of this decade, around 27% of Indian population resided in urban India. However, extremely rapid urbanisation due to globalisation helped grow sectors like IT and Services as if on steroids. Urban Indian population as of 2006 stood at 29%, however, there is no data for 2009. We could safely estimate it at around 31-32% based on previous growth data. With a 4-5% increase in urban population every decade, India is struggling to cope with providing infrastructure to its urban areas.

Middle Class rises: Globalisation of India helped fuel the rapid growth of India’s middle class, thus creating a new demand for processed foods, high quality and imported clothing and accessories, lifestyle products and services such as fine dining restaurants, high-end malls and multiplexes. Finally, it jumped up the demand and sales for 2-wheeler 4-wheelers like never before. People were traveling farther to work, and since the government did not meet demand with supply of public transport facilities, citizens had to make their own arrangements. As a result, urban traffic is very dense, chaotic and unruly.

Economy: Indian economy, despite all its problems, has been on a roll with our GDP rate nothing less than 7% since 2003 with a high of 9.9% in year 2000. However, owing to this century’s first depression in the developed world, India’s growth rate slipped to around 6.6%. It is still highly commendable that our economy stood while other nations struggled.

This decade was also filled with sadness owed to an increase in the number of attacks by terrorists, be it the attack on Indian parliament in 2001, or the series of blasts in the trains of Mumbai in 2006, or the coordinated attacks in Mumbai – November 2008, multiple bombings at various parts of Hyderabad in August, 2007; or multiple blasts in Bangalore in 2008, there is a trend that is to be taken seriously. These attacks have been more regular, are more planned, and are targeting not just Indian monuments or places of importance, but places of general public like parks, restaurants and train stations.

This decade has also witnessed a huge support for separatism, what with three new states(Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Uttarakhand) all emerging in the same month of November, 2000. Blame or hail BJP for that. Following that, there have been more requests and agitations for separate states across India, with Gorkhas wanting a piece of West Bengal; Mayawati and her supporters wanting BundelKhand again from UP; Vidharba from Maharashtra; and most importantly the agitation for a separate Telangana from Andhra Pradesh. A month of severe agitations have brought AP to a grinding halt and there seems to be no respite from rasta-rokos, bandhs, and other forms of anti-democratic agitations. People of Andhra Pradesh have been spared two days of ‘relief’ on the occasion of New Year’s celebrations.

There were also several scams, as always. But the one that takes all the cakes is the Satyam fiasco early 2009 that was a result of misreporting of profits and figures ending up in a Rs.7000 crore fraud and the abrupt demotion of Mr. Ramalinga Raju from a role model to no-more a model, with several charges pressed against him and his co-scammers.

I could go on and on, it is, after all a decade I’m talking about. But I should leave the rest for you to ponder about. On the other hand, this was the most important decade of my life and decisions I took in this decade form my career for the rest of my life. I finished my Xth grade in the year 2000, my +2 by year 2002 and a fun-filled Bachelor’s in 2006. Worked in several jobs for abruptly short durations and after much confusion I ended up in the US of A for my Master’s. I graduated out of school just this month, marking a very eventful and fruitful decade.

Here is wishing all my (very few) fans out there a new year filled with memorable events and successful endeavors and a very grand new decade.

Jai Hind!