Saritha Rai

Saritha Rai covers India for GlobalPost. Rai has spent her journalistic career tracking diverse subjects such as globalization, the technology industry and social change. For six years,...

Read Full Bio >

Saritha Rai's Notebook:

October 24, 2009 10:08 ET | Updated: October 24, 2009 10:09 ET

In India, long live the dynasty

Long live dynasty politics. Rajendra Shekhawat, the son of India’s president Pratibha Patil and a political greenhorn, won a seat in the Maharashtra state assembly earlier this week. His candidature, stiffly opposed by his own party men, has only made it clear that India’s political parties cannot resist the push of nepotism.

It is common in India for sons and daughters of regional and national politicians of all political hues to get promoted to party positions, nominated as candidates in elections and even made ministers without facing an election.

Dynastic rule starts with the Gandhi family where Congress Party president Sonia Gandhi has made her son Rahul the party general secretary. Many bet that Rahul Gandhi is a future Indian prime minister. Already India has had three prime ministers belonging to the Nehru-Gandhi family (no relation to Mahatma Gandhi), leading them to be called ‘India’s Kennedys’ in the American press. It seems very likely that India will have more of them with the last name Gandhi.

Nepotism is quite widespread across the country. In the South, virtually the entire family of the chief minister of Tamil Nadu M. Karunanidhi’s is in different positions of power, as key party functionaries, ministers in the state government and even ministers in the central government in Delhi. That includes his nephews, his children from two different wives and assorted relatives.

In the neighboring Andhra Pradesh state, nepotism is the cause of some acute anxiety for the ruling Congress Party. Rajashekhara Reddy, the chief minister of the state died in a helicopter crash last month. Overnight, the chief minister’s son Jaganmohan Reddy, a businessman and political novice, has become the claimant for his father’s post. Congress president Sonia Gandhi has two choices — make him the chief minister or see him lead a rebellion within the state party.

The one stand-out exception to all this is prime minister Manmohan Singh. His wife and three daughters have stayed out of politics. His youngest daughter Amrit Singh is a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union.

September 3, 2009 08:50 ET

India's sweet tooth

India is the largest sugar consumer in the world. Given its population of 1.2 billion, India is among the largest consumers of much of the globe’s produce, products and services. But sugar has a special place in the Indian kitchen.

Every Indian celebration has a mandatory menu of sweets. There are precise sweets that match with specific festivals and occasions. And in parts of India, like the western state of Gujarat, desserts are eaten first. Indians are particularly partial to sugar-laden desserts dripping with ghee (Indian clarified butter), though many Westerners may find Indian sweets too sweet.

Indeed, the numbers of diabetes and heart disease-stricken Indians is rising at an alarming rate. Not surprising considering the calorie counts in each mouthful of popular Indian sweets. That delicious square of Halwa averages a whopping 550 calories. The lentil-and-sugar block of Mysore Pak has 350 calories. Laddoos, Jalebi and the syrupy Rasmalai pack between 200 and 250 calories to a mouthful. Even a tiny, gooey mound of Gulab jamun has 100 calories.

Is that stopping anybody? The rise of sugar consumption has tracked with the rising middle class. And now comes the news that this year’s drought has severely affected the sugar cane crop. The government will have to import 30 percent of its sugar requirement — India is headed for a massive sugar shortage. In the grocery stores and supermarkets sugar prices have spurted to 40 rupees ($0.85) for a kilogram.

Still, the steep prices will not deter the vast majority yearning for a sweet mouthful.

April 29, 2009 11:29 ET

In India, Bo lookalikes and Obama-inspired online campaigns


U.S. President Barack Obama’s foreign policy moves and his economic stimulus plans have been closely watched, but so too has the latest member of his household. Yes, Bo, the new resident of the Obama White House is something of a hit in India where affluent pet owners have decided that his breed is the latest, must-flaunt status symbol.

So, pet stores suddenly have been inundated with requests for the curly-haired Portuguese Water Dog puppies. All signs are that monochromatic Bo-lookalikes could unseat Paris Hilton’s Chihuahua as the number one celebrity-inspired dog import into India.

There is also an unmistakable stamp of Obama influence on India’s general elections with younger, dynamic contenders in urban India preening themselves when favorably compared with the U.S. president. But no other political party has quite emulated Obama like the leading right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party.

Inspired by Obama’s successful Internet campaigning techniques, the BJP is using the Internet to woo that most-hardened slice of voters — the urban elite — complete with pop-up ads, blogs and even a campaign on Twitter.

 

January 20, 2009 06:34 ET | Updated: January 20, 2009 13:25 ET

From Bangalore: Obama inspires young India

This time tomorrow, Karan Kamal will have a new speech to practice.

Kamal, 21, an undergrad at an engineering school in Bangalore, is a die-hard fan of Barack Obama’s speeches. His favorite is the 2004 one known as Audacity of Hope. Kamal has YouTube downloads of the speeches. He knows them all, word for word. He confesses to practicing them endlessly in front of the mirror. “It isn’t easy to copy Obama,” says Kamal, “but then, it’s all about trying." As the inaugural ceremony beams live in India overnight, Kamal will settle down in front of the television with family, friends, beer and pizza. “I can’t wait to hear his speech, it will be exciting and inspiring,” Kamal said.

Samyukta Ranganathan, 24, works for a sports marketing start-up in Bangalore. Ranganathan, whose friends call her Sammy, is preparing for an all-nighter at a friend’s house, with friends and colleagues getting together to watch the inauguration ceremony on television.

Ranganathan, who was an undergrad at a liberal arts college in South Carolina, says she first identified with Barack Obama because he was black and young. “But after I discovered Obama as a leader, he stopped being just young or black,” she says. For her generation "who knew neither Martin Luther King Jr. nor Mahatma Gandhi, Obama is the closest, modern-day version of a savior,” she adds. As she watches younger, inspiring political leaders all over the world, Ranganathan says she sees herself getting interested in the “glamour-less, messy world of politics."

Josh Bornstein, 28, a Chicago-native is now the executive director of Footprint Ventures, as early-stage venture capital fund in Bangalore. Bornstein, who has lived in the city for over five years, will join 130 other Americans at a dinner party on Wednesday night to celebrate the Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration. He looks at Obama from the lens of hope, Bornstein says, and feels encouraged that there are opportunities unlimited for ambitious, thoughtful and self-confident young people in the world. “I am excited today because this is the beginning of hope and change,” Bornstein said. As the ceremony unfolds on Tuesday night local time, Bornstein will watch it stream live on to his computer on justin.tv.

Click here for more reaction from around the world.

January 12, 2009 07:09 ET | Updated: January 12, 2009 07:10 ET

Covering India

India is amongst the oldest civilizations in the world and yet, time moves quickly in this country if you actually look.

Take this example. Not too long ago in Bangalore, where I live, traffic was regulated by a traffic policeman standing at intersections waving his arms all day long.

Some years ago, as more and more motorbikes, cars and trucks piled on to the streets, the traffic policeman started waving a baton to direct the traffic.

Then came a futuristic advance. The policeman now stood on a little platform at the roundabout, manually operating mounted metal pointers to regulate cars and buses. If he wanted to allow traffic to flow right, he would raise the metal arm to point in that direction, the metal arm would be turned left if that turn was open. And so on.

Then came the traffic lights. Still, the traffic policeman was stationed in a corner operating the green and red lights depending on the flow at that particular time of the day. By this time, the pollution in the city was bad enough for him to have a piece of cloth tied across his face to (somewhat) keep off the exhaust smoke.

The latest advance, a nod to this digital age, are the traffic lights that digitally count down to the green light. It is a masterful improvement. Motorists stuck at a red light can actually ease off their horns secure in the knowledge that the green light is still 143, 142, 141… seconds away. So honking at the truck in front is futile. The traffic policeman is still lurking somewhere in the corner, dressed in a breathing mask to save his lungs from the fumes, waiting to catch an errant driver who has sped on despite the amber light turning red three seconds ago.

In India, time stands still in some ways. Yet, it can whizz by you so fast that you’ll miss something if you blink.