The upcoming political generation in India & what it means

Confession:  I was approached a while back by a young politician in India who said he was organizing a new party.  He wanted me as an adviser on international affairs and listed a few other Westerners already brought on board.  I said I would consider, and then, following some Googling, I asked him about his stance on a couple of hot-buttons issues.  I thereupon got a reply email saying he didn't need to explain his positions to anybody, least of all a foreigner, so I was out!  Naturally, I was less than crushed, as the whole interaction timed out in about one hour.  But it was an interesting exchange with a member of the rising political generation in India: this guy was young, ambitious, highly opinionated, and intolerant of criticism.

Now, except for the young part, I'm not sure what's all that different between the old generation of leadership in India, with whom I've interacted over the years, and the new one coming up, especially when we're told that the leading star is yet another Gandhi (Rahul, 39, son of Rajiv).

So I was interested to peruse James Lamont's piece in the FT.

India is a lot younger than most rising powers--especially China. 70% of its 1.2B people are under 35.  As a rule, we are told, there is a new political generation every 25 years or so.  The big difference with this one will be that it's accompanied by a huge demographic dividend, meaning India is heading into the same golden period (not that many kids and elder dependents and a max percentage in workforce) that China enjoyed the past couple of decades--but which is ending for China now).

Plus, this is the first generation of leadership that is so globalized in its background and training:

Many have been educated abroad, often in North America, have worked for multinational corporations and share a pro-market world view.

All this suggests a stronger pro-globalization trend for India. International business is looking forward to working with this crowd.

Still, we are told, younger pols tend to be denied positions of great responsibility in a government that currently features a 77-year-old PM and a 74-year-old finance minister. Plus, there is the usual dynastic bit (yet another Gandhi).

So we keep an eye on developments to see how this promising new generation pans out.