Well not everyone in that circa felt the benifits of liberalization. If you were an exporter or an employee of newly opened MNC it sure was good. If you were in government service it didnt do much for you. Hence the construct of liberalization and finances is indeed not as self-evident as you make it out to be.
So only exporters and MNC-employees were benefited? Why the hell would a person who is already an exporter need liberalization to enjoys the good times?
MNC's were around even before liberalization. Hindustan Lever is one example. Pre-1991, its sales/revenue growth were good but not exemplary. Take a gander at HLL's revenue and sales growth post-1991. Now, where does HLL derive most of its revenue from? Not from exporters and MNC-employees. From rural markets. IOW, HLL's explosive growth came from rural markets where people could now afford to buy their products. If the liberalization benefits were not pervasive enough, HLL would have been exactly where it was, pre-Lib. In 1991, I would guess HLL share price was around Rs.50-100 range. After several "bonuses" or stock splits, including the latest whopping 10-1 split, HLL's price is about Rs. 250. That should give you an idea of the sustained growth HLL had post-Lib. I am quoting HLL as its income mainly comes from rural areas.
The contention that "not everyone" benefited from post-Lib is with due respect, utter crap. It benefitted millions of ordinary families such as myself and my colleagues.
Further the GRE is not the 'cheapest' of competitive entrance exams. If you had given your CAT or GATE or MBA entrances it sure would have cheaper and saved you the trouble of 'pre-apping and apping'.
Now you display your arrogance by presuming to know what was best for my career.
I merely related a personal experience and in no way could my words have been construed to mean that studying abroad was the "wonly" road to success. What entrance exams I choose to give are my business; and my point was that the GRE fees that were hitherto unaffordable were then affordable in the prosperity that lib. unleashed.
So I am not quite sure where you get off presuming to tell me, rather arrogantly, that I would be better off taking CAT, GATE or MBA.
Again, there seems to be an underlying hostility that I am sure I have done nothing to invite. I was relating my own experience and those of many of my colleagues.
I can give you examples of individuals who came from a family facing sever economic hardships, wrote his GATE got in MSc and the a PhD program. And finally got to do his post-doc in the US on the merit of his work in India. They even paid for his plane ticket and he did not spend a bundle 'apping' either.
Someone who went the GATE route, then MSc IIT is currently a colleague of mine. He tells me stories of how some students who took the GATE with him were so brilliant that they could have even aced the JEE. Except, they did not even know what JEE meant. One of these GATE-IIT-MS student even today has a widowed mother who still lives in a village, "challowing" their plough, as he puts it.
I am sure that there are numerous post-docs in the US who did not have to 'app or pre-app as you put it. That shows your ignorance. Apping and pre-apping is required for MS and Ph.D. degrees in the US. THe post-doc world is more specialized and such 'apping is not required.
In fact, the more I read your rantings, the stronger the feeling that you envy those who could actually pre-app and 'app and resent perhaps the fact that you could not do it. Again, get off your high horse.
Please note I am not dismissing your efforts and or your successes.
You have no authority to do, even if you wished to do so.
An equivalent statement by me would be that I wanna eat millions of chana, light the methane that must surely emanate after 8 hrs of digestion and rocket myself to the moon, but I CHOSE not to do so.
But there are still a lot of engineers/graduates who do not have the the warewithall in POST-liberalised india to make it here. For them a Rs.5000 job is still better than nothing. Hence your vignette cannot be generalised as an outcome of liberalization.
I am sure there are. As a grad student in the US, I have helped many get in my dept, even raising funds to pay for the application fees and air tickets. Unlike the attitude of some desis who talk-talk-and taaalk and do squat to help their fellow countrymen.
warewithall
You, with due respect would probably have gotten no more than 300 in your GRE with such spelling skills.
But there are still a lot of engineers/graduates who do not have the the warewithall in POST-liberalised india to make it here.
Coming to the US is not the epitome of success. And I have never felt or said or implied that it was. A foreign degree cannot be the yardstick for academic success. There surely are many desis who may believe that but I am not one of them. So, I am not quite sure what you are trying to imply there. Please feel free to be direct. As you can tell, I have no trouble getting right to the point.
For them a Rs.5000 job is still better than nothing.
I am sure it is. In fact, if you are an engineer of any merit, you probably would earn a lot more than that.
I grew up in a "chawl." I am not quite sure if the chawl is a uniqely mumbai phenomena. But let me explain it. Nineteen small "kholis" to a floor. Where the 20th would be were four common toilets. Had to get in line every morn to take a dump.
So, I am still quite unsure as to what exactly gives you the right to mouth off to me.
As I said, we could afford the bare necessities of life and no more. Lib allowed me to come here to the US because that is what I wanted and Lib. gave me the resources to do so. Along with me, a lot, perhaps as many as 20 of my SSC colleagues are here in the US. All of us bound together by our common "chawl" experience. All came here on merit. None of us were exporters or the children of MNC-employees.
So unless I completely misread the intent in your post, here's adios to you.