Taking note of India

Which country is taking the largest mindshare of the Americans these days? Iraq would seem to be a good guess. However, Americans seem to be more concerned these days about the 'rise' of India and, of course, China as a threat to their global domination.

Consider this. Time has done a cover story documenting India's breakneck growth weeks after Newsweek did a similar story; when was the last time there was a cover story on the same country by two top weekleys in less than a month? Fareed Zakaria almost sounded an alarm to the Americans with the cliched, "Be scared, be very scared" not too long ago. There are just too many stories doing rounds about how the end of US domination over the world is round the corner, and India figures prominently in all of them as one of the primary reasons.

Although the rumblings about India started quite some time ago, India talk in the US media has clearly gone up a notch in the last twelve months. Superb marketing at the WEF in Davos has delivered handsome returns, but India Inc. should also be mighty thankful to Tom Friedman for marketing India in United States through his bestselling book The World is Flat(this is the top nonfiction bestseller BOTH in India and the US!).

There is another testimony. India has figured as a top search in the NYtimes website for at least a month. India is the 7th most search word during last 24 hours, 6th most searched during the last seven days and 4th most searched during the last month( ahead of both Iraq and Iran!). Clearly, quite a few Americans are taking note of India, which could be a mix of concern, anxiety and interest. Is this good news for India or bad news?