Well, prattling on about "self-reliance" is very traditional post independence India. The author of it sort of sounds unaware that the last 30 years have happened. The slightly disturbing thing is that the new (Congress) Indian government requires the support of the communist party that put this out in order to have a parliamentary majority.

That's the downside. The upside is that the principal source of this kind of stuff used to be the Congress Party itself, whereas Congress itself no longer does this kind of thing, judging by the fact that a few weeks ago they elected Dr Manmohan Singh as Prime Minister, who is a committed free marketer (and who was the original architect of India's free market reforms when he was finance minister in a previous government of a decade ago).

I am with you in concluding from all this that there is lots to be optimistic about. And I am looking forward immensely to the Australian cricket team's tour of India later in the year, too.