BOTH SIDES OF THE SAME COIN
Two stories from India of note this week, illustrating some of the best aspects of India's astonishing growth and how much the glass is still empty.
First, this story from the Financial Times on the record New York-based sales of Indian art at both 
Christie's and Sotheby's, with the first Indian painting ("Mahisasura" by Tyeb Mehta) selling for over a million dollars ($1.6 million in this case).
There's a lengthier post here in the Indianartnews blog, which also had the adjacent picture.
It represents a milestone in the nascent market for Indian art worldwide, and symbolizes how far the country has come over the last decade.
On the flip side, is this unrelated story from BBC News (via Anna of SepiaMutiny), reminds us of the other reality of India beyond the now generally well-known and understood "Flat World"-Biggest-Rising-Global-Economic-Power-After-China story. An excerpt:
"A 12-year-old Indian girl committed suicide after her mother told her she could not afford one rupee - two US cents - for a school meal."
As someone who was born in India, but spent most of his life abroad, the poverty visible in India today continues to be as heart-wrenching as I remember it from years past. It's the one thing most first time visitors to India are the least prepared to witness, despite all the stories they may have heard from folks beforehand.
As this unrelated article from the ScienceBlog (Lancet) shows, the suicide rate for India's young (ages 10-19), already ranks amongst the highest rates of in the world. The study from last year indicates 148 out of 100,000 young women and 54 per 100,000 young men, compared to 14.5 per 100,000 for the rest of the world on average.
Besides abject poverty as in the case above, other related causes tend to be related to stress related to a very competitive education system, and social/cultural forces.
As the BBC article suggests, India's got a long way to go before the current economic growth materially changes the lives of the majority of India's billion plus people. But things are moving in the right general direction.
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