Former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai slammed Hotmail founder Sabeer Bhatia after the latter asked if Indians could feel the impact of the economy becoming the fourth-largest after surpassing Japan in their pockets. Pai called Bhatia an “economic refugee” and said he had no contribution to India’s progress so he should stop the pontificating.
“Man @sabeer you are an economic refugee, left India long ago. Good riddance to bad rubbish. You had no role in India’s progress. So stop pontificating and shut up. We will grow India and build our future. We do not need you. You are toxic and a hate monger,” he said, reposting Bhatia’s post on X.
Bhatia posted a video, asking his followers to watch it carefully. The video showed a montage of scenes from slums and polluted land and water bodies, with the question – if India should celebrate becoming the fourth-largest economy if this is the quality of life – superimposed on it.
In the video, Bhatia can be seen saying: “The reason I have come out and criticised the overall GDP over that of Japan is for this reason. I have been getting a lot of backlash on my Twitter account but I’m still doing it because I love India and I love each and every one of you. I really care about India and I want it to be an India that improves the lives of all of its citizens, especially the ones right at the bottom of the pyramid. If we can take care of their lives, all the other numbers automatically take care of themselves.”
Bhatia said the easy way to do this was to mass educate the entire population of the country. “Today that is possible through the help of artificial intelligence (AI). What we need to empower them with is critical thinking skills. If every citizen of India has critical thinking skills, they would be ready for this new intellectual property revolution. But if we stick to the old way of rote learning and memorisation and getting marks and passing exams, that is completely useless.”
“There is a reason why I am positively criticising premature celebration. Please do not take it the wrong way,” he said.
Pai’s reaction comes amid the debate of GDP vs per capita GDP. Most experts, while lauding India’s ascension to become the fourth largest economy, have also pointed out that there is no comparison between Japan and India when it comes to per capita GDP. India’s per capita is still below $3,000 and there’s still a long way ahead. Many have also pointed out that when the population is significantly big – in this case, India’s – the GDP is bound to move ahead. Moreover, this is not only a story of India’s ascension but also of Japan’s decline, whose GDP was around $6 trillion a few years ago, and is now at $4 trillion.
Nevertheless, many on the other side of the debate have said for the per capita to increase, the overall GDP has to increase too. It is also not a mean feat that India has almost doubled its GDP in the past decade.
