The hits just keep coming. In recent weeks, credit rating agencies have downgraded India's investment status, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been described by Time magazine as an underachiever, U.S. President Barack Obama has raised concerns that corporate America is worried about India's investment climate and protectionist sentiments, and The Independent (London, July 16) rudely asked if Singh is Sonia Gandhi's poodle instead of India's savior.
And now the biggest power failure in history: Almost 700 million Indians in 21 of 28 states were left without power as three major electricity grids collapsed for two consecutive days. Whole cities, hundreds of trains and other transport systems and industrial production ground to a halt.
Unbelievably, the power minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde, has since been promoted to the post of home minister, one of the top four Cabinet posts.