While the tiger is quick , nimble and fast , the elephant is slow , has great capacity and seem to be sure in the long run .
Recently , Dr Manmohan Singh in an address at the Pravasi Bharati Divas meeting implied that we need to have patience to see results as he compared India to an elephant.(The Hindu , 9 Jan 2010)
The four Asian Tigers are Hongkong, Taiwan, Singapore,South Korea had exceptional growth rates between the 60s to 90s and graduated to advanced and high income economies.Learning from them other countries have followed suit - Philipines ,Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand sometimes being considered as the New Four Asian Tigers.(Wikipedia)
Various other authors have used the metaphor of an elephant for India . While India may never roar ahead like the Asian tigers, Gurcharan Das argues, it will advance like a wise elephant, moving steadily and surely, pausing occasionally to reflect on its past and to enjoy the journey (Das, India Unbound)
Relating to manufacturing , is India an elephant or a tiger ? (Hulten,Srinivasan) . The authors analyse and conclude that if larger-scale Indian manufacturing industry could be isolated and extracted from the Indian subcontinent and relocated to an island or peninsula of its own, it too might well be considered part of the Asian Miracle.
Talking about elephants and tigers what about the dragon ? - The metaphor commonly used to describe China ! India with China have shown exceptional growth under very different environments and reasons .
It will be interesting to watch how India progresses in the next decade .
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Some more on this topic
An interesting fable modelled on the Panachantra to reflect modern times is in the book by Shashi Tharoor . Is there a chance of the elephant transforming itself to become a tiger or rather imbibe such qualities ? There seems to be signs that this happenning - we are seeing an elephant getting some stripes !!
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