My professional take on India's Global Business Summit

Basically, what I learned this time in New Delhi versus last time (2001) in Mumbai

My photo of Modi giving his speech the night of the 9th February (opening night)

I was in Mumbai back in 2001 at the invitation of the Indian Navy to help mark their 50th anniversary with a substantial International Fleet Review and conference (dozens of warships from around the world in the harbor for review + a naval conference involving several hundred admirals from around the world). The US Navy sent the commander of the WestPac fleet and I was invited, quite frankly, by accident.

President, PM, Chief of Navy, etc on bow of PM’s barge (LST); I rode in the back!

At that time I was Barnett the Younger at the US Naval War College. Barnett the Elder (Roger) was the prof with the serious reputation. Story is (as later told to me by those involved on India’s side), the young Indian officers wanted me to come and deliver a presentation (they knew of my popular Y2K brief), but knew it would be a hard sell given my lack of standing, so they told their superiors they were getting the “famous Dr. Barnett” from Newport and invited me on the sly. When I got there and the older admirals were like, huh? The younger officers grinned, shrugged their shoulders, and let me rock the place with my usual stuff (my brief on the collaboration with Cantor Fitzgerald at World Trade Center One — of course, the version prior to 9/11).

It was a fabulous trip, all paid for by the vast Tata conglomerate, which funded the fleet review and had us all stay in their famous Taj-chain hotel there just off the harbor (the one where Muslim terrorists attacked in 2008, killing 150 and harming hundreds more, along with destroying much of the hotel with explosives, forcing Tata to rebuild).

I got to watch a bunch of air and amphibious displays of force in the harbor from atop a luxury hotel (sitting about 10 spots from the PM) and ride the PM’s barge as he inspected the ships under rather hazy conditions (pollution was severe).

In all, that trip left me feeling like India was in the wings and looking forward to a rise but was nowhere near it and was feeling a bit sorry for itself in the light of China’s ongoing rocket trajectory then.