I've been travelling a bit between Europe and India this spring. As a European I'm stunned by the gloom over the Old Continent. Seems like there is no fight left anymore. It's like the collective mind would have just given up and decided to lie down to wait for the final count.

Meanwhile in India: I was initially a bit annoyed by the reluctance of business forums, media and other entities to acknowledge that the crisis was also suffocating India. It took me a while to open my eyes. Now I see that while Europe is wobbling like a punch-drunk boxer, Indian operators are nimbly moving about the field and happily chomping off sizable slices of the markets.

What a bounce-back ability, what extraordinary agility in the face of adversity! Meanwhile Europe seems ageing and clumsy, an ex-champion staring in disbelief as the contender inevitably becomes the champion.

The same, as for India, seems evident elsewhere in Asia as well. Malesia, Singapore, China, all are thriving. Of course at the same time it should be noted that e.g. China has single companies that leave a larger carbon footprint than some major industrial nations in Europe. But there you go, as Asia takes the center stage in industrial development, so must they take responsibility that comes with it too. Hope they take it on better than we did.

Asia is busy as an ant hill - this picture from jungle of cranes and high rises in Singapore.

Moving away from big picture, there seems to be no fast lift in the condition of "everyman" in India. Half still can't read, politics and national budgets are sad charades that promise no improvement. Well, no, scratch that: they promise but do not deliver. And talking with local peers I find that nobody expects a delivery either.

Looking over the compound wall,  the construction sites are filled with little children carrying earth, tottlers crawling in dust while their mothers work, fathers hanging from hights without safety ropes.

Construction site "daycare" in Bengaluru - here we will have 10 stories in a year.

India, as a nation, through it's business champions, is beating the crap out of western competition, one foot safely in home markets. Meanwhile the people manning the bottom echelons of that market toil in grime and dust. Everything in scales, I guess. Or maybe I'm just a sore loser from the old world.