A Recent History of India Through Western Magazine Covers Time Magazine's recent cover story in Asia, which dubs Prime Minister Manmohan Singh "The Underachiever," has roiled sleepy summer-time New Delhi, forcing politicians from Home Minister P. Chidambaram to opposition leaders out of the air-conditioned bungalows to either decry or support the magazine. (For the record: The Bharatiya Janata Party's spokesman said the magazine has "only stated the obvious," which Mr. Chidambaram countered, sort of, with "Can the PM rouse himself? The answer is 'Of course.' ") The fickle attentions of the Western media have blown hot and cold on India in recent years, sometimes praising its ingenuity and entrepreneurial spirit, other times decrying the slow-moving government and lack of infrastructure, sometimes doing both in the same year. A quick look back at the past decade in India, through Western magazine covers: December 7, 2003, BusinessWeek Magazine The Rise of India and What it Means for America Art: A young Indian man stares earnestly into the camera An excerpt: "The Welch center is at the vanguard of one of the biggest mind-melds in history. Plenty of Americans know of India's inexpensive software writers and have figured out that the nice clerk who booked their air ticket is in Delhi. But these are just superficial signs of India's capabilities. Quietly but with breathtaking speed, India and its millions of world-class engineering, business, and medical graduates are becoming enmeshed in America's New Economy in ways most of us barely imagine. "India has always had brilliant, educated people," says tech-trend forecaster Paul Saffo of the Institute for the Future in Menlo Park, Calif. Now Indians are taking the lead in colonizing cyberspace. February 2004, Wired Magazine Kiss Your Cubicle Goodbye: The new face of the Silicon Age. Art: A beautiful Indian bride, wearing gold jewelry, with software programming code written in henna on her hands, as for a Mehandi ceremony. An excerpt: "Aparna Jairam isn't trying to steal your job. That's what she tells me, and I believe her. But if Jairam does end up taking it - and, let's face facts, she could do your $70,000-a-year job for the wages of a Taco Bell counter jockey - she won't lose any sleep over your plight. When I ask what her advice is for a beleaguered American programmer afraid of being pulled under by the global tide that she represents, Jairam takes the high road, neither dismissing the concern nor offering soothing happy talk. Instead, she recites a portion of the 2,000-year-old epic poem and Hindu holy book the Bhagavad Gita: "Do what you're supposed to do. And don't worry about the fruits. They'll come on their own. March 6, 2006, Newsweek Magazine The New India Art: A beautiful Indian woman (Padma Lakshmi) poses in a red sari, hands folded in greeting. An excerpt: "India is diverging from its past, but also from most other countries in Asia. It is not a quiet, controlled, quasi-authoritarian country that is slowly opening up according to plans. It is a noisy democracy that has finally empowered its people economically. In this respect India, one of the poorest countries in the world, looks strikingly similar to the world's wealthiest country, the United States of America. In both places, society has triumphed over the state. June 26, 2006, Time Magazine India Inc.: Why the world's biggest democracy is the next great superpower, and what it means for America. Art: A beautiful Indian woman, draped in classical dance attire, wearing a call center headset. An excerpt: "If you want to catch a glimpse of the new India, with all its dizzying promise and turbocharged ambition, then head to its biggest, messiest, sexiest city -- Bombay. Home to 18.4 million people and counting, the city, formally known as Mumbai, is projected by 2015 to be the planet's second most populous metropolis, after Tokyo. But it's already a world of its own. Walk down its teeming streets, and you'll encounter crime lords and Bollywood stars, sprawling slums and Manhattan-priced condos, and jam-packed bars where DJs play the music of the Punjab, bhangra -- a pulsating sound track familiar to clubgoers in London and New York City. Note: The picture is actually of Gunjan Thiagarajah, 29, a "sales and marketing employee at a biotech firm in Los Angeles," a later Time Magazine story said. March 18, 2007, BusinessWeek Magazine The Trouble With India: Crumbling roads, jammed airports and power blackouts could hobble growth. Art: An elephant whose trunk, tusk and ears are disintegrating. Excerpt: "But this economic boom is being built on the shakiest of foundations. Highways, modern bridges, world-class airports, reliable power, and clean water are in desperately short supply. And what's already there is literally crumbling under the weight of progress. In December, a bridge in eastern India collapsed, killing 34 passengers in a train rumbling underneath. Economic losses from congestion and poor roads alone are as high as $6 billion a year, says Gajendra Haldea, an adviser to the federal Planning Commission. October 10, 2010, The Economist How India's Growth Will Outpace China's Art: A blurry tiger, on the run. An excerpt: "No doubt a strong central government would have given India a less chaotic Commonwealth Games, but there is more to life than badminton and rhythmic gymnastics. India's state may be weak, but its private companies are strong. Indian capitalism is driven by millions of entrepreneurs all furiously doing their own thing. Since the early 1990s, when India dismantled the 'licence raj' and opened up to foreign trade, Indian business has boomed. The country now boasts legions of thriving small businesses and a fair number of world-class ones whose English-speaking bosses network confidently with the global elite. They are less dependent on state patronage than Chinese firms, and often more innovative: they have pioneered the $2,000 car, the ultra-cheap heart operation and some novel ways to make management more responsive to customers. Ideas flow easily around India, since it lacks China's culture of secrecy and censorship. That, plus China's rampant piracy, is why knowledge-based industries such as software love India but shun the Middle Kingdom.