The rich can ‘first worldise’ India quick

Rich people living in poor countries or cities can be a bummer – for the rich inhabitants. Think of a wealthy household in the middle of a meh neighbourhood – except on a bigger scale. Two options open up for the HNI: one, the standard, traditional one, of moving to a tony country, or at least to a ‘world’ city, parts of which even rich people don’t mind being seen walking in (think Central Park, Covent Garden, Saint-Germain-des-Pres…). Two, pour in money into your country/city as if it’s all an extension of your living room to make your ‘area of habitation’ match your status and taste.

The moderately rich do this with their street/neighbourhood. This, over time and with enough HNIs in that neighbourhood, is what makes a neighbourhood ‘posh’. That’s what Amrita Shergill Marg is about. That’s what Altamount Road is about. They didn’t turn up as top-end neighbourhoods from the day Delhi and Mumbai were created. Responsibility for a country’s upkeep and look – as opposed to intangibles usually bandied about as excuses like ‘GDP‘ – is usually seen as the state’s. Well, that’s not really a lifetime proposition. Instead, rich people who do ‘stay back’ can put their money where their balconies overlook. That will bring in the First World to smother over the Third World far more effectively and quickly than any ‘governmental mission plan‘.