Caught between the devil and the deep blue sea

Day 1,826, 12:16 • Published in India Canada • by Alias Vision

NOTE: The devil is the challenge of growing India as a nation, the deep blue sea is the fact our allies (China) hold some of the most important keys to immediate improvement. This is what I hope to be part 1 of a series on the current status of India.

The goal of any nation in the New World is to be dynamic, to thrive, in short to be great. How one achieves that greatness depends on the tools at your disposal. If your name is Poland, the goal may be World Domination and Empire. If you are Indonesia, it may be becoming a regional power and valued ally. For tiny Austria the odds dictate that just being present on the map represents a victory. But what of India?

India's core regions represent a cornucopia of wealth and potential. Even in its present state, India's bonuses are decent by New World standards. But with a population base measuring in the bottom third of nations, that potential is largely unrealized. Superpower China is friendly but occupies some of our key resources. Croatia, also a friend and ally, is now a displaced regional power. Tiny Thailand consistently generates more influence than us and weaker Pakistan is beyond our reach to the West. If ever we did make it that far West however then we would encounter Iran and its power.

The present Government of India has come to power with the specific agenda goal of creating and nurturing a baby boom. Such a surge in citizens could not but favour the fortunes of the nation. Halfway through the term, can we see evidence that the campaign is working?

There appears to be traction. 43 new citizens are calling India home, not a baby boom by any stretch of the imagination but positive movement compared to so many other countries (for example China, even with 100/100 bonuses, are down 197 during the same period of time). More telling still, our current population level represents a net gain of 31 citizens over our 20 day rolling average (an important stat when you factor our high of 501 citizens and low of 425, populations fluctuate wildly).

When we break down the numbers by divisions, we can confirm that the new citizens are young ones where again we gained 30 division one citizens over the rolling average.

But here is the note of warning.

Even though we (and to a lesser extent Thailand in the Region) are growing, we are also becoming less active. Activity is measured by the number of fighters in a country on each given day. India's activity levels have dropped by 4.3% points over the past three weeks. This past week has been especially hard where as a nation we hit 23.3% yesterday compared to a high of 34.2% four days before the last Presidential election. Even though we have 30 more division one citizens, we have on average one less fighter there every day. Some citizens are born here but we are not retaining them. That trend repeats itself across all divisions including the fourth one.

Why does activity matter? In division four, our drop in activity represents on average a loss of 33,820,729 influence or 65% of the total influence loss India is currently experiencing each day. Let me make this even more concrete... the influence India is losing every day is equal to the sum total of the influence done by Pakistan. Not enough to become a World Power many of you would say but regaining that loss would permanently put us over a country like Thailand which despite a smaller population and fighter base, consistently out guns us on every field of battle before allies even get involved.

It is not enough to say we will work for a baby boom. The approach must be three-fold (and this is true of any country not in the top 10 and even then an argument could be made for them as well):
1. Baby boom and retention.
2. Immigration.
3. Resources bonuses.

It is a vicious cycle. To create and retain a baby boom, one must have decent enough bonuses to help citizens sustain themselves as fast as possible. To acquire and hold those bonuses/resources, a country needs a large enough fighting force to defend itself and its territories. If the influence talent is not homegrown because retention is not high enough, then it must recruit through immigration.

The activity level of fourth division citizens is 87% in India. In China it is 83%. Thailand 90%. In division one India measures in at 8%, China at 10%, Thailand at 12%. For every 1 citizen we retain in division 1, we retain 8 in division four. When a country has a gap to close as important as ours, we cannot afford to neglect this facet of nation building.

I would like to encourage our Government to discuss and not dismiss the potential benefit and influence there is to acquire in an active campaign of immigration and recruitment. It would be hard work but not any harder than a baby boom and holds many of the same risks.

**source