'India has made incredible progress, but...': Austrian entrepreneur lists what got worse

Austrian entrepreneur Wolfgang Bergthaler, who has tracked India for 22 years, has listed what he believes has gone worse in the country despite its "incredible progress". He pointed to worsening air and water quality, unhealthy diets, social media use, and increasingly transactional relationships.

Bergthaler, founder of Austria-based business advisory firm WB5 GmbH, shared his observations in a LinkedIn post on Tuesday as he left India.

"My last post about India made a lot of Indians happy," Bergthaler wrote. "So I probably owe you the other half of the story."

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Basic Needs And Health

Bergthaler said business opportunities in India are "endless" and called it "the best/easiest place to become a millionaire".

But he said some basic needs remain unmet. "The human's basic needs are not met: clean air, water, organic food, privacy," he wrote.

He also pointed to changing eating habits and lifestyles. "People got richer. Their diets got poorer," Bergthaler wrote, citing the spread of junk and fast food, obesity, and what he described as a lack of sports and an "unhealthy lifestyle".

Everything Became A Business

Bergthaler said he has also noticed a shift in how people approach relationships and everyday life.

"Everything became a business case," he wrote.  "Indians were always good at making money. But today, health, education, and friendship etc feels transactional. Where is the room for relationships without an ROI?"

He also criticised the amount of time people spend on social media. "Scrolling social media: Everyone. Always. Everywhere. Nonestop."

The entrepreneur said conversations have also become shorter and less focused. "The attention span went from hours to reels," Bergthaler wrote. "Conversations jump from topic to topic before anything gets deep."

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Global India, Local Hierarchies

Bergthaler said India has become more global, with international companies, agile teams, and advanced technology. But he argued that workplace power structures have changed less.

"India went global. Hierarchy stayed local," he wrote, saying "old-school hierarchical power structures remain the same".

He also said consumers have become more demanding. "₹100 spent. 1000 expectations," Bergthaler wrote. "India's consumers became even more demanding. Unfortunately, patience and politeness didn’t always grow with them."

Business Has Become More Serious

Bergthaler said doing business in India has not necessarily become easier despite the country's economic growth. "Doing business in India didn't become easier. It became more serious," he wrote. He said the market is now bigger and more professional, while competition is "brutal" and expectations are higher. "Being foreign impresses nobody anymore," he wrote.

He, however, stressed that his criticism was not an argument that India is moving backwards. "None of this means #India is going backwards. Quite the opposite. India has made incredible progress. But India(ns) pay a high #price," he said.