Mode 2 can be tricky, better enjoy Davos.

India's IT industry is facing problems, wrote Kher and Gupta. " "The Indian IT industry is already witnessing the uncertainty caused by the Hire American-Buy American movement unleashed by the Donald Trump administration. The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which is set to kick in from May, will also create difficult challenges for the outsourcing industry." The problem is that, "So far India's focus in trade negotiations has been mainly on temporary movement of professionals (mode 4) and outsourcing using telecommunication services (mode 1)." We should concentrate on Mode 2 instead, which is comprised of telecom services, tourism, education services and medical tourism. Tourists will only come here if they can enjoy themselves and that can only be if they, especially women, feel safe. Stories of rape of foreign women make lurid headlines. But horrific as they are, cases against our girls are even worse because the brutal behavior of police forces them to take their own lives. A site on the internet advises foreign women to avoid or be extremely careful when visiting certain cities in India, including the national capital, Delhi. Foreign countries caution their female citizens from travelling alone or using public transport. Medical tourism is very successful but there are problems with "touts who leave no stone unturned in fleecing them". Recently, parents of a 7 year old girl suffering from dengue were charged Rs 1.6 million for 15 days in hospital. Of the total, doctors fees amounted to only Rs 50,000, the rest were ancillaries. The girl died. Hospitals charge an excess of 200-1,700% on drugs and consumables, like syringes and gloves. The Supreme Court has allowed hotels and restaurants to charge more for bottled water but a hospital is not a hotel, even if it provides rooms with beds and kitchen and laundry services. We can choose not to eat in restaurants but the only choice is between getting admitted in a hospital or dying at home, when seriously ill. Besides the drugs we are paying for may not be genuine, as the World Health Organisation reported that India produces 35% of all the fake drugs in the world. To show that it cares for the people the government asks doctors to prescribe generic drugs, to keep costs down. When you have a population of 1.3 billion people become disposable. As for education, if our own companies find only 7% of engineering graduates fit to be employed, isn't it immoral to ask foreigners to pay for something which is useless? The reason why the government does not talk about Mode 2 is because it will not be able to answer questions by foreign governments. Better to lecture about "engagement with international community", whatever that means. At least one can enjoy a knees-up at Davos.