BBC Correspondent: In Profile

The BBC's India Correspondent Soutik Biswas talks about why he's so fascinated by India and why he blogs.

SOUTIK BISWAS
India Correspondent
Current location: New Delhi
Blog: www.bbc.co.uk/news/correspondents/soutikbiswas

What is it about India?
It’s the most fascinating country in the world for a journalist – vast, complex, maddeningly diverse. It is rich and poor, tolerant and intolerant. You never know enough about India – the place surprises you all the time.

Why do you blog?
It’s a welcome release from the unrelenting grind of the 24/7 news operation of which I am a part. I worry that it’s often written in the middle of my busy day job when I’m already tired. But I try to keep my head clear and do it justice.

Which blog was most difficult to write and why?
It must have been the one I wrote on the contentious issue of whether India should pursue its nuclear energy drive. I had to consult a number of scientists whom I believe are fair and reasoned on the subject.

Which story has been your personal favourite?
I did a couple of stories on India’s private micro-finance meltdown and the attacks on the right to information activists, which came out reasonably well.

Do you follow any bloggers yourself?
I don’t follow any blogger consistently. Where is the time? I do follow a lot of columnists like Paul Krugman, Maureen Dowd and Robert Fisk. I also like the range of subjects and opinion the Freakonomics blog offers.

How big a problem is corruption in modern Indian society?
Corruption is India’s existential problem. Its deeply ingrained caste system and hierarchy makes it an intrinsically ‘unfair’ society, allowing corruption to thrive. Corruption hurts the poor most and the middle class happily acquiesces to it.

Much of your blogging seems to be about problems faced by village youth and women in the region. Why?
The young and women are driving the changes in India. If you ignore them, you’re putting the future of India in peril. Thanks to migration, many families live with one foot in the village and one foot in the city. It is this migration that is going to determine the future of India.