Think Doing Business in India Is Hard? Try Getting a Drink After Work

wsj.com

3 pointsGeekette5 comments

The article ignores the crucial context: Gujarat is the only dry state in the entire country. This is why this story looks like another piece of Western media propaganda.

Apparently there are three other dry states: Bihar, Mizoram, and Nagaland, although apparently the first two have only banned alcohol for the past 30 and 10 years, unlike Gujarat which has had it banned since 1960.

I wonder what border towns there look like; I know that growing up in a dry county in Texas, people ended up going to the next town over and spent their hard-earned money there instead.

I wasn't aware that Bihar, Mizoram and Nagaland were dry states too. Growing up I lived in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra (border states to Gujarat), so was mostly aware of them. My friends who lived and worked in Ahmedabad would frequently leverage the 30 day loophole or go to neighboring states. It was never a big deal, like the way it is portrayed in the article.

Also drinking alcohol is not common in many T2, T3 cities in India.

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