A successful show begins to pall

摘要

Imagine a place run by film stars-vain, power-hungry, paranoid, adored. Imagine they had been in charge not for the duration of a reality television series but for decades in a territory containing 72m people and one of the world's largest cities. It would be a disaster zone, wouldn't it? Think again, and welcome to Tamil Nadu, one of India's great success stories-and a state run by actors. It is the ultimate celebrity experiment. Tycoons and foreign bosses are infatuated by Gujarat, a hard-charging western state where the trains run on time. Policy wonks admire Bihar, an eastern badland that is getting its act together. But India's most consistent economic performer is in its deep south (see chart). Tamil Nadu has the third-biggest gdp of any state and has grown faster and richer than most.