Such occasions, fanfare aside, are an appropriate time to take stock: of a nation's assets and liabilities - not the national accounts, but rather the state of political democracy and economic prosperity, two of the prime indicators of a nation's well-being. Curiously enough, in India's case, the assets and liabilities are two sides of the same coin.

Take the polity. Democracy has never yet been consolidated so firmly in a country so poor, so under-educated and so diverse. Yet, India stands alone amongst the large community of developing countries, with such a deeply entrenched, pluralist and long-lasting democratic system.

Elections tend to be free and fair most of the time - barring the odd aberration in Kashmir. People turn out to vote in large numbers, especially the ones most marginalised by the system. Not surprisingly the voter leans towards change, but this desire for change is expressed within the system, and not through a desire to overthrow it.

Unfortunately, the political system at the level of political parties is not worthy of similar praise, and that it is the other side of the political coin. Political parties in India seem to shun any notion of internal party democracy; I cannot remember the last time a major political party had a free and fair election to pick its leader.

The leadership of political parties is normally decided by a feudal succession of one kind or another. India's politicians are also notoriously incompetent, corrupt, and disdainful of merit, though there are some exceptions which perhaps hold the system together. And in a country where the majority of the population are under 40, the politicians are mostly geriatric. The notable young ones are, unfortunately, children of political parents. In sum, there is an interesting dualism in the way the rulers and the ruled view democracy and the polity.

Now take the economy, the performance of which has been much lauded the world over. Indeed, India has done remarkably well since 1947, averaging a growth rate of between 3 and 4 per cent from 1947 to 1980, and then upping it to around 6 to 7 per cent in the quarter-century which followed. After a long period of stagnation under 200 years of British colonialism, this is impressive. There have been no major economic crises like those affecting developing economies in Africa and Latin America. Human development indicators, while still below potential, have also improved significantly over the last 60 years. There has been consistent progress, even if painfully slow on occasion.

Unfortunately, the fruits of economic growth have yet to be tasted by the majority of India's more than one billion people. This is the lesser-known side of the economic coin. Outside the rather large middle class of around 200 million people, India still has around 800 million people living in difficult conditions, at least 250 million of whom struggle to make ends meet.

At the same time, inequalities between the rich and poor have increased dramatically over the last two decades of economic liberalisation and integration with the world economy.

In sum, India is a great place to live if you are urbanised, English-speaking and rich, but a rather less attractive place if you are rural, vernacular-speaking and poor.

It's like two different worlds.

India's journey towards its centenary will be determined by the interaction between these dichotomous worlds. Political democracy, which empowers each of India's 1.2 billion people, demands that economic prosperity is delivered to all.

The logic of a booming market economy doesn't include the excluded. It is left to the political class, ineffective as it currently is, to take proactive measures to ensure that all of India's masses are embraced by the market economy.

Investing in quality education and health care, and building better infrastructure - roads and power stations for example - may help the cause.

It's a tall order, but there is time. After all, where did even that other great democracy and economic superpower, the US, stand in 1836, 60 years after its own independence?

I would argue that India's glass is half-full, rather than half-empty. It's for India's leaders and people together to determine a path which will fill it up - rather than drain it out - and harmonise India's different worlds.

The author is a research scholar in economics at Trinity College, Cambridge. His e-mail address is dn234@cam.ac.uk