The International Wednesdays documentary series presents a screening of India on the Move, the third episode in the CBC series India Reborn, April 11 at noon in the International Student Centre on the second floor of Laurier Hall.

“The elephant is thundering,” says Vineet Agarwal, whose family owns India’s largest freight company, growing at 25 per cent a year.

And from the living room of his private jet, billionaire Vijay Mallya leans forward, chuckles and declares that: “before, America and Europe held centre stage. I guess centre stage is going to move east.”

Such is the confidence that now abounds in an economy that boasts a middle class of 300 million, and more young people than anywhere else on earth — 500 million under age 25.

But India on the Move also reveals that India still has a long way to go. It is all space age in the cities, but medieval in the countryside, where farmers live in dire debt and an alarming number commit suicide.

Corruption is improving, but remains endemic; public education is woeful; and crucially, there remains a desperate need for jobs. The Indian growth of recent times has been driven largely by the service sector and software, but the documentary makes clear that India will have to make widgets and not just digits, if it wants to ever provide enough jobs.

India on the Move captures all this through the lives of people at a moment in history when this ancient civilization has decided to take on the future — and transform the world. Learn more on the series Web site. International Wednesdays screenings are free and open to the public.