Shanghai : If the government wanted to showcase India as an economy jostling to be among the world's biggest, you'd imagine it would parade its tech and IT muscle. But at the World Expo 2010 at Shanghai, where countries are exhibiting to garner business and investment, the Indian narrative is predominantly centred on street food and handicrafts, a spiel dumped a good 20 years ago.

On entry, one is confronted by stalls, mainly empty, selling samosas, naan, rotis, lassis and a bunch of boxy booths peddling brassware and other bric-a-brac, the staple of our dull state emporia. The 'Incredible India' tourism booth had nobody manning it while the CII one was locked.

If India wanted to showcase itself as a competitor to China and an economy that will define the 21st century, a country with immense talent, technology and youth, a nation ambitious of attaining double digit growth, it didn't come through.

On the other hand, if the intent was to sell its 5,000-year history, culture, arts, crafts, music and dance, that didn't find expression either. Pakistan has in fact beaten India in footfalls during the early days of the Expo by claiming the Buddhist legacy for itself.

Showcasing well neither the past nor the present to the 70 million visitors expected to visit the Expo over six months, India may have lost a golden public relations opportunity.

In stark contrast was the neighbouring Saudi Arabia pavilion. The Saudis have spent a lavish $150-million (Rs 675 crore) on a tech-savvy pavilion in which a 4D experience is created and visitors taken on a conveyor belt ride. The Saudis are using the Expo to change the global perception of them as a conservative, oil-rich nation to one that's embraced technology and is fun. While one doesn't expect India to spend like the Saudis, the fact is for the $9 million (Rs 41 crore) spent, India has nothing substantive to show.

What is most visible instead is the heavy hand of officialdom, whether in the names of stalls or on the T-shirts of yoga instructors. For example, instead of labelling stalls as 'Handicrafts', one read the mouthful 'Ministry of rural development, Government of India and CAPART, 'Council for Advancement of Peoples Art and Rural Technology'. Good for Pragati Maidan may be, definitely not Shanghai.

In some instances intentions were pious but execution pathetic. Take the yoga demonstrations. Hugely laudable given that Yoga is India's hippest export. But the two people doing the moves were dressed in tight black pants and dull brown tees which hold your breath, said in bold black letters at the back, 'Govt. of India!'