Attire Appropriate

I had or rather am having this experience of meeting up clients as part of my job. I walked into a meeting room recently with my colleagues and was shocked to see one of the panel members from the customer's side garbed in shorts. This guy did not seem to care as he was rather comfortable in his attire. Dressing up is one's prerogative I agree. You  dress, be nude, wear a rag or doll up nicely in channel. It is none of my concern, as long as it remains your exclusivity. When you step out to mingle with the crowd, especially in a professional setting, is expecting you to wear a pair of pants asking for too much? Whatever happened to dressing appropriately? You are in a formal meeting for god's sakes. It is like insulting the other people in the same room. Shorts are following us everywhere these days. I can even take guys shopping in shorts, going for a movie in shorts, dining in shorts, but attending a formal meeting in shorts? It has definitely gone too far there. This guy is an Indian, a professor in one of the prestigious Institutes of India, and he parades in shorts into a meeting. I have even heard that a lot of professors don shorts to classrooms these days. How great is that? Yes one has to wear clothes that they are comfortable in, but one cannot wear anything that pleases them anywhere right?  When did shorts become part of formal wear? If so I can only feel sorry for all those men investing heavily to buy their Allen Solly's, Van Heusen's, Raymond's and Reid and Taylor's . If it was up to me I would not even do business with such unprofessional freaks. People are expected to act and look professional in a professional setting. Why can people not understand that? A meeting does not necessarily only mean talking formally, professionally and with loaded words. Would it be OK if we started using colloquial terms in meeting and addressing each other as "Machan" and "Machi" (words used among friends in South India, something in the lines of a friendly "Saala") while presenting the proposal? It is as insulting as using such terms when you walk into a meeting wearing shorts. Isn't dressing appropriately part of etiquette? Working in an international environment, or studying abroad, or staying abroad does not necessarily mean that we have to forget our roots. I don't think even people in America, where this attire was invented, would waltz into a meeting wearing shorts. Then why we, who are too keen in copying every single thing from them, forget what is imbibed into us from early childhood. Of course I am not saying formal clothing means wearing a suit complete with a tie. That again is something copied from the people who ruled us long back without really thinking how it would suit our climatic conditions. I really feel sorry for all men who has to go to work donned in a suit given the hot and humid conditions of most of the cities in our country. Is it only me or is it really getting on the nerves of others too? Am I asking for too much? Do I sound like a granny?