Cost of Comparison - Part II

After a seemingly long time, here goes my second part of the story...

Soon after the death of Zedong in 1977, the Chinese Govt. decided to abandon the Communist policies followed so far and decided to adopt a semi-capitalist form of economy, trusting more govt. instititions in the hands of private individuals, opening the market to foreign players, and putting up its ailing Public Sector Units for sale.

After trying this experiment for more than 20 years, China finds itself at the pinnacle of world economics. Its exports are soaring, goods manufactured in nook and corner of China are flooding the US and EU markets. But, there is an increasing realisation in Chinese economy think-tank that they havent cultivated enough of fresh ideas and innovative products all these years.

Two decades of mindless copy-and-produce has left them woefully short of the Narayan Murthys, Azim Premjis, Baba Kalyanis, M S Swaminathans and Deepak Puris, that India seem to be having in abundance. When the Chinese look back in retrospect, the absence of such innovators and entreprenuers troubles them to the level that a special task force has been set up to devise means to breed such entreprenuership among the youth and the corporate China.

Against the backdrop of this, I hear comments from people that India should follow the steps of China and aim to be a super-power. Super-power, but at what cost? Mindless felling of trees and over-dependence on fossil fuels has left China slave to the vagaries of nature and the price-regulation of the OPEC countries. I am happy with the way India has been growing, though I would like to see more of Indianisation and localistion in our markets and products. I would like to see lesser dependence on fuel -guzzling automobiles and other modern gadgets. If India is going to merely ape the West, then I cannot imagine what may happen to the environment if every Indian (and every Chinese) owned a car and depended on electricity for even shaving his moustache a few years down the line.

Every Indian may dream an American life, but is he ready to face the consequences such a life may bring about?

Cost of comparison - Part I

What is the similarity in the articles you would read in The Times of India, The Hindu, Rediff.com, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and sometimes even in Columbus Dispatch - the growing acceptance all over the world that India and China are the world's next two superpowers in-the-making; the fact that 2.4 billion people represent more than 30% of the human population and collectively they could eat up all the energy resources in the world, and push oil prices to levels unseen so far; and the reality that China has raced far ahead of India during the last 20 years and India is trying hard at covering up the gap.

Though, in principle, I do not agree with the view held by the Western media, which is, at times, reflected even in the Indian media, I completely despise the comparisons India is subjected to against China, because there are inherent differences in the way both the countries chose to "develop" economically. (Let me make it clear that I have a different meaning for the term development and I do not necessarily agree with the generally accepted meaning of the term). Before we go into the comparison, let us see the points of similarity between these 2 countries.

1. Both India and China became independent around the same time from colonial rule.
2. They are large countries and have a large population, which, in present age, means that both have a large workforce and a large market for anyone to sell anything.
3. Both of them are in a drive to "develop" economically and have partly or fully adopted the model used by the Western world.

Now lets come to the critical differences.
From the begining, the US had a soft corner for China, which ultimately resulted in China getting the coveted Permanent membership of the Security Council. though many would argue that Security Council and the UN are puppets in the hands of the US and thus make no sense, China made the most use of it and sided with the US on every public forum, and was thus able to turn into a reliable friend which the US could trust on any issue. (Only now the US has realised its folly, when it sees its market literally swamped with "Made in china" products, its people losing their manufacturing jobs to their Chinese counterparts and Chinese economy looking to challenge the supremacy of the US). Though built on the Communist model, very soon China threw the policies of Mao Zedong (pronounced Tse-tung) into the trash bin and went into a frenzied makeover of its ailing public companies which had accumulated losses to the tune of billions of dollars. Interstingly at around the same time, India had experimented with the idea of "Open Market" and by 1977, when the new socialist govt. took over, comapanies like Coke and IBM were thrown out of the country, only to be later called back in early 90's.

.....To be continued in Part II

The plunder of Paris

Arson, rioting and killing has swept France and left the world bewildered. The country that gave birth to the lofty ideals of humanism -- Liberty, Equality, Fraternity -- is facing questions it has perhaps never faced since the Bastille fell, 216 years ago, and the French Revolution marked an important step in human evolution.

A state of emergency has been declared in Paris and various other metros, first since the war in Algeria in 1955. The riots were sparked when 2 teenagers belonging to the minority Muslim community were electrocuted at a power station while fleeing from the police. Almost immediately the public anger against the French government and its policies was evident in the form of burning of cars, torching of govt. buildings and large-scale rioting.

Though the Govt. claims that the situation has been brought under control, the streets of Paris and its suburbs paint a different picture altogether.

New to this World

I have been thinking of doing this for a long time, but procrastination is a disease that is akin to an extra-marital relationship. You feel guilty and bad the first time, shy the next time, but after that it just becomes a habit and you enjoy doing it. Finally I shrugged off my laziness and made myself part of this world, that seemed to be a lunatic's asylum just a few years back. Till long I dismissed web-logging as one of those new internet hypes, until Dec.26, 2004 came when the Tsunami struck South-east Asia and various parts of South Asia. That's when I realised the sheer power of blogs - before media reporters could reach the spot of destruction, eye-witnesses had started writing their description of the events on the blog, and within minutes, the whole world knew what was happening in a small village in India.

I salute the power of blog!