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?
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?
3 comments:
Deng Xiaoping, who took up the reins after Mao, had this to say about Communism and capitalism... I don't care if the cat is white or black as long as it catches the mice.
I don't entirely agree with your views on the Chinese method of development... In the first place I would say it has worked very well for them with very minor setbacks,second, they carefully monitor development and take calibrated action where required, third, the Chinese economy and several aspects of its development are very underrated... and lastly, regarding your point on oil, I would say India is under more pressure than China, in fact if you look at the recent trend in acquisition of oil fields, China has India by its balls, so to say...
I think India does have a lot to learn from China with regard to several issues and our 'netas' and 'netis' are not helping in any way... their behaviour is akin to that of the state level leadership in China where I admit there is a lot of corruption and dirt...
In addition to having the murthy's, premjis' and not to forget cheap labour we should also have a government that is committed towards moving the nation forward. This requires COMPLAN :), which in essence means that
1. A government which doesnt succumb to pressure from their left allies.
2. A government which doesnt give mindless sops to earn a few brownie points with their vote bank.
3. A government which doesnt stifle development by making people go through red tape and regulations.
4. A government which boldly goes forward with its plans without worrying about the impending elections
Which leads us to the inevitable question- how the hell did we grow despite COMPLAN? BOOST perhaps!
Our growth as you pointed out is a result of the people-entrepreneurs, a young work force and the importance that we attach to education.
I have a nagging suspicion that our government didn't realize about the spurt in our economy until they woke up one morning to see the Infy quarterly results and the SENSEX zooming.
Whatever growth that we have acheived is sans the effort of our politicians (Narasimha Rao,Manmohan and Maran being the notable exceptions).
To summarize, China's growth is an economy led growth- a thinking top brass carefuly strategizing to move the country forward. I do accept that there is always the risk on a Tiananmen waiting to happen.
Our's, on the contrary, is a growth led economy which politicians at the slightest drop of their dhothis, try to spin it to their advantage by launching abysmal India Shining campaigns.
Ideally speaking, a democratic nation with a thinking government that has economic policies which is aimed at moving the country forward. Nonetheless, it would be interesting to see if India outdoes China or viceversa.
Thanks guys for your comments. We started doing well in areas where the govt. intervention was minimal - the IT sector being a shining example. Very soon, other areas followed suit. We need to have more areas opened for private participation (keeping the sensitive ones with the govt.)
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