May 18, 2010
After a long time I was wondering what to write about as I was not getting topics, even when the world is bustling with new inventions, discoveries and of course controversies. I thought I would write something on catholic culture, but then was scared of the storm it would create J.Then my mind wandered to love, but again experience was a factor as I have not fallen in love yet. The above sentence is deliberately written, so that some good looking girl would write to me. Remember my email id ?. I have asked the publisher to publish a good photograph of mine along with this article. I hope he won’t charge a fee for matrimonial. I am going to write on a completely unexpected topic. CHINA Bear with me ….
China is one among the subjects in my course and I thought why not write about it as many of us in India seem to underestimate its might and have real bad impressions about its products. I am going to write this article in lighter vein so that the readers are not driven to boredom, and I hope you change your opinion (if you had any) after this reading.
The first word which used to come to mind when I bought one of the Chinese made swats was “Oh rubbish, hope I can use it for 3 months”. But, I still bought them, not once but every now and again. Why? It’s cheap. I am sure many of us have also gone through similar experience as mine. By the way, our perception of relating inexpensiveness to quality can be compared to the story of fox and sour grapes. Ability of China to mass produce cheap and good quality products has taken it to the position where it is today. We in India are busy manufacturing Software Engineers and MBA’s, apart from ridiculing Chinese made products.
“When US sneezes, rest of the world catches cold”. Thanks to a friend who doesn’t speak to me nowadays, for letting me copy this cliché. When the rest of the world is reeling under the known and awaited ill effects of recession, China seems to be enjoying good economic health and has also put US in a place where it hurts the most. Recent reports indicate that China holds around $755 billion of US treasury securities and recent denial to a suggestion by Mr. Obama to revalue their currency(Chinese) clearly indicates the might and power China can flaunt in the years to come.
Where does India stand amidst all this mess? We are not doing badly either. We must thank the then Finance Minister Dr Manmohan Singh for keeping our economy insulated from recession and be grateful that again he is at the helm of affairs this time around also. Mr Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s tough stance on Chinese diplomacy is praiseworthy too. India enjoys a powerful position in world economy, being a part of BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, and China).Well, to get there was a herculean task, but can we, as a nation, is able to sustain and improve this position? We certainly have the ability, but do we have the farsightedness and capable leadership to drive us right up to the top.
On Friday evenings, my roommates and I used to have talks on all these worldly issues and every time China’s mention came up, we used to pull it down stating it is just a bubble and will burst soon. But now I realize how wrong we were. I was more shocked learning that Chinese people have begun picking up English and I am sure our software engineers and companies will have a tough competition in future. We pride ourselves in our agricultural system, but are we really struggling to be a real agro-based superpower. In some parts of South h Indian farmers depend on bulls and sickle and rain for a good harvest, whereas western economies use state of art technology and excellent irrigational facilities. As a vast landmass, we can dominate the world with our food production, but we are busy converting fertile land into cities. Fishing too is a sector which is badly neglected. People, who have money and who are non vegetarians, please give it a thought. New technology in fishing is almost unknown to India. Well even I do not know much, but I m sure there are ways to learn.
Being an industrial economy, Chinese success stories are numerous Eg: Lenovov taking over IBM’s PC business, companies like Lee and Fung, Haier, TCL springing up and taking the world by surprise. Their businesses are diverse unlike ours and we are not much into innovation and new product development. A survey shows that India has less number of patents filed than China, per year. One of the factors which may cause our downfall is our Political and bureaucratic system. In one of my previous articles I have said about the difficulties of getting a loan passed. Moreover some of the managers of the nationalized banks are unaware of the procedure of and cut a very sorry figure. When they should have passed loans for tractors and other mechanized agricultural equipments, they are looking at ways to help the rich park their money safely.
In this age of internet, we are still using passbooks and cheques. It s not a sign of backwardness, but it is always good to keep pace with the rest of the world. Coming to Politics, well I always used to think that relatives of these politicians are the luckiest people on earth and in India it is true to the core. Corrupt politicians are ruling us and we like morons keep electing them again and again.
My class consists of as many as 75 Chinese students and theway they work hard is truly amazing. With a translator built in their phones, the way they cling on to each word of the professor is worth watching. Compared to them we Indians would be thinking which pub to go on after the class, which movie is going to be released on the Friday and which girl is the hottest in the class. Lately I have realized that girls are way ahead of boys in spotting guys. Guys do it shamelessly and girls shamefully J
Right now, the only advantage I see for us is the English language, which, I am sure in a couple of years, will fade away. It is time for us now to find new and different ways to gain an upper hand in the mad race for supremacy. One way according to me, though I am not qualified to make remarks is to improve our agricultural ways. I said earlier is resorting to scientific and organic ways producing organic products must be encouraged. Innovation is the name of the game. Education too plays a very important role. Strong basic education at the grass root level should be imparted by bettering the quality of teachers and facilities in the field of education. I remember I had a written an essay (which was not worth publishing) on Indian education. Educational institutions of the UK and USA are extremely encouraging towards research unlike ours where mugging up is accorded top priority. A student who mugs up a numerical in math is considered a genius whereas a student who has calculated it using his own devices is considered dull.
One more major advantage China possesses is that the developments have mostly been in coastal areas and most of the villages still remain backward. But in India, the story is somewhat different and promising. I was quite fascinated by the Chinese story and their determination to be right there at the top and hence I have taken it as my major subject. I hope one day we will be able to overtake our neighbors and fulfill APJ Abdul Kalam’s dream.
As the title says, is it possible for these two powerful nations to join hands and crush the western world? Well I hope India will do well to become a superpower in the days to come. . At the same time I sincerely wish that we become two healthy competitors and two successful nations incurring the envy of others.
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