A lot has been talked about countries who invested heavily in China are planning to move out of China and they are looking for different lands to set their manufacturing units. Out of few countries, India is certainly top contender. And why not? Finally, India is the largest democratic country in the world, it has got young talent available in ample, our accounting practices are accepted world wide and we have robust banking system, we have fairly good communication infrastructure, our labor cost is still 1/3rd of China and we are habitual of frugal work practices.
Having said all this, are we ready as country to shoulder this responsibility of being manufacturing hub of rest of the world? Indeed, China has carried this tag for close to three decades and practically became super power of the world. Keeping aside China's image being communist country, it has certainly eradicated poverty of major section of society.
At large its really tough task to replace China as a supplier to the world. And this is true not only for India but rest of the countries as well. If we take case of India alone, its bilateral trade is close $ 87 Bn. Out of which China exports $70 Bn worth goods to India which is close 13.7% of total imports. Can we simply stop that and develop products indigenous? Other than this the products which are imported from other countries carry some or the other Chinese sub assembly or part. In short directly or indirectly we must be importing more than $150 Bn worth of Chinese goods. And these imports are in varied range of products like soft toys, sports goods, white goods, automobile parts, pharma sector, solar panels, household items, mobile phones etc
Whenever, China did something wrong against the interest of India, there was wave of patriotism in India of banning Chinese products. It did happen when China helped Pakistan few years back or they fought with Indian soldiers on North East border. This time emotional quotient against China is very high not only in India but across world. But is it really possible stop getting Chinese products and create supply chain as alternative to it. Another fact is that Chinese companies have already set up their establishments not only in India but across world. There was lot of hue and cry when The People Bank of China bought 1.75 Crores of shares of HDFC. But we should not forget that MG Hector is Chinese company who invested Rs 5000 crores in India and many of our friends have bought its car as a matter of pride. Another Chinese company have already bought Talegaon GM plant at undisclosed amount. Zoom on which we are holding our meeting these days is promoted by Chinese, though he is American national today,
As per me, its a mammoth task. And probably as a country we need to work on fundamentals. We need to change working pattern at all three levels. One is of course at individual level, other is at society level and third at national or government level.
If we talk about individual level, every Indian needs to change its thinking pattern. He or she should be obsessed by only thought of eradicating poverty of our country and one should consider him/herself as a soldier on this mission. Thinking above self, passion for deliverance of quality product and exhibiting very high productivity are the essential ingredients of individual personality. And most of the working class is far behind the average standard of world on these aspects. If we inculcate these qualities along with strong value system, we can certainly contribute in accelerating growth and capturing this new envisaged opportunity.
Once a very entrepreneurial society, we have very poor social structure today for business with innovative mindset. Neither we encourage innovation at household nor at educational institutes or nor at banking segments. If for some reason an idea does not work, we scrap the person who suggested idea. Under the pretext of frugality, we are confined to make prototypes which has natural death as there is no scalability thinking. It should become national movement that ideas which are worth pursuing should be propelled in to scalability. And there would be failures. As a society, are we going to stop looking at failures as crime.? One can list hundred of Chinese companies whose individual production numbers are equivalent to India's national production. Do we have social Eco system to take risk, mitigate risk and eventually de risk it.? Business owners, particularly SME segment, should work on improving brand value of country as such. India as a country is not yet very trusted brand for deliverance. How other countries are perceiving India as a country is to be surveyed and benchmark standards are to be set at national and then down line every individual level.
Our government needs to change its treatment to business owners. India has progressed extremely well on ease of doing business from the rank of at 130, today we stand at 63. Is that enough to capture the opportunity? SMEs who contribute 45% of total GDP and 40% of total exports are at dismay of receiving support on various aspects. Small industrial parks, quick availability of finance, easing out customs procedures are few of the areas of improvements. In recent outbreak of Corona, we have observed ambiguous nature of instructions to start business activity. From getting permission to resume business till starting the unit, instructions and rules were formulated in such a way that business owners gave up resuming business, forget about stimulus package offered by other countries.
All three corners, individual/society/government, should sharpen their skills to grab this opportunity. It is not the case that we did not get opportunity in the past. Few years back, there was a drive to produce mobile phones in India. Where are companies like Karbon, Micromax? Where is a company who came out with Rs 1000 mobile phone? HR Development and education ministry should have equal stature and importance like Home or Defense ministry for next decade.
Just to conclude, the country needs to be shaken only to challenge conventional work practices, beliefs and wisdom across pyramid of country. Otherwise this so called patriotic wave will just create bubbles in the air and two years down the line our friends will run to China to buy furniture for their home decoration just to save few bucks.
Having said all this, are we ready as country to shoulder this responsibility of being manufacturing hub of rest of the world? Indeed, China has carried this tag for close to three decades and practically became super power of the world. Keeping aside China's image being communist country, it has certainly eradicated poverty of major section of society.
At large its really tough task to replace China as a supplier to the world. And this is true not only for India but rest of the countries as well. If we take case of India alone, its bilateral trade is close $ 87 Bn. Out of which China exports $70 Bn worth goods to India which is close 13.7% of total imports. Can we simply stop that and develop products indigenous? Other than this the products which are imported from other countries carry some or the other Chinese sub assembly or part. In short directly or indirectly we must be importing more than $150 Bn worth of Chinese goods. And these imports are in varied range of products like soft toys, sports goods, white goods, automobile parts, pharma sector, solar panels, household items, mobile phones etc
Whenever, China did something wrong against the interest of India, there was wave of patriotism in India of banning Chinese products. It did happen when China helped Pakistan few years back or they fought with Indian soldiers on North East border. This time emotional quotient against China is very high not only in India but across world. But is it really possible stop getting Chinese products and create supply chain as alternative to it. Another fact is that Chinese companies have already set up their establishments not only in India but across world. There was lot of hue and cry when The People Bank of China bought 1.75 Crores of shares of HDFC. But we should not forget that MG Hector is Chinese company who invested Rs 5000 crores in India and many of our friends have bought its car as a matter of pride. Another Chinese company have already bought Talegaon GM plant at undisclosed amount. Zoom on which we are holding our meeting these days is promoted by Chinese, though he is American national today,
As per me, its a mammoth task. And probably as a country we need to work on fundamentals. We need to change working pattern at all three levels. One is of course at individual level, other is at society level and third at national or government level.
If we talk about individual level, every Indian needs to change its thinking pattern. He or she should be obsessed by only thought of eradicating poverty of our country and one should consider him/herself as a soldier on this mission. Thinking above self, passion for deliverance of quality product and exhibiting very high productivity are the essential ingredients of individual personality. And most of the working class is far behind the average standard of world on these aspects. If we inculcate these qualities along with strong value system, we can certainly contribute in accelerating growth and capturing this new envisaged opportunity.
Once a very entrepreneurial society, we have very poor social structure today for business with innovative mindset. Neither we encourage innovation at household nor at educational institutes or nor at banking segments. If for some reason an idea does not work, we scrap the person who suggested idea. Under the pretext of frugality, we are confined to make prototypes which has natural death as there is no scalability thinking. It should become national movement that ideas which are worth pursuing should be propelled in to scalability. And there would be failures. As a society, are we going to stop looking at failures as crime.? One can list hundred of Chinese companies whose individual production numbers are equivalent to India's national production. Do we have social Eco system to take risk, mitigate risk and eventually de risk it.? Business owners, particularly SME segment, should work on improving brand value of country as such. India as a country is not yet very trusted brand for deliverance. How other countries are perceiving India as a country is to be surveyed and benchmark standards are to be set at national and then down line every individual level.
Our government needs to change its treatment to business owners. India has progressed extremely well on ease of doing business from the rank of at 130, today we stand at 63. Is that enough to capture the opportunity? SMEs who contribute 45% of total GDP and 40% of total exports are at dismay of receiving support on various aspects. Small industrial parks, quick availability of finance, easing out customs procedures are few of the areas of improvements. In recent outbreak of Corona, we have observed ambiguous nature of instructions to start business activity. From getting permission to resume business till starting the unit, instructions and rules were formulated in such a way that business owners gave up resuming business, forget about stimulus package offered by other countries.
All three corners, individual/society/government, should sharpen their skills to grab this opportunity. It is not the case that we did not get opportunity in the past. Few years back, there was a drive to produce mobile phones in India. Where are companies like Karbon, Micromax? Where is a company who came out with Rs 1000 mobile phone? HR Development and education ministry should have equal stature and importance like Home or Defense ministry for next decade.
Just to conclude, the country needs to be shaken only to challenge conventional work practices, beliefs and wisdom across pyramid of country. Otherwise this so called patriotic wave will just create bubbles in the air and two years down the line our friends will run to China to buy furniture for their home decoration just to save few bucks.
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