The India-China Gap | Sepia Mutiny

The latest TCS article on India v. China comes out pretty optimistic about India’s prognosis – TCS: Tech Central Station – The India-China Gap –

Despite the record of the recent past, there is reason for hope that the economic gap between these rivals will soon diminish. On the one hand, India may advance in relative terms through no fault of its own. This is because China’s storied economic growth is likely to falter under the weight of a massive default of the banking system or from political pressures arising from restructuring of state enterprises. On the other hand, India’s leaders are becoming aware that their own economy can move forward more rapidly by undertaking meaningful and aggressive reform. For example, India scores well in the area of macroeconomic conditions where restrained monetary expansion has brought inflation to a record low 2.5 percent. China’s battle with price instability has seen swings from high inflation in the mid-1990s to its current troubling bout of deflation.

Call me a skeptic but I’m personally not that hopeful about the nearterm. The previous article on the sad plight of Varanasi silk weavers is another little datapoint that adds to my fear that –

Both populaces are fed up with their respective governments. But I can’t help but feel that for many Indians-still-in-India, their disillusionment is with the *current* government instead of a deeply shaken belief in the ability of government to solve problems and make things better for them. The question is between 2 different governmental initiatives to create wealth rather than between government and non-government. The Chinese, by contrast, seem much more willing to throw caution to the wind and embark on decidedly non-governmental initiatives. A young 20-something Chinese person fresh from university is more likely to see his livelihood being made in creating a new garment factory or a construction business vs. many Indians who still harbor a post-colonial distrust towards business. A 20,000 person shoe factory breeds awe in China but a type of anti-globo-inspired fear in India.

One thought on “The India-China Gap”

Sam on May 21, 2006 at 9:07 am said:

You can check out the shanghai, xiamen, guangzhou,Nanjing and other metro cities and compare the tech-gap to see. Looks does matter as you compare the metro city superstructures with the current Sino ones.The chinese are quite fast in adapting to the new tech but they lack english understanding.Still they are progressing like a rocke3t.Too fast developement is dangerous to keep hold,but economic growth foster and Industry cultivation provides boost to the chinese economy, as they tend to be more decentralised now.And not to mind Hongkong, the Capital of modern business china with enormous potentiality with a perpect autonomous govt.And if they go on the same way, it might be true that china will emerge as a largest economy .Redevelopement and political shuffle,transparency in Information has begun in India aswell as china.May be India may lower the Tech gap in a decade or so.But there are same story for the rural India and China–poverty.The booming economy must have aid to tackle rural redevelopement and upliftment. Technical education is necesary as well as a full stomach.On the tech sector, India is on the full swing as we see the emergence of Nanotech, Infotech,Satellite Comm,Semiconductor and Microelectronics Industry. But China is far ahead in implemmenting Microelectonics manufacturing and we see a whole lot of cheap”Made in China” product sold all over the world.Name a few Indian brand????????China is more following the Singapore and Hongkong trend in Tech sector and in Software catching up soon.