An acerbic op-ed, state-run Global Times recently published an article talking about growing Chinese phone making companies investments in India under the ‘Make in India’ initiative launched by the Modi Government. Many journalists, bloggers from India started highlighting the fear of China due to ‘Make in Indian’ initiative which to some extent is true , but we should also appreciate and thank the Chinese Media’s effort for identifying major hurdles in this initiative so as to overcome these hurdles making it a big success.
The author of that article is an Indian-born freelance writer living in Baiyin, Gansu Province who knows India better than the Chinese and is actually helping wise Indians by asking them to introspect and hence find solutions to overcome these hurdles in making India a Global Manufacturing Hub.
“For one thing, India lacks infrastructure. The country still needs to build roads and highways to have proper connectivity across the length and breadth of the nation. India suffers from chronic power and water shortages and, worst of all, corruption is highly prevalent from top to bottom in every single government department. Indian politicians are busy courting the West instead of improving ties with China. The US is no-one’s friend. The Americans are just indulging India in order to contain China, as the US is jealous of China’s development and global power.” it said.
Now, one cannot completely deny the above quoted argument as India faces major problems such as shortage of electricity, water supply, good roads and connectivity and above all corruption which is still present in most of the government departments from top to bottom.
However, when it talks about corruption in India, it should also not selectively ignore corruption in China.China itself is fighting against corruption. It says “The US is no-one’s friend” which should be true for China as well. US is one of the major importer of Chinese goods and China cannot afford to decrease its exports to the US and it fears that India can take its place.
It also talks about corrupt politicians and bureaucrats which is a fact that no one can deny.Even Indians know that without eliminating the enemies like ‘corrupt politicians’ and ‘corrupt bureaucrats ‘, no good initiative taken by any government can become a success in reality.
“India has enough money but the majority of it is concentrated with politicians, bureaucrats and a few crony capitalists. Indian elites don’t want to spend funds available in the country, which in reality is the taxpayers’ money but is utilized by the Indian establishment for its own personal consumption. Because of this, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has started impractical schemes like “Make in India.” The reason is that the Indian establishment wants foreign companies to invest in the country.”it argued.
The article failed to highlight various steps taken by the Modi government in order to curb black money and major tax reforms like the GST etc. Modi government is doing all its best to bring reforms in the Indian financial system as well as various administration systems which will help ensure that corruption can be avoided to a greater extent. The Government of the day is trying its level best to improve Indian bureaucratic and administration system as a whole. Programs like digital India is one of the steps taken by Modi government towards this direction.
Electronic Items like mobile phones are heavily imported from China and these items are major contributors to China’s economy. When the article asks these Chinese phone manufacturing firms like Xiaomi, OnePlus not to invest in India, it clearly shows the fear of Chinese media of loosing its people’s jobs and also the revenue from the Items it manufactures and exports to the world.
“In any case, Indian businessmen flock to China in large numbers to buy products from China and sell them in India. This model suits China, so why disturb it by going and wasting money setting up manufacturing facilities in India?”it argued.
These arguments clearly indicates that the Chinese Media is not actually worried about the various factors which would affect its companies and their respective manufacturing units in India, but it is about the loss of jobs of its people and the revenue it earns through exporting these goods to the world which will have an negative impact if India takes its place.
Finally, China should understand that India is the fastest growing economy in the world and being a stable democratic country with a huge consumption market, it will always be the first choice of any business to start its manufacturing unit in India. Also, Government of India is bringing as much as transparency as possible in all sectors by launching programs like Digital India and will thus improve India’s rankings in World Bank Group’s Index of ease of doing business.
Indian people are hardworking. India’s strength is its young talented population. CEOs of major tech giants like Google, Microsoft, Adobe are Indians. India is a peace loving country and not aggressive like China. Indians are trustworthy and are in high demand throughout the globe. World acknowledges India’s growing economical, nuclear and military power and hence it would now be difficult for China to ignore India anymore.
Chinese Media in someway or the other is highlighting the success of ‘Make in India’ initiative from this recent article it published in the Global Times. It would be advisable for China to rethink about its foreign policies especially towards India and stop creating hurdles in getting India membership of NSG and act seriously on the issue of terrorism. India and China can leave in peace and prosper together provided China stops backing its ally Pakistan which is ‘terror sponsoring state’ and have good friend like Indian with good intentions.
