India versus China..

Almost everyone in the business world is discussing it. From Prof. TN Srinivasan's lecture, the fact that India and China together had 50% of the world's GDP in the 18th century, came out. It is so enthralling to think that India was once a rich country. It is even more enthralling that it is gaining back its glory and we are all a part of it. A whole century of utter poverty has made us feel that we as a country can never be powerful again. But things change so fast.

When I used to read Childcraft around 20 years back, I used to see images of India as a little girl in rags in a field. Well the picture has not entirely changed. The little girl is in the field, bur she is not in rags anymore.

The professor told us that if India had opened trade barriers in 1966 itself, our growth rate would have been far beyond of what it is now. He also said that countries like Korea and Malaysia opened up in that era. So they have surpassed India. But I have a different opinion. It is good that we opened up late. I know that this might not be a intelligent analogy but it fits. India, like the Hindi cinema hero has been taking all the lashes of the villains for a long time. But during this time, it gathered strength from inside, in becoming self sufficient. So now when it finally strikes back to the world, it is a powerful strike and a sustainable one in strategic terms.

Many argue that India has concentrated on being an inward economy that why it lost out to the competition earlier. On the other hand China, has been outward and hence experienced a rapid growth rate. But a rapid growth rate is not a sustainable growth rate. Just like crash dieting is not a sustainable way of losing weight, though it makes you lose weight immediately. India has had a slow growth rate compared to China. India has not grown with foreign investments but China has.

India's greatest victory so far has been that it could run its house amidst severe global recession. But India's greatest loss that it still has not finalized it foreign affairs strategy. It has not chosen allies and enemies. As a country, we need to realize that we can't be friends with all the nations. Having a Prime Minister who smiles and spreads goodwill is not the only solution. Our government needs to make strategic decisions.

Copenhagen Summit or the blame game summit..

Yet another summit without any results. It is very ironical the way the west tries to create summits and try to bully small nations. It was successful at bullying before because it was self sufficient before. It is not now because it depends on the east for its resources now.

Now it is a blame game on who screwed mother nature and who has to pay. The rules are to invest methods to bully others into paying for their sins. Each one reminds the other of their sins. But no one accepts the sin and most surprisingly no one feels guilty at all. The US reminds India and China on the wastage of resources. India and China remind US that it uses more energy than both the countries put together. And the game goes on. Europe is in a trance between guilt and denial. The Western Europe says that we need to pay for our sins. The Eastern Europe says that we are not guilty so will not pay. Alas it was just yesterday when Turkey was the sick man of Europe. But now the number of patients have increased.

The Arabs are happy because they know how to sell their energy and resources. The Africans are unhappy because they are not even aware that their energy is being used.

And it is a sad sad world, where one has the Big Mac and the big bucks and the other struggles to survive.