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.
1 comment:
Well gud 1 but i totally dont agree. India has lot of foreign investment institutions. they r popularly called as FII. best example is icici bank which has most of its shares to FIIs.our sensex last year fell to 8000 because of FIIs withdrawing their money and not because of economic slowdown within the country!
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