Made in China

A lot has been said about the Chinese economy. China's economic policies and reforms are shaping the growth of their nation.

Being a part of the outsourced IT / ITES service operations in India, I am obviously concerned about our industry's future from a global perspective. India is currently Asia's front-runner in IT outsourced projects. Earnings from IT/BPO sector have helped leverage India's growth story over the past few years. This can be attributed to the reasonable pricing of skilled and educated labor force in India.

However, China continues to strengthen its hold on IT/ITES outsourced markets. If we were to relate the politics of a nation to its economy, I can safely say that the Communist Chinese culture ensures strong implementation of it’s strategies and policies. If the growth of an industry in the nation is to be analyzed, it would only be justified with a sector-wise analysis done on the Nation’s economy as a whole. As we know , a broader perspective defines a good analysis ..


So let's consider , a comparative study of the economies, China leads India in terms of Infrastructure, Import/Exports,FDIs and Private investments. They have opened their markets to globalization in the 1980s, much before India.
World Bank reports 6.4% growth in GDP for India as compared to China with a growth of 8.7% which is not too sustainable.
China has announced economic policies and reforms on infrastructure growth and tax breaks, Beijing has reported a huge credit growth in 2009-2010. The credit growth contributed 30% more to GDP with a reported drop in contribution of exports to 16%.
China's exports contribute 35% to the GDP compared to India's contribution of about 24%.The contribution to India's GDP is more from domestic consumption compared to only 35% in China.This gives India a more consistent and reliable future in growth.

On the flipside for China, the policies have induced a price property bubble. India is not experiencing the same degree of fallout on combating recession.
India also leads in terms of capital markets with Asia’s largest stock exchange.
Where India, currently leads in company management, the so called “Cheapest provider of grey matter”, China is soon building its educated workforce for the GenEx professionals.
China is empowering their youth with education. Some of their planned initiatives include hiring English speaking teachers, admitting more students to foreign universities.

If India needs to keep up the pace with China, it needs to reinforce Planning Commission’s education policies like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan , District Primary Education,and more such schemes churned out by MHRD. Councils like AICTE,NAAC have improved the quality of education offered across the country.
Though we lack in technology, agricultural tools and infrastructure, the grey matter in India is far superior than other emerging nations. Though we may congratulate ourselves on that, we still need to play more on our strengths than honing the weaker sectors of the Nation.


So would the emerging IT /skilled professionals be “Made in China? “ ..awaits an answer.

India: A Fragile social fabric

India's social fabric is determined by the ethnic composition of society, values and education. Country's demographics are duly studied by researchers and suggestions/plans are drafted for the upliftment of the society.
NHRM statistical surveys suggest planning initiatives towards redevelopment of society. But these surveys could be ambiguous in terms of skewed distribution of social demographics.
On one hand, where education , poverty, unemployment are bigger issues to deal with, we are not that steadfast towards the obscure plight of sex workers in India. We are oblivious to their medical needs. I strongly opine that the profession of prostitution should be legally practiced in India. We are a country where prostitution is deep-rooted in our religion. Formerly practiced as "Devadasi", after the fall of Buddha empire, prostitution raised it's ugly head to transform into it's current form.
Often, this social concern of prostitution is attributed to economic causes like poverty. The nexus between prostitution and poverty does not represent the issue in its entirety. The causes can be varied like : ill treatment by parents, bad company, social customs, lack of sex education, phsychological disorders and also economic causes.. Thus curbing poverty alone may not resolve the issue. We need to handle it at a Constitutional level:-
1. Legalise prostitution as a profession
2. Levy Income/ Sales/ entertainment tax on brothel owners/sex workers
3. PAN card/voter ID to be issued to sex workers for identification of such individuals so that they can be a part of country's demographics and represent a true picture.
Contribution of this tax will also give an accurate calculation of GDP of the country.
Sex-workers are manhandled and tortured in inhuman ways and the only reason they cannot lodge an FIR is because their profession cannot be disclosed. There can be medical camps to address health concerns, spread AIDS awareness and regular medical checkups if we can identify this section of the society with above mentioned measures. To me , this is the most pratical way of conducting such social reforms..Rest is left to the better minds governing this country....