Not rate of growth! But the composition of our growth that is critical
Lessons from China and warnings too from China!
India under global pressure to perform?
Why compare India and China increasingly?
Lakshmi Mittal, the London based Indian iron and steel maker says India would face massive shortfall in steel production. The government must listen to such actual doers!
But that is what the global newspapers do everyday these days.
The West is in crisis. The West is obsessed with its own economic recession. Recovery or slow reviving? These are the hard questions asked every day. Obama, standing by the side of China’ premier, When, the other day at the UN in New York City was all attention and courteous gestures. The reason? China’s currency needs to be tagged with the dollar and this China is not obliging.
Without China’s some sort of helpful moves American economy won’t move forward. And in the current American economic crisis India is also caught, so to say, as with US unemployment at 9.6 per cent, a heavy figure for a country like the rich US, the Indian IT and outsourcing industry is also impacted.
But India is a better placed country and economy. India is largely isolated and self-sustaining economy with the economy largely not a big exporting economy and our agriculture and also the food supplies largely self-dependent; we are fairly insulated from the great many pressures that impact many countries, the rich and the poor.
So, whenever, someone or some Western big figure speaks out, as Alan Greenspan did recently, India is not where China is today and that is a different question. Yes, India and China were on the same economic platform 40 years ago. Today, India is only one-third of what China is in terms of economic size.
Now, everyone, from the powerful American President to the not so powerful but with lot of mischievous press, the UK is pushing India from behind, so to say, how we, Indians are good and how Indians are no more serving the vested interests, are going on comparing India and China. Not always in a favourable light for India but in a mischievous manner.
India is a democracy and democracy is always and at all times the best bet, the West doesn’t say. No big country, USA, UK or France or Germany says India is a great democracy. India is a most successful democracy.
For the same or some other motivated reasons, no Western country calls China an authoritarian Communist state. China is lauded for its economic performance and it is lauded for its possible positive role to boost the American economy.
The same may be the reason why UK or the Western countries with a vested interest, as media is in the UK or the exports are from France and Germany, be it nuclear equipment exports or for some other economic advantages, China is always feared and praised. India is not feared and yet these countries don’t dare to criticise India either.
By the two ways, the West has a vested interest in China. With India, they are of course jealous, though they don’t say it openly.
This, we Indians only have to understand and see how best we can place India on the international map. Place India on the global stage.
China, India need not fear. But we can draw some lessons in economic development, in its growth strategy.
This has lessons for India too, more specially for an young political leader like Rahul Gandhi.
Take the iron ores exports. India’s iron ores are largely exported to China only. Last year iron ore accounted for 5.1 billion tonnes to China.44 per cent of India’s iron ore went to China!
25 per cent of China’s iron ore imports are form India.
We export such a huge quantity of iron ore and yet we also import from China huge quantity of iron and steel products from China.
16 per cent of India’s total iron and steel imports are from China.
So, what is the rationale of Rahul Gandhi’s celebration of Vedanata losing its iron ore mining rights in Niyamagiri Mountains?
Do you know how much money the illegal iron miners are making from their business?
The Karnataka lokayukta found out that the export price for a tonne of iron ore exported to China is at the price of 7,000 .The state receives just Rs.27 in royalty. That is a royalty rate of just 0.39 per cent. Lok Ayukta calculated that the iron ore exporter, illegally or legally makes a profit margin of 94 per cent!
And see the other side of the iron ore exports.
The huge profits made from iron ore exports can be used within India by deploying the money for rehabilitation of the displaced tribals inside the country itself!
We export our precious natural resources in raw form and our tribals are displaced and we don’t do much to rehabilitate them.
And yet India continues to import iron and steel from China.
Our wise policy reversal must be exploit the natural resources and make India strong in manufacturing and also use the funds in tribal rehabilitation.
The Tatas have done this, the NMDC, the largest PSU in iron ore mining and exports does this and why not Vedanta and other private sector players can do this?
If our Prime Minister is really a Wiseman and really concerned about the long term future of the country’s economic growth and economic strength, surely he would have explored these options.
What is the point of repeating day in and day out that our rate of growth would be 8 or 8.5 per cent!
This is not economic wisdom, this is economic bureaucratese! Very tiresome bore!