Comments on: BusinessHype

By: RC

RC — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 17:46:24 +0000

China may be ahead of India, but India has definately a huge potential (mainly due to the inherently enterprising nature of the people)
I agree with “free epoch” about the insistance on IT for everything is not wise, IT industry at the most is only accessible to 20% of the population. (I guess trickle down economics doesnt work,…..anywhere )
A more business friendly government will get India on the right track. The proof of this is in Gujarat. Since the government usually is business freindly, it has very high economic activity and people are prosperous.

just my 2 paise

By: Al Mujahid for debauchery

Al Mujahid for debauchery — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 17:33:49 +0000

The real solution is to loosen up the labour laws, and laws regarding foreign ownership in order to create manufacturing jobs so that low skill workers can find some half-decent assembly line type jobs and can afford to send their kids to private school.

I tend to agree with the above analysis. However free market labor laws will result in some exploitation of the workers. I will support such laws only if the Government of India is willing to create a cushion for the fired workers. For example laws which permit easy hire and fire obviously are an attractive proposition for the foreign investors but might result in undue hardships for the poor workers. This also exposes the workers to abuse from unscrupulous local factory owners. On the plus side, more employer friendly laws will create more jobs and better the lives of more people.

By: free epoch

free epoch — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 17:08:38 +0000

Cue the cynical China is way ahead of India posts, and nothing will ever become of India. Thanks guys. Thanks for helping to dissuade foreign investors from putting more money into the country and making your prophecy self-fulfilling.

I think the slummy state of Indian cities caused by years of misguided rent control, land laws and general neglect, probably dissuades more potential foreign investors than a few negative postings on the web.

China is ahead of India, which is not to say that India is doomed.

But it will be difficult to progress at a time when the Indian politicians and Press seem to have this crazy idea that IT will somehow magically provide jobs for everyone; a dillusional claim considering the majority of the people in India don't even speak any english.

Even communist states like west bengal have jumped on to the IT bandwagon, presumably thinking its somehow less bourgeois than more physically exhaustive means of earning a living. This specially ironic when you consider that the focus on IT acutally increases the divide between the haves and the have nots.

The real solution is to loosen up the labour laws, and laws regarding foriegn ownership in order to create manufacturing jobs so that low skill workers can find some half-decent assembly line type jobs and can afford to send their kids to private school. (<- essential in order to learn marketable skills like english)

Don't get me wrong I think India's progress since the early nineties has been remarkable, but I think it's also remarkable that a country where the cost of labour as cheap as India, can have consistant trade deficits year after year.(meanwhile China is running record trade surpluses)

By: Manish Vij

Manish Vij — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 15:29:20 +0000

TTG, or should I say Data,

Seriously, have someone check your snark detector gland, it's gone missing. Your literalism organ is in the finest of health, though.

When someone says, 'he let the cat out of the bag,' do you say 'where? where?'

By: TTG

TTG — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 11:19:26 +0000

Yawn Cue the cynical China is way ahead of India posts, and nothing will ever become of India. Thanks guys. Thanks for helping to dissuade foreign investors from putting more money into the country and making your prophecy self-fulfilling. Maybe we should just go back to begging for aid like Africa instead hyping some stuff, and getting some money into the country, because of course, there isn't an ounce of truth to any of the stories which say that India is progressing. In fact, you're right. We must be regressing. I'll just try and ignore the fact that each year brings more companies to our shores, and more people making money. I'll jsut sit in my little room, and cook up another one. I'm sorry we're all not running around buying photo ipods in our beemers yet for the progress to be visible. Oh wait, if we were running around with our photo ipods and our beamers, we'd probably be reprimanded for imitating Whitey. Never mind. It's ok. You can nay-say all you want. The country will progress with or without you. Now don't sit and regret it that you weren't there at the beginning of the growth curve when the real money was to be made.

By: almost_macho

almost_macho — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 09:05:11 +0000

Cuz no one likes a wuss. Also, my butt is way better.

Yes. wannabe machos are the definetly better

By: Shashwati

Shashwati — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 03:55:04 +0000

Ironically, Indian democracy is viewed as a hindrance vis-a-vis the stability of ChinaÂ’s authoritarian regime on its liberalizing market and docile unions. [Link]>

Didn’t China have 74,000 violent protests in the last year? (http://keywords.oxus.net/archives/2005/08/11/74000-protests/trackback) even if we got to hear of just a couple. Funny how the glint of $$ makes people glib about authoritarianism’s great “benefits,” despite some passing nod to squishy sentiments about how democracy is good (maybe they mean democracy is not for the average Chinese).

By: RC

RC — Fri, 19 Aug 2005 00:08:45 +0000

Yes, I was correct as per Wikiperdia's definition of Third World"

Its not any country that one has a poor opinion about.

They call Pakistan also a Third world country but it was allied with US through out the cold war.

So basically calling any country that is not as rich as the west "Third world country" is like calling that country a "f$$king sh%thole" or something similar.

By: gc

gc — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 23:59:52 +0000

On the other hand:

It has sentences like this one: Indian government census statistics show the number of those living on less than $1 a day has dropped from 26% of the population in 1999 to an estimated 20% today. Progress, shmogress.

Hey, that's nothing to sniff at. 6% drop in absolute poverty in 5 years? That's a torrid pace of development by any standard.

By: gc

gc — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 23:58:07 +0000

these profiles ignore the intranational variance. going 200 miles from hong kong due northwest and you go from 1st world to 3rd world, with shenzhen in the 2nd world in between.

True, but that cuts both ways. Millions of people there are already living in a first world state. From the investor perspective, the notable fact is that the 1st world is there at all. There are lots of other places where there isn’t a first world for hundreds or thousands of miles.

Plus, coastal China is developed. It’s at the first world level today. It makes an immediate impression. If you’ve seen Shanghai or Beijing recently…jeeeezus christ…that country is going to be a force to be reckoned with when every city looks like that.

I mean, it’s one thing to think “oh yeah, they’ve got a lot of people”…it’s another when you realize they have 13 metro areas with more than 2 million people. For comparison, we only have 3: NY, LA, Chicago…

http://www.citypopulation.de/USA.html http://www.citypopulation.de/China.html

Anyway, I’m not saying anything you don’t know, but my recent tour of the place really brought home a lot of the hype. India isn’t even close to where China is right now, and in terms of infrastructure — as opposed to pockets of excellence — I don’t know if they ever will be.