The Race

India and China are said to be neck to neck in the race for global economic pie with China having a slight edge over its rival. But it is said that in the long haul, India will outpace China due to its demographic profile. More Chinese are aging with little replacement from youngsters. India, with is slack population policy is said to be more endowed with young blood. Another reason is mastery over English language.

If saying good bye to cultural revolution and taking Hong Kong into its fold propelled China's growth into a global player, jettisoning of the Nehuvian socialism and adopting more liberal economic policies has spurred India's surge. Information Technology further took the country into big league. But, something more is there in this saga, as Glasnost and Perestroika took Russia nowhere.

India's growth story could have been much more spectacular had the Central government had been strong enough to bring some state/concurrent subjects under its wing to set a faster pace. A one-party majority government could have allowed the Prime Minister more room to manoevre his policies and more importantly, allowed him to pick a team of his choice. During the iimes of Nehru and Indira Gandhi who were calling the shots, they could rope in such eminent non-political intelligentia like Desmukh, Chagla, KL Rao, etc as Ministers. Even a Narasimha Rao, in minority, could manage with a Man Mohan Singh as the Finance Minister, as he was running a single party government. Today coalition partners arm twist the PM for plum portfolios for their favourites.

If only we can develop tier-II and tier-III cities with good infrastructure like assured power, connectivity and importantly air ports, the picture could have been rosier. Unfortunately the lobbying power of Realtors has ensured concentration of activity in a few cities thus styming growth elsewhere at lesser cost.

Government could also do well to stop spending on infrastructure creation in the major cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkota, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru and instead divert the investments to cities like Pune, Vizag, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Trivandrum, Dehra Doon, Ranchi, etc.

...ponder