Will China bit India?

This article has been published in Lokmat newspaper- online & printed editions.

India, being a developing nation, has to rely on businesses in western countries, especially businesses which have job opportunities in them for us.

Similarly, these developed nations depend on the third world countries for the work force and other supply. One of the most important reasons for the western countries to import from third word is that it’s cheaper for them to import rather than producing many things here.

The second important reason to import is the quality of the material goods. The west imports good quality material at a cheaper rate. Other services like software, IT and call centers depend on quality of services provided and trustworthy services. If we really want to compare and win against China for our businesses with the west, we need to look for-The Quality, Trustworthiness & Cost.

The main reason China is growing fast in this field is because they provide cost effective, quality and reliable services. The recent incidence of leakage of information about bank accounts from one of the India based call centers should be taken very seriously. Especially when China is already ahead of us in international marketing & trying to take over in fields where we have monopoly, we should take extra efforts to maintain and improve the trust.

Employment issues are taken very lightly by Indian firms. Appointments are very need oriented. There are no strict protocols followed by Indian firms to appoint the new employee. There are no strict police checks. That’s the reason we land up in such problems related to confidentiality.

Another cause for concern is our bureaucracy. We still have to go through lot of difficulties to initiate export process. If that’s going to give us quality output then it’s acceptable. But, there is lot of malpractice and misuse of export licenses by the officials themselves. Export licenses are given for temporary rent by this officer's lobby and there is lot of corruption in issuing licenses as well. So, the deterioration in quality starts at this stage.

If you look at the materials exported from India and China, it appears very obvious that China's exports are smarter than ours. If you want to buy something which is of daily use in house or garden, you are more likely to get the item made in China than India. You will get cheap and very user friendly goods made in China. Our businesses need to pay attention to these issues as well. In summary, I think, our export industry should concentrate on need oriented supply, cost effective and quality products.

Our IT and call centers should develop good network of skilled employees and try to maintain and improve trust in their respective fields, so that their position would be unshaken even if any other country tries to compete with them in future.

And again, we would need to keep doing this till our own country will have enough jobs and sufficiently strong economy so that we won't have to serve the west.