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Every country plays to its strengths and weaknesses. India is behind much of SEA in manufacturing or infra and would not be competitive with large scale industr

Every country plays to its strengths and weaknesses. India is behind much of SEA in manufacturing or infra and would not be competitive with large scale industrial agriculture from NZ & Aus. In the short term it is a loose-loose. India's strength lies in its size and its ability to pool resources and technology. Compared to China, India is way more open market, it's institutions are transparent. Where India has failed vis-a-vis China is its unwillingness to use its market size and pooling ability and play its strengths. India's past economics has been driven by too many western educated economists who fail to see India as a unique case instead have always attempted to use a European or American template for economic development.

nl 6y ago
> Where India has failed vis-a-vis China is its unwillingness to use its market size and pooling ability and play its strengths. I think most assessment of the Indian economy put the blame on incredible amounts of bureaucracy as one of the main constraints on growth. The same ("we have to protect their jobs") argument is used to protect that.
- naruvimama 6y ago
  Yes there is corruption in India and there is corruption in China, systemic corruption in any country becomes a service, bribes are a way to pay for the service. Granted it is not nice to have corruption and it introduces gross inefficiencies. But that isn't the primary reason India is lagging behind China, nor is it entirely because of a lack of free markets. One excellent example would be solar power, India could pool its market capacity, technological ability and finance to have built up a huge ecosystem, but instead it went the route of importing everything, even as it goes about building some of the largest solar projects in the world. The Chinese are wealthy because they would never let go of such a golden opportunity.

nl 6y ago

> Where India has failed vis-a-vis China is its unwillingness to use its market size and pooling ability and play its strengths. I think most assessment of the Indian economy put the blame on incredible amounts of bureaucracy as one of the main constraints on growth. The same ("we have to protect their jobs") argument is used to protect that.

naruvimama 6y ago
Yes there is corruption in India and there is corruption in China, systemic corruption in any country becomes a service, bribes are a way to pay for the service. Granted it is not nice to have corruption and it introduces gross inefficiencies. But that isn't the primary reason India is lagging behind China, nor is it entirely because of a lack of free markets. One excellent example would be solar power, India could pool its market capacity, technological ability and finance to have built up a huge ecosystem, but instead it went the route of importing everything, even as it goes about building some of the largest solar projects in the world. The Chinese are wealthy because they would never let go of such a golden opportunity.