India and China are often talked about as the strongest emerging economies and future superpowers of the world. These two countries are often discussed, debated, argued and compared on various benchmarks.
While China is considered stronger in terms of its unbelievably huge manufacturing capabilities, better infrastructure support, quicker Government action and sheer commitment to grow; India's stronger capabilities and dominance in services sector gives it a very clear edge over China.
India's capabilities in service sector, and more precisely in IT and IT enabled services (BPO, KPO etc.) are surely an obvious and strong edge over China. If we go a step further - the better capabilities of India in services sector can be (mainly) attributed to English speaking and writing capabilities of the Indians, which is clearly missing in China.
China clearly recognizes its weakness on this front, and is working very hard to improve on its English language capabilities. There has been a clear emphasis by the Chinese Government to equip their people with English and quickly overcome its apparent and biggest weakness. Learning English has become the national priority as well as obsession for people in China. Consequently, there has been a remarkable explosion in the number of private language institutes and teachers going to China to teach English. The fact of the matter is that there are thousands of teachers from India heading to China and Indian institutions opening up in China to teach English. Not only this, Indian publishers are in big time business of selling book titles on English learning to Chinese publishers.
Today, China is considered as the biggest threat to many domestic products & manufacturing industries in India. Many industries are severely impacted and suffering due to cheap imports from China. While teaching English in China is a huge business and employment opportunity, as of now, but isn't it an irony that we (Indians) are, gradually, arming and helping out our biggest & strongest competitor to overcome its foremost weakness (and our biggest or rather 'only' strength!)? Aren't we seriously jeopardizing the future of our services sector and thus endangering our economic growth prospects?
(The author is a Chartered Accountant based in Delhi. The views expressed herein are his own)
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The Chinese are a very "comitted" Communist country so far as "getting things done and over with" are concerned. This particular aspect will NEVER get into our Governance Systems. Look at the way Public Works are held up-UNFINISHED-for ages on end whether in Saki Naka,Andheri or on the Worli-Bandra Sea-Link". The escalation of time to "finish" translates into "escalation of costs" and escalation of "inconvenience" to Public utilities users. The Chinese Govt.will NEVER allow this procrastination in any of its Public Works. The Govt.of India or of the State of Maharashtra is best known for putting public works including the Infrastructure Works well behind schedule. The pathetic way they go about it is nauseating more and more. The root cause is the "Democracy" rule in India which allows for political interference at all stages of public utilities for vested interests. Mumbai can NEVER become SHANGHAI! ...Reply
The best way to counter the Chinese competition is to bring in the "Indian ishtyle democracy" there. That will put them 60 years behind India, considering the fact that it is around 60 years since the formation of our secular democratic republic. ...Reply
Hi Yogesh......
We do have to cope up on many things to survive the competition. while at one end, we help our competitors to grow. our teachers are going global in this front.. be it UK or china....
Another area which is progressing at india is the BPO Fever - But Local.. its not for the MNCs or US companies.. There are so many BPO's sprung up to service our own country, state and cities. this is very much seen in South india - especially tamilnadu. ...Reply
Hey Yogesh, as you have quoted "China is considered stronger in terms of its unbelievably huge manufacturing capabilities, better infrastructure support, quicker Government action and sheer commitment to grow...." I feel, we should have a positive mindset to improve in this dircetion rather then bieng worried about the outcome, once China has better English speaking skills. The only solution avaliable to us, is to work on our "weakness" rather than trying to curtail India's help to China in the language barrier. ...Reply
hey,
If we won't sb else will . Its a free world and we can't stop them from learning, can we! Its better to expand ou skills and then have u heard adage Competition is necessary for growth.
Don't we have lot of other things to worry about!!!!!!! ...Reply
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