India vs China

As sleazy as the heading may sound, this one is going to be about economy again.

The biggest buzz on US, and European media is about the India vs China issue, an issue that the media has invented for itself. It is rather peculiar of modern civilization that whenever they see two comparable entities trying to succeed they assume that they would be competing each other. Although both the countries are talking about symbiotic growth, and both do have extremely specific strengths and weaknesses, it is pretty apparent that they are aiming for the same stake in the market through different approaches. In other words, competing.

On one side we have China, a juggernaut with forced efficiency, little opposing forces and hence concentrated strength to one and only one goal. MONEY. They have the cheap labor, industries, infrastructure, and most importantly the power to make the laborers work in any condition.

On the other hand we have India, a multifaceted, diverse, fused, contradicting mix of cultures, peoples and views who all want to have a say. The only problem is, they want to have it at the same time, resulting obviously in clamor and apparent chaos. Indeed, this is the first impression of many foreigners have of India. The delicate balance of forces and the fact that not everyone agrees on one point, or even has a point are things that Indians have taken forgranted for the last 50 years. The knack of always thinking locally but being aware of the big picture is infact the main reason why today's Indian thinks on global terms, acts on global terms and competes on global terms . So our apparent weakness has turned to our strength!

It has made us adopt a foreign language, a language of our previous oppressors whom we so enthusiastically kicked out. Logic would dictate that we overthrow their customs and language, but it is our diversity and the ability to think in the bigger picture that we retained the gift of global perspectives that the British gave us.

And a decision well made I say!

btw. NY time's interesting take on India's presence at the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/26/business/worldbusiness/26india.html

I like the last paragraph, free Ipods with Indian music on, if you needed proof on Indian entrepreneurship look no further...