Rising inflation in India and China

[firstmillion]

Hi firstmillion:

I have actively discussed about India and China with my Indian friends and Chinese friends, and I also get constant feedback from my uncle, who still has a business in Calcutta (and yes, I have Hindi and Mandarin speaking cousins ).

One of the question that has bothered me for a while until 2 years ago, was, India is supposed to be ahead of China by miles, because China only started opening itself up in early 80's, whereas India has never isolated itself from anyone. After extensive discussions, we come to the conclusion that diverse opinions and bureaucracies are what holding India back. There are so many different languages and cultures on one sub-continent, which is great from a cultural point of perspective. However, politically this created a chaos, which resulted in inefficient execution of policies. China, on the other hand, was homogenised by Qing Shi Huang (or Emperor Nasi Goreng if u watched Telstra TV), who unified Chinese characters and language, and created a more uniform "Han" culture. This allows policies to be executed with more efficiency.

The other thing which I have also observed is the density of enterpreneurs. I have noticed that Indians who are good with business and money are predominantly ppl from North West corner (Mumbai area). This culture has now extended to South/SE India to certain extent due to massive IT development in the area, but other areas are still dominated by working class attitude. If India wants to create its own dynasty, more entrepreneurs are required. This can be done by building infrastructures across the nation, which will encourage foreign investment (again bureaucracies cannot stand in the way). China has just finished building Tibet-Beijing railway, and its impact on the surrounding economy has already been observed.


my 2 cents worth..

Hi Feihong,

Good to know that you hv Hindi and mandarin speaking cousins. This would give u a better understanding of both the cultures.

Never been to China, but I understand its a great nation with very strong culture and economy. There is major difference between India and China and that is the transparency in media or freedom in media. Spread of wealth is more even in India and there are not growth pockets.

Cheers

 

[trendsta]

to expand on yesterdays comment democracy is a problem for india..

It is a diverse nation with massive population and various religious, political, sub-ethnic groups... Communism allows the ruling party to dictate and makes decision making easier.. For a diverse country like india democracy slows down all decision making processes. In the past it has been difficult to shift economic policy because of this ...

Progress has been bad - but with 70% of population still rural and large percentage of that in inefficient agriculture it is difficult to make mass changes in short amount of time... Add to that the inefficient govt revenue system with little or no welfare it become really difficult to change the economy with vast majority of population relying on agri as their livelihood.. not like they can get a bailout package from govt if there is a drought...

Service sector and domestic growth is key... The large amount of capital inflows esp from non-residents are making an impact .. In a country where capital is scarce and labour is abundant this will continue to have a positive impact ...

Lastly, it will take a generation to move from a service based economy to one that is more entreprenarial (dunno how to speel.. hehe). Next generation will be the ones creating the google's and microsofts.. This one is simply laying the foundation.

 

[arungounder]

I actually think India is structurally weaker than China. The caste system, lower levels of education (the IT geniuses are statistical anomalies), relatively fewer manufacturing jobs (which you need for a middle class, because office jobs require fewer people which end up creating a white collar group and the poor), and its infrastructure is still nowhere near China's.
Alex

Spot on. Hit the Nail on the head