INDIA NEEDS TO SHED ITS SOCIALISTIC-ERA FEAR OF PRIVATE SECTOR BIG CORPORATIONS

To become a technologically muscular nation, India needs to shed its socialistic-era fear of private sector big corporations In spite of the fact that service and consumer economy has been a major contributor to India’s GDP, it’s not good enough to meet the rising aspirations of the high-tech digital generation; nor does the service economy enable India to face the complex challenges of national defense, diplomacy, and international trade. Service economy does not create muscle power.

- NARAIN BATRA

Tourism, call centers, delivery services, public education, and healthcare, etc. are very important, in fact indispensable, for the general welfare and prosperity of the people; but the AatmaNirbhar Bharat needs a strong and diverse technology and manufacturing base that can raise companies like Huawei, Samsung, and Taiwan Semiconductors Manufacturing Company (TSMC), for example.

Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and later China grew their economic strength out of manufacturing, and the push to meet global standards made them exporting juggernauts. China’s share of global manufacturing is 28.7% compared to India’s 3.1%, according to Statista (2019). By and large, it’s manufacturing that enabled China to lift 850 million people out of extreme poverty since Deng Xiaoping opened up the country to the outside world. The Belt and Road Initiative rose out of its “Made in China” manufacturing might.

Without a vast, diversified and sophisticated manufacturing & industrial base, India would be always looking for the next generation of French Rafale jets or Russian S-400 missile systems. And keep enviously looking at China’s Mars rover Zhurong and fearing its next move in the Himalayas.