Follow the Chinese way on high tech

Making universities the hub of innovation and churning out scientists adept in frontier technology has put China at the top

- YOGEN DRA ANAND

OPINION ON China is generally hostile in this country. War in the 1960s all but obliterated a unique friendship and a shared vision for peaceful co-existence that was enunciated in the Panchsheel Agreement between India and China in 1954. So inspiring was the set of principles announced by prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru and Zhou Enlai that it was incorporated in the Bandung Conference declaration a year later by 29 Afro-Asian countries for a new era of peace and development. Rajiv Gandhi's epochal visit to Beijing in 1988 managed break down the great wall of animosity between the two countries, but relations have become a lot worse in recent years.

When it comes to the economy and China's technological prowess, the Indian government and its handmaiden media, in particular, tend to be dismissive and disparaging, fuelled by barely disguised resentment and envy. This results in paradoxes. In recent years, when the Narendra Modi government banned around 250 Chinese apps citing these to be "prejudicial to the sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of the state and public order", there was a frenzy of nationalist outpouring on WhatsApp exhorting patriotic Indians to boycott the apps. The irony is that the messages were, for the most part, being sent on Chinese-made mobile phones which they were unwilling to jettison!