Saturday, October 06, 2012

RIVALRY: INDIA AND CHINA

The IIPM Think Tank brings to you the Most Recently updated Statistic set on where India Stands Economically Compared to China; And to No One’s Surprise, The Distance between the Two Has only Gotten Wider

From July 2009 to March 2010, vehicle sales in India had increased by 22%, with car sales growing by 24% and touching historical highs in October 2010. Despite that, while Indian companies sold 1.43 million cars in FY2009-10, China saw 13.6 million cars being sold in the same period. General Motors alone sells more cars in China than all the car manufacturers in the world put together sell in India. The Chinese Ministry of Public Security recently announced that there are around 85 million automobiles on China’s roads! China is the second largest consumer of oil while India is the 5th largest consumer of oil. China’s share in global trade is more than 5% while India’s is just 1/6th of China with 0.9%. China’s merchandise exports quintupled in value and contributed 9% to world exports (between 2000 and 2007) while India’s export share to the world trade increased from 0.7% to 1% in the same period (It takes around 4 months for a cargo to reach US from India compared to 1.5 months from China).

A similar trend is visible in usage of technology as well. A study by Informa Telecoms & Media shows that there were 508 million active mobile subscriptions in India as of 2009 while China had 773 million active connections. India on an average has 50-60 million Internet users and 7.4 million broadband connections while China has over 420 million Internet users with over 130 million using Internet for online shopping. The only respite for India comes in outsourcing. The Chinese government mouthpiece, People’s Daily, accepted in October 2010 that “India, which is similar to China in many aspects, yields more than 34 percent of global offshore outsourcing services, 10 times more than China does.” At the same time, with their shrewdest tactical planning, as per a July 2010 KPMG survey, China has succeeded in taking over India as the “primary destination of outsourcing & shared services” for Asia-Pacific firms.

In defense too, China is well endowed. China’s annual military expenditure is estimated to be around $80-90 billion; making it the second largest country in terms of military spending, while India’s annual military expenditure is around $30-40 billion, making it the 10th largest.

In this whole saga of becoming a superpower, where optimists consider India to be like the tortoise of Aesop’s fables, the real world is pretty different. For the hare here is in no mood to take a nap, while the Indian bureaucracy and political bench is mired as deep in controversy and corruption as can be shamefully possible! While China executed the former head of state food and drug department on corruption charges, India has not even succeeded in putting in jail the former telecom minister Sukhram, who is still out on bail despite having been convicted on corruption charges in a 13 year old case! India versus China? It’s time we own up to reality and stop the irrational comparisons.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
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