To be a superpower, you must first need financial
muscle, which India still needs to build up. So many areas of
expenditure are needed and without the financial muscle, how to make the
dream come to fruition? India's 3 trillion+ GDP is far from what a
upcoming superpower needs.
All that hype about India's
population dividend does not look at the poverty situation and are just
preoccupied with the numbers being added as a sign of upcoming
prosperity. Where are the jobs needed to lift them out of poverty? India
is still a predominantly agricultural economy, still a far cry from
becoming the 'factory of the world' that it also gloated about
frequently.
Suffice to say, India still needs to import many raw
materials and components needed, without the supply chains in place to
support manufacturing on a large scale. And India has not even put in
place its control of essential raw materials to support its
industrialization dream. Where are the refining logistics that it needed
like China to provide a vertical integration of its supply chain? These
issues are just hanging in the air and a superpower status just
leveraging on thin air and rhetorics.
India's attempt to lure
manufacturing to India had also been sabotaged by India's mode of
treating foreign investments as potential assets to be seized by
changing the law retrospectively. So many foreign entities are now
embroiled in tax issues. India thinks that this the same modus operandi
as its citizens just wriggling their way up the corporate ladder in the
West into entities build up by others. Countries are wising up and
companies are deserting India rather than investing in it.
The
West is now harping on the number of Indian students studying in the USA
and overtaking the Chinese. Let us be honest. These students are not
going to benefit India as these students will graduate, stay in the USA
and contribute to the USA economy, not India's. India does not have the
capability to entice them back like China in the past. Thanks to the
anti-China movement started by Trump, Chinese students are now returning
to China or just studying in China. Cheaper and safer in fact.
Anonymous
2 comments:
Never mind the reality. Indians love the hype. Just hyping up issues will make them very happy. Already Indians are so happy about the world now knowing that they are a superpower in waiting. They are also happy that the world is buying into their 'factory of the world' aspirations. They are also gloating about India's growing population as a dividend to be reaped. Forget about other issues hindering all such aspirations. Just believe the Indians and it will happen, LOL.
India is making all the basic mistakes of hyping up its intention, which is an affront to the aspiration of the USA, which is intent to keep its status quo intact. India should just look at Germany and Japan, and now China and learn its lesson to be humble. China had all its progress under wraps for over thirty years, never touting about its superpower aspirations, its 'factory of the world' build-up. Yet China is being demonized to no limit when the truth finally surfaced regarding its dominating effect.
The fact that India is still getting relatively easy treatment by the USA and the West stems from the USA and the West using India's position as a counter to China. India is now being used as leverage, and when such usage ends, India will suffer the full brunt of the USA and Western treatment. For all we know, what is India's real position inside BRICS with its divided loyalty is still a mystery. Trying to entice India by allowing it to sit around at G7 meetings tells us there is an insidious agenda. India is unhappy that other than sitting around like a dog in a corner, the G7 is not admitting India into the grouping so far. Conspiracy theory tells me that this may be a bargaining chip in the offing to India to join the G7 officially when the time comes.
USA tells India, keep sending your best students over here. We earn the tuition fees, accommodation rentals, economic uplifting and also keeping them here in the USA to help us re-industrialize.
It is a win-win situation. USA gets the tuition money; accommodation returns, student spending and gets to keep the talents while India gets the bloated ego of having the most students in USA universities.
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