1. Where is India in the year 2002?
One thousand years ago, in the year 1001, the world was divided into three main trading blocks, China, India and the rest of the world, each with about 33% of the world trade. India had nearly 27% of World Trade, about 250 years ago, when the British landed in India. The King of Spain sent Columbus to search for India as we were a rich country. By 1947, when India gained its political freedom, India's share had come down to about 3% of world trade!
Presently, India has only 0.6% of the world's trade, 1.4% of the world's GDP, 2.2% of the land mass but 17% of the world population! In the last 55 years, our foreign trade has had a negative growth from 3% to 0.6% of world trade, or minus 500%! Wake up India!
99.5% of the world's trade and 98.6% of the world's buying power is outside India! These are the ground realities in 2002! Management of India Inc. needs to be World Class and poor Governance or management and inefficient Administration minimized and reduced, or preferably, eliminated!
Obviously India has to export much more and ramp-up tourism by, say, 10 to 50 times respectively in the next 20 years! This has many advantages. Exports & tourism will improve Governance, Administration, Efficiency in manufacturing and services, cost competitiveness, FDI inflow, latest & best technology will come into the country, more jobs will be created, the infrastructure will have to improve and the standard of living of the people will go up. Better Governance & Administration of India is needed!
We should benchmark everything in India with the worlds best! For example Indian software services or diamond cutting in India, cater for World Class customers! Look at how these two businesses have transformed the country! Once they go in for high value added business, the transformation will be multifold.
2. Effective Administration & Good Governance - what do they mean?
As per the Oxford dictionary, Administration means a. Management of a business, institution, a government agency b. The management of public affairs; government. c. The administration of justice, etc. Govern or Governance means a. rule or control with authority. b. conduct the policy and affairs of government and organizations. c. Influence or determine a course of action. d. Be the predominating influence. e. Be a standard or principle for; constitute a law for; serve to decide. f. Check or control {especially passions}. Adding "effective or good" makes them better. Simply put, Effective Administration = Effective Management & Good Governence = Good Management of India.
3. India's Latent Energy - its Gigantic!
The Latent Energy of our Nation is gigantic, it needs to be allowed to blossom and grow. This is only possible with the positioning of Good Governance & Effective Administration, in our system, something, which is not impossible for India! India needs to get their Best Teams in position.
We have the expertise. Let us unleash this Power!
At present, we cannot always use the Best "Swadeshi or Home Grown" Effective Human Capital to run our own country including our own public and private sector. When future generations of Indians read Indian History, this will go down as the biggest tragedy for India. 1020 million people but we cannot place our Teams in position and put our House in Order! No amount of money or technology can ever replace the presence of effective human capital. In fact, effective man power or personnel teams know, how to rustle up other resources. The reverse is not true, especially in a competitive and global environment! Other countries in the world recognize Indian talent. Better Governance can unleash this latent energy for India.
4. China - India comparisonChina started their family planning policy in 1970, India in 1952. In 2001 our birth rate is nearly 3 times more than China. 27 births per 1000 as against 8.8 for China! India is adding 18 million people per year, against 9 million per year in China. Total addition to population is a function of total births minus total deaths. How will we provide additional 10 million jobs per year, when the Public Sector and State/Central Government, which is already overstaffed, has a total 18.7 million employees?
Its like adding additional existing Public and Government sectors per year, year after year, without planning or providing the provision for health, education, food, housing, employment, transport, drinking water, infrastructure, defense, pollution control & sanitation! Where are the additional resources?
The Government can only facilitate jobs, they cannot provide jobs for the 300 million unemployed in India! At 10 million jobs per year it will take us 30 years to remove unemploment, at 5 million jobs for year it will take us 60 years! The present Indian "mind set" will require rethinking and reorganization of the existing perceptions about Public Sector enterprises, and the actual role they are supposed to play! Only efficient organizations can deliver results and growth. Only better Governance and efficient administration can deliver results!
India's per capita earning is US$440 per year against US$990 per year in China. As per the World Bank, the poverty line definition is US$1 per person per day or US$365/person/year, for underdeveloped countries like India, China etc. You be the judge as to how many people in India, are below the poverty line, as per the World Bank definition? As per the official data from both governments, China has 3% population below the Poverty Line, compared to India's 30 to 40%! Only better Governance will help.
China attracts 87 million tourists per year (this is expected to reach 90 million in 2002) against 2.5 million per year to India. The international Tourism Industry is [7 times the size of I.T. or Software] about, US$3700 billion per year. India, in spite of its 10,000 years old history and 21 cultures and languages, seems to have "missed the bus", in Tourism. Tourism is a very big employment generator. Tourism promotes International trade and understanding.
In Foreign Direct investment, FDI, China received US$45 billion last year [US$32b. from NRC's] vs US$2 billion [US$0.2b from NRI's] for India! Only better Governance can attract FDI and Tourists.
In exports, China is nearly +700% of India. Taking the exports of Hong Kong + Macau into account, China's exports would be +1000% of India!
In agriculture our yields per acre, are well below the international norms. India could be a giant exporter of Food, only if we could put our "house in order"! China with lesser cultivable land, produces double the food grains, at 415 million tons per year compared with India's 208 million tons per year. God has been very kind to India with a lot of sunshine, rain, rivers, lakes, coastline and good hard working citizens.
But the governance of hamlets, villages, cities, districts, Government and Semi-Government agencies, as facilitators, have not done enough to show the results that India is able or capable of achieving. India would definitely rate as the No.1 country in the world, for Potential vs Performance! Indians score high marks on performance, outside India! This is because the Governance is better outside. In countries where the Governance & Administration is poor, the performance of its citizens is also low!
In Education, 99.1% of Chinese children attend school for 9 years, this ensures nearly 100% literacy. In India, literacy is hardly 50 to 60%. While IIT's, IIM's are important, the country's real growth will come because of primary and secondary education and Vocational Training in all districts of the country.
India can rise and shine in exports, agriculture, literacy and other areas only with better Governance.
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