Sooraj Bagdia, 18 Jun 2020

I had not imagined that I would see a world stopping. All this happened due to an invisible virus coming from China.

The point which I would like to make: India & of course, the rest of the world suffered a massive setback due to the lockdown (experts predict it’s a worst-hit than the 2008 recession). Multiple points are coming out against China. Some of them are its bioterrorism, China plans to acquire global companies at lower share values; it wants to reduce its population etc. Anything can be true out of this. 

The question which lead me to think about this?

Why are we so much dependent on China? 

Take a small example China manufactures a pen. A pen that costs 2 or 3 Rs is produced in China, shipped with taxes & sold to us at such a low cost, and we here in India cannot make it at a lower rate. 

China is producing & investing in almost anything, be it plastic products, electrical & electronics, automotive, software, energy, medicines, games, IoT etc. The point is clear either they are manufacturing in their own country or have invested vast amounts of money in companies based in their respective countries. 

Why can India not produce, manufacture, build, develop or invest? 

What advantages India has over China:

• The most important one would be the educated population. We know to speak English very well & we can adapt to many languages. 
• A young population, we have a global advantage for this. 
• Take any country they would consider more reliable than China. #TrustFactor
• The government support, the current government would backbone us if we want to start anything.

We have the land available & we have the technology with us, then why can’t we produce it? 

The reason is: We have to think that India is its own country, just for 10% or 20% fewer costs. We have to stop consuming Chinese products. We are trading anything from China just for a few percentages of profit. 

We have to have the whole product life cycle built in India. 

Take the case of Covid-19; for the Initial days, we had to import from China, and now all PPE kits, sanitisers, masks, temperature guns, etc., are getting produced in India. So we know we have the adaptability to cope with such situations. 

Why not India can become a global hub for exports, be it Technology (which India already is), garments, automotive, pharma, spices, electronics etc.? 

I know it’s not a day’s work to shift or eliminate Chinese products. But imagine ten years from now when India has become a global hub exporting anything. 

Simple logic would be If we are producing or building in India and selling it again in India, then we are just rotating the cash. The growth would be we are not only producing or building in India but also exporting to every country in the world, so the money comes outside India. 

In 2018, China filed for almost 14 Lakh patent applications, whereas India filed only 16 thousand applications. We can imagine how much the gap & how much struggle we need to beat China. 

We need to plan brilliant moves now. Instead of working in Fortune 500 companies, we need to start a small company that produces something irrespective of turnover. We need inventions & innovations that attract the global world to visit India. 

We go to Chinese trade shows, which are assumed to be the world’s biggest trade show of goods. Why can not such trade be organized in India?

Google, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and many more companies are banned in China. They have similar kinds of apps, mostly in local languages. Don’t you think these platforms are used worldwide, yet this country forbids them? Even barring this, they can get massive FDI from other countries. 

If I go deeper, we are all surrounded by Chinese products & investments. I do not want to target any company. Still, maybe the laptop I am using to write this blog, the app through which I order my food, the app I am using to book a cab, the website I am using to purchase or book anything, the electronics in my office, the plastic products in my house, etc. has a high probability of Chinese investment. Hence, the money returns to China from India with a considerable profit (Just Google ‘Chinese investments’).

We constantly criticize the government because of corruption, but this time, we have a government that wants us to be #AtmaNirbhar (self-independent). We need to have wide thinking about manufacturing or producing something. The most significant advantage we have right now is the world wants to start a ‘trade war’ against China. Companies want to move their factories, investments, etc., from China to any other Asian country. Why not? We can be the central hub for everything. It’s the most significant opportunity in front of us. 

We all know the power of social media; the first way would be to make it viral across the world about anything getting built in India & the second way is to talk to people to take it up in their respective countries. Gone are those days when we have to go & meet them personally to start it. It’s a tech world; you don’t have to go there. 

In the coming months, we will be used to Covid-19, and after that, if we become ‘Jaise the Waise’ (like how we used to live before), then we will be doubly hit & may China’s move will be successful. We are young, and the coming ten years from today significantly impact how we want to shape our future.

If you can get my point, my request would be when you plan to spend money on something, be it a rupee or lakhs, look for a ‘Made In India’ solution; if not, create one. Always think from a global perspective, & make it highly scalable. 

Let’s beat China!

-Sooraj Bagdia

18.06.20