The Elephant and the Dragon: The Rise of India and China and what it Means for All of Us
Loading ...Changes in China and India are rapidly shaping the world’s political and economic future. The two Asian giants have embraced capitalism and globalization at the same time, producing enormous economic, social, environmental, business and geopolitical shifts around the globe. Understanding the two countries is crucial to evaluating the opportunities and the risks that are most likely to emerge.
It was a special session with Robyn Meredith, as part of NASSCOM’s Speakers Club series, held on 18th Oct 2007 at the Gulmohar Hall, the India Habitat Centre, Lodi Road, New Delhi. The session was convened by NASSCOM President, Kiran Karnik, who set the tone for Robyn Meredith’s talk by stating that the discussion would be neither about “India or China”, or India Vs China.” Rather, it would be about “India And China”
“Tthere is certainly competition between the two countries. However, what we’ll like to see is synergies,” Karnik commented. “China’s eco-system is far better than that of India, but we need to find things we can learn from the country” he added. Karnik acknowledged Robyn’s efforts in studying the two giants and invited her to share her “Sympatric Observations” on them with the audience.
Meredith quoted extensively from her book, “The elephant and the dragon,” released worldwide recently. She spoke about how both India and China were changing, and along with this change, how they were shaping their own destinies and transforming the world.
While the elephant symbolized India, China was represented by the Dragon. Meredith stated that although both the countries had showed similarity in their transformation and growth, a closer look revealed numerous contrasts.
“India, the elephant is slow, but it’ll reach the destination. On the other hand, China, the dragon is super fast but not as strong as it appears,” Meredith said. Commenting on China’s commendable industrial growth, Meredith provided the following facts and figures:
China upped its share in the global toy market from 30 to 75 percentage in just two years. China’s exports during 1978, were achieved in a single day today! China had moved fom fields to factories over the last ten years. Sixty percent of water in China was not fit even for industrial use.
“India and china are heading towards creating a historic equilibrium in the global economy,” Meredith said, adding that both nations would create new ways of doing business. “The fact that we have a global job market is a great change in itself,” she said. Meredith gave the example of Henry Ford’s innovation of the assembly line approach for building automobiles and how today, the same assemble line was shattered in so many pieces globally. “We no longer sell what we make and we don’t make what we sell. It’s astonishing how an innovative software chip, built by a small Hyderabad based firm was used to create the revolutionary i-Pod—a product that has changed the way we listen to music,” she added.
While countries like the US and UK were likely to lose jobs to India and China, there were certain challenges both the nations would also have to face going forward.
A possible threat was the lack of jobs, which was expected to lead to further poverty. ”Fifty percent of the mighty 1.1 billion population of India is below 25 years. India and China together produce more than twice as many graduates as the United States and the UK. At the same time, the challenge for these countries will be to create opportunities for these young people entering the job market,” Meredith commented.
In Meredith’s opinion, while both India and China were expected to witness immense economic growth right now, they could also face socio-economic disaster. “We know the challenge but we don’t have a solution yet,” she said.
What is your perspective on the India-China debate? Is it India versus China, or India and China?
With inputs from Ankur Sethi from PeopleStrong
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India and China! Elephant and Dragon! Rightly put in as both are driving the economic and Socio-economic facet of the world. India moving slow and steady where as china pacing up with time. As stats show, China has covered the toy market from 30% (Approx) to 75%, which is phenomenal in just two years (Robyn Meridth).
The media, particularly the financial press, are all agog over the rise of China and India in the international economy.While there is no doubt about the great potential of these two economies in the rest of this century, severe structural and institutional problems will hobble them for years to come. At this point, the hype about the Indian economy seems patently premature, and the risks on the horizon for the Chinese polity – and hence for economic stability – highly underestimated.
Both countries are relatively poor according to World bank survey. Of 2.5b total population approx 1.5 b population is under USD2$ a day. Which is definitely not a good show.India and China are certainly not a major player in Exports segment as well (India-1% and China-6%). What about the hordes of Indian software engineers, call-center operators, and back-room programmers supposedly hollowing out white-collar jobs in rich countries? The total number of workers in all possible forms of IT-related jobs in India comes to less than a million workers – one-quarter of one percent of the Indian labor force. For all its Nobel Prizes and brilliant scholars and professionals, India is the largest single-country contributor to the pool of illiterate people in the world. Lifting them out of poverty and dead-end menial jobs will remain a Herculean task for decades to come.China is still to cater to language proeficiency but once it is through with the workforce it should be a good competitor in this field as well.
All it boils down to is the fact both nations are still moving and would require significant time frame to empact the world economy. We will have to wait and watch who takes the lead.
@ Sandeep Ajmera
Hi Sandeep,
I second your thoughts here, and believe there is so much to be gained mutually in terms of Knowledge from both countries.
And indeed people play an important role in a country’s success. We all, I am sure, will be keen to learn best practices from China and deploy them here and gain momentum of our growth.
Thanks for sharing your comments, appreciate it!
Regards,
Ankur Sethi
This is regarding India and China acc to what I have been able to understand as it gives insight about both Giants to the rest of the world about their opportunities and Challanges.
Both the contries are upcoming economies which can drive a new way for the rest of the World. However both need to learn from each other from their true inner Qualities and need to find way to embibe the Positives of each other, inorder to overcome the challanges.
A true mix of each others working styles can lead them to Glory and who so ever can embibe it early will come out as the Leader.
Why and How?
India functions as True Democratic Republic Nation where its people have the right to do and say anything. while China as a True Tanashahi( Not finding the right word) where people can do and say but if the government do not like it then they have the right to destroy that.
Now they both have to change their working styles by keeping the positives of this working style but also introducing the each others way of working to overcome the negatives, as we are dealing with humans which need both love and Stick.