[Reader-list] India and China reflections.

[hpp at vsnl.com]

Reading Zainab's first post, I wondered what is this democracy that the Nilkeni's so detest and are so afraid of. If this democracy still means the living (and lying on the streets) that Zainab so arrestingly captures in her account - then what are the Nilkeni's losing thereby, what resource of theirs is being appropraited by the street-dwellers? How much lower can they be pushed? Do they want the people to be eliminated? To put them underground, in burrows or graves? 

And would they be in favour of a non-democracy where the needs of the poor and vulnerable are integrated into city planning and development, human resource development, economic growth etc? 

I have no knowledge whatsoever about the situation in China. I gather things are not so fine there. But I would like to think the kind of grinding poverty, and the complete denial and apathy of the authorities and society at large that one finds in India, finally affecting such a huge no. of people - is not something one will see in China. I would also like to think the Chinese authorities, in their own interest, are more sensitive to the needs of the people than in India. In turn, that would also translate into economic growth. 

Managing my family business , I am just beginning to do business with China, selling precision instruments manufactured by us here to medical equipment manufacturers there. Their products are low- to middle-cost items targetted at rural hospitals etc. As a result of major investment by the state in rural healthcare - prompted by growing resentment in the vast rural hinterland left behind by the economic growth centred in the eastern region - the business of these Chinese companies is growing dramatically, and they are engaged in rapid expansion. Companies like this would have been started earlier by technical / medical specialists, and also begun to look globally for markets. They may have availed of divestments of state assets. With international exposure, they have started sourcing their requirements as well as technology globally. 

A tiny manufacturing enterprise like ours, specialised in niche manufacture, could be transformed by this dramatic opening of the Chinese market. The scale that this translates into given the sheer size of China is also dramatic. That means sustainable livelihood and bright opportunities for self-growth, for a small number of people from low-income, humble backgrounds in Calcutta - provided we can enhance our business skills, production capacity and also upgrade technology, to match the drastically scaled-up demand the China opening brings.

Notwithstanding the impressive economic and export growth and of India that everyone is impressed with - this is still not manufacturing-centred. A National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council was set up by the PM some time back, and among other things IITs and IIMs have been involved in developing, in collaboration with international experts, courses aimed at building the leadership, at all levels within companies, for successful globally competitive Indian manufacturers, beginning from now, and extending to years down the road, by when a critical mass of such corporate leadership could be attained. 

Manufacturing - involves very large companies, medium and small scale enterprises, as well as tiny units. They are all symbiotically linked. However, notwithstanding their enormous number, aggregated financial and employment dimension, long proven capability, innovation, dynamism and international exposure - the small and tiny sectors are today in weak shape. If the manufacturing system is to be built and is to grow and succeed, notwithstanding all the automation technology, there will still need to be critical links with small and tiny manufacturers. Low-cost manufacturers of their requirements do exist in India and will only in numbers and capability with globalisation and movement of manufacturing activity to low-cost manufacturing centres. 

In the very successful auto components sector, out of sheer business interest there has had to be an integration of the whole supply spectrum into a single efficient production chain. But that is an exception. Neither the state, nor business associations and chambers, are even aware of the real problems and needs of these manufacturers, let alone doing something substantive. Doing something - not out of benevolence, but in order to realise success in business and manufacturing growth, employment, technology competitiveness etc. 

With small and tiny manufacturers - and their own further ancillaries, emerging skill, tooling etc requirements - successfully renewed, a large volume of produtive and sustainable employment would be secured. Opportunities would be created for humble people to become significantly socially and economically empowered in 1-2 generations.

There needs to be a bottom-up approach to building manufacturing competitiveness, together with the top-down approaches being taken up by the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council. Otherwise our "corporate caste" culture - will be our own undoing. 

Similarly, there can be bottom up renewal of our cities. That's my other, prior-ongoing hat, with my work in the bastis in Calcutta and Howrah. I could visualise the dramatic transformation of the physical and social landscape of our cities, as the poor and low-income are empowered to realise the value of the land they currently live on. This is the only means available to begin closing the enormous human and social development gap accreted through decades and decades, between the urban poor and the middle- and affluent classes. That can also make for very profitable and successful real estate development opportunities.

Where city meets the countryside, which are now squalid areas of choas and disorganisation and destructive commercialisation, the interface of new technologies and traditional rural, agricultural and ecological skills and resources - would also bring opportunities for successful enterprises, which benefit both rural and urban systems. 

An inclusive city, an inclusive biogregional  economy - are possible, are achievable. And that would have to be fuelled by private enterprise, markets and profit motive. But underlying that must be a social or public policy vision, normative goals and intentions, which establishes the framework for the successful enterprises. Successful enterprise, whether by private entrepreneurs or social / community enterprises (which make profits for reploughing into advancing basic needs and opportunities) would support efficient enabling public institutions, and also transfers towards rapidly integrating those left out of the market-sphere.

Our caste-ism, our blindness, our taking for granted the existence of the poor and the way that subsidises our life and comforts here, our apathy and insensitivity, the absence of an intelligentsia and civil society (in any meaningful, system-serving sense) - means that instead of realsing the inclusive cities and economy, we will be ravaged by conflict, violence, terror and civil war. The private sector is fine. But we lack a public sector, and I don't mean a govt department but a public ethic, a public sense and values within us as individuals. Politics has become privatised. There is no public domain. Hence the private domain is rapacious and squalid.

So what is called for - in all these spheres, the personal, the ethical-moral-normative-political, public policy, governance, business functioning etc etc - is really quite revolutionary. There is no more time today for gradual evolution. Globalisation has meant the telescoping of time as much as of space. Thus rapid business success if possible. Rapid descent into terror and chaos is also possible. 

Can India make this revolution? Will it be through our "democratic" system? Does it require something else? Does it require for instance an inner revolition in ourselves, whereby we see the world, life very differently, view people and society differently, and think, act, live, work, relate differently? 

When a critical mass of such voluntary self-enlightenment is reached - that would signify a revolution.

Thank you for your eyeball / ear!

V Ramaswamy
Calcutta
cuckooscall.blogspot.com