Rama Krishna Sangem
China’s loss may turn out to be India’s gain on the investments and industries front. There is a tend among the US lawmakers to view any strategic tie up with Chinese firms will pose a threat to their security. So far, the US congress has allowed the commerce department to blacklist around 600 Chinese companies. This will result in American businesses stopping having ties with them.
Recently, the US congressional committee began hearing to ban another 110 Chinese firms on the ground that they would pose security threat. The trade war that began during Donald Trump era has gained momentum and escalated into strategic moves and countermoves. Joe Biden administration too has flexed it’s muscles with China and taking steps to contain Chinese dominance in several key areas like semiconductors and chemical weapons.
Foxconn, an example
The recent visit of Foxconn chairman Young Liu visit to India is an offshoot of this growing tensions between the US and China. Foxconn that supplies components to Apple’s iPhone is gradually looking to shift its bases from China to India. Foxconn now has its units in Tamil Nadu is planing to expand its activities to Telangana, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. This can be a trendsetter to other China based non-Chinese companies to migrate to India.
The recent US shooting down of Chinese balloons (suspected to be of spyware) has added further urgency to this policy of tilt towards India. The over a year long war in Ukraine has its own resonance in the Western world. Moscow’s deep ties with Beijing is another factor for this trend. Till recently, countries like Vietnam and South Korea used to benefit from the US polices ( of Trump era).
Is India ready to this new role?
Now the question is – is India ready to host the US companies and investments that leave China? Dozens of articles written by experts on this subject say that the answer is No. India may be the favoured destination for most of firms exiting China, but the ground conditions in our country are not that favourable. Compared to Chinese infrastructure and logistic facilities, we lag far behind.
Skilled manpower too is a major shortage in India. Our educated youth is far below that of developed countries. Supply of water, power and roads and sanitation and pollution levels need to be drastically improved. Corruption and red-tapism in government offices and bribe demands from politicians is too high in India. Our Ease of Doing Business rankings may be good (61st rank), but the actual reality is very bad.
Unless we improve on these conditions, we cannot expect all major businesses that exit China to land in our country. Wishing to emerge as Next China is one thing, and growing like another China is another. If we fail to make up our shortages, the US companies may go elsewhere – and India may miss the bus by several years, perhaps, decades to catch up.
