Kuch Loha Khota, Kuch Lohaar Khota..
Our never giving up Prime Minister Modi, finally poured his heart out by asking 1.3+ billion Indians to become 'ATMANIRBHAR' (Self-reliant) recently. Millennials, consultants and experts are still figuring out, if this is the new ideology of the BJP party and the govt of India, or just another revolutionary slogan, which again may be short lived like 'Make in India', 'Swacch Bharat' (Clean India), 100 Smart cities, 'Ache Din' (good days), 'Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas' (all prosper together), 'KaalaDhan' (black money), Rs.15 lakhs in every one's account, amidst many others announced or promoted in last 6-7 years of strategical campaigns across India.It may be co-incidental of China to intrude our borders in Ladakh at the same time, making 1.3 billion Indians busy again in rolling anti-china WhatsApp campaigns starting with uninstalling all the apps made or invested in, by Chinese. The '3 Idiots' movie hero (not Aamir Khan) but the one on whose character the movie was based on, further got more famous by enlightening 1.3 billion Indians that we import goods worth Rs. 5 Lakh Crores ($68 Billion) from China EVERY YEAR!
It is amusing to ask an 8000 year old civilization to, now become ATMANIRBHAR! If they couldn't in 8000 years, what changes now? Ya Ya we were slaves and our freedom was taken away yada yada yada, fine, if we couldn't in last 73+ years after Independence, what changes now?
Here comes the title - 'Kuch Loha Khota, Kuch Lohaar Khota..' translating best into 'Some iron was rusty, some rusty was the blacksmith.."
We shall limit this article to compare India with only China, because all other comparisons never made sense. We are almost the same population, large countries by area and almost same type of governance! Oh, I forgot, unlike China, we have freedom of press (quite visible in all newspapers and NEWS channels when they all only and only praise one man), freedom through courts (average justice taking 25 years), freedom to sue govt (98% success of the govt due to manipulation of orders in their favour in all courts!), just 3 crore (30 million) govt employees (ensuring minimum governance and maximum government!), and the debatable list is never ending. But as the title reminds me again, its the iron/Loha referring to the people of India, and the blacksmith/Lohaar referring to the govt & bureaucracy of India. They both to be equally blamed for restricting us to $2+ trillion economy v/s China being $17+ trillion; importing Rs. 5 lakh crore ($68 billion) worth of goods from China every year; and NOT EXPORTING $2.5+ Trillion (Rs. 225 lakh crores) worth of goods from India to all countries across the world, like China! Our total exports are mere $324 billion which form 11.68% of our GDP. More sad and unfortunate than this, is that 1.3 billion Indians thinking by abolishing imports of $68 Billion (Rs. 5 lakh crore) from China, shall disturb Chinese economy! My dearest Indians, it wont make more than 3.67% of impact on total Chinese exports and 2.5% on their total GDP! But did you ever imagine if you stop importing goods worth $68 billion from china or $480 billion total from all countries, where our country would end up? Let's limit this article to not discuss what India imports from China and others.
And when I say India should do this, I literally mean children and relatives of farmers committing suicides, bureaucrats working on Karjmaafi (loan waivers) of all farmers of India and the huge population mostly in their youth, to really change the concept of agricultural economy and develop a mindset of industrial economy. The govt want you to stay farmers and keep voting them, because you are just another vote. But you have to ensure you become a competitor or part of Patanjali and not just Ramdev Baba as the ambassador of Atmanirbhar!
History has been witness to our non productive, uncreative and our anti-innovation mind frame, with taking pride in JUGAAD formulas. We never upgraded from Mahindra, Maruti and Tata cars but felt glorious in driving Mercedes and Jaguars. Toyota, Honda & Hyundai still dominate the market share, though they are assembled in India, but not really an Indian brand. Our car exports were mere $17 Billion whereas China exports automobiles worth $75 billion. Remember Mamta Banerjee driving out Tata Nano plant from West Bengal? Which did set up later in Gujarat, but my point is, did we invite all car manufacturers to set up plants in Gujarat? Were our policies competitive to China? Since we did set a precedent of exporting automobiles worth $17 billion, loha and lohaar both should have focused on multiplying the production 5 times to beat the Chinese $75 billion exports of vehicles.
Our toys, games and sporting goods exports were mere $423 Million vs $56 Billion of China! Did we ever do anything to multiply the existing factories exporting toys by 132 times? Did the govt really facilitate meetings of our exporters with buyers overseas currently buying Chinese products over ours?
You'd be surprised to learn, just crocheted apparels including knit and not knit with fabrics were exported worth $163 Billion from china, where as India just exported of $16 billion. My concern here is, Bangladesh exported the same worth $26 billion! Do you also feel there's something seriously wrong somewhere.
Continuing apparels, textiles, garments and related products, China exported worn clothing, filaments, wadding, yarn, lace & others worth $81 billion while India barely folded $11 billion. If Smriti Irani, Maneka Gandhi and other powerful women leaders and ministers are really concerned about women empowerment, with no bias or discrimination intended, I would advice they hold meetings with their brilliant IAS officers on this subject. If not China, let's at least focus on beating Bangladesh for women's sake!
Not sure who is more fond of food, also both Chinese and Indian cuisines are relished all over the world, but exporting food should have no limitations, when we all the time claim 1 billion farmers and agricultural economy. Still India just exported cereals, flour, edible preparations, fruits, vegetables, nut foods and others for $4.5 billion where as China did the same for $30 billion. Are Loha & Lohaar really spending that agriculture budget on right technology?
Can't end any meal without some good drinks, eh? When a clearly defined formula with ingredients are set, and India did prove exporting spirits and beverages worth $276 million, but China is 8.5 times more to $2.37 billion. It's good to have too many audits & inspections in our factories by the govt & authorities, but I wish they were to promote and multiply production to beat China and not to shut down our own people!
It would be unfair to compare metal's export like zinc, lead, copper, tin, nickel and aluminium since the production may not be in our control. But we have some really large iron and steel units across India and instead of making them go bankrupt, something should have been done to increase exports of our iron & steel and articles of the same from $17 billion to $113 billion like China does. If you ever visited, some large iron and steel plants including but not limited to Steel Authority of India, Tata, Jindal, Vedanta and others, would literally amaze you with their own cities offering developed housing, education, healthcare and much more for it's considerable number of employees in these plants. Such precedents should have definitely been repeated.
We have been boasting for decades about our railways network and world's largest employment generator being Indian railways, including extending billions of USD worth of credit lines, to various countries, to develop their railway network. Our railway equipment export being mere $354 Million (with a M) compared to China's 13.27 Billion (with a B) doesn't make RITES (a govt of India corporation) 37 times bigger than any chinese railway consultancy. You'd be surprised with the scams RITES have been successfully conducting with no noise, especially aviation division of this railway consultancy firm!
Have you heard about world famous ship breaking yards and expertise of people from Gujarat to Goa? I wish with breaking things, they also had expertise in building ships, boats & floating structures so that our exports could sail up from $5.80 Billion to $25 billion like Chinese do!
We have a large desert in Rajasthan if sand is what all needed to produce glass and its products. Have been that the case, I believe the middle east and north africa would have been hard to compete. But it takes much more than that. Our exports were barely $1 billion including all glassware, where as China were almost $17 billion. Cutlery to go with it was not even close to $1 billion where China again crosses $16.37 billion! Similarly ceramic products exported from India were $1.82 billion compare to China ensuring no proximity to their $22.37 billion! It's enough we crib about being and staying poor and really start getting rich by ensuring there's cutlery, glass and ceramics on world's table!After covering agriculture and tableware, let's go back (India loves to go back in a democratic manner) and learn about fertilizers. We would imagine 1 billion farmers having whole world's fertilizers for enriching the best nutrients in our meals and for exports as well? Wake up, we barely exported $127 million worth of fertilizers compared to China which exported 55 times more fertilizers worth $7 billion!
Organic chemicals, chemical products and inorganic chemicals with metal compunds together got India $25 billion where as China's labs got them $98 billion, almost 4 times!
We claim to be highest movie producers of the world with everyone influence
All our doctors and medical experts leave India and may be because of that our medical apparatus, optical and photo equipment exported were for $3.40 billion where as China crossed $71 billion. Bad excuse for poor production!
Soaps, lubricants, waxes, candles and others just got us $640 million with a M where as China did $4.13 billion with a B, that is 6.5 times more. Govt should have really gone out of the way to help existing Indian industries exporting these multiply production and grab the global market.
I promise I wont cover all industries of the world, but I dont want to miss the furniture, lighting signs and prefabricated buildings which got China $96.42 billion where we just exported worth $1.84 billion. We shouldn't include wood and related industries because I am happy with one thing of the Indian govt (finally) of ban on cutting trees in India. Hence it's not good to mention paper, printed books, newspapers and related exports getting India just $2.4 billion compared to $23 billion of China. For a change, our oil, perfumes, cosmetics and toiletries got us $2.36 billion, dont get happy if you thought we beat China, they were just 2.5 times more to $5.63 billion worth of exports. This is an easy direction both loha & lohaar can work on simply by expanding existing capacities by 2.5 times.
You may be tired of reading and so am I, not of writing, but looking at Made in China mark on my laptop, mobile and other electronics used to write this blog and around me, which gets China more than $665 billion every year where as we barely make $15 billion. Dont get excited with the news about American electronic plants exiting China and looking for India as an option. It has already been resolved as India being always politically unstable and hence we would never multiply our capacity 45 times more as we desire, only for electronics.
It would be sad to mention machinery because we never consider ourselves anything more than an agricultural economy. Farmers are tax free and loan waived, but entrepreneurs working hard in their machinery exporting units are troubled by CBI, ED, IT, GST and an endless bureaucracy. Hence we barely exported $21 billion worth of machinery where as China conquered globe globe with $430 billion worth of machineries exports!
To conclude, let's pull the carpet and sincerely request our Loha & Lohaar to at least encourage and double the carpet production and exports from $1.71 billion to beat Chinese at $2.98 billion. Easy peasy? Still no?
Our Modi ji did envision industries and factories in his term as PM, since he was used to the same from his Gujarat Chief Ministership days. He also started with a special ministry for skill development, which could purely support factories to manufacture everything like China does. 1.3 billion people, 7th largest country by size in the world and a leader like Modi with dedicated ministries for industries, skill development, export promotion and further more ministries and departments specifically for several products, but our entire GDP and economy is less than, that of just EXPORTS OF CHINA! Right time for being ATMANIRBHAR? A step for a long leap?
Kuch loha Khota.. kuch Lohaar Khota..!
To conclude, let's pull the carpet and sincerely request our Loha & Lohaar to at least encourage and double the carpet production and exports from $1.71 billion to beat Chinese at $2.98 billion. Easy peasy? Still no?
Our Modi ji did envision industries and factories in his term as PM, since he was used to the same from his Gujarat Chief Ministership days. He also started with a special ministry for skill development, which could purely support factories to manufacture everything like China does. 1.3 billion people, 7th largest country by size in the world and a leader like Modi with dedicated ministries for industries, skill development, export promotion and further more ministries and departments specifically for several products, but our entire GDP and economy is less than, that of just EXPORTS OF CHINA! Right time for being ATMANIRBHAR? A step for a long leap?
Kuch loha Khota.. kuch Lohaar Khota..!
Few years ago when the good news of FDI approval in Aviation was issued by govt of India, I myself convinced two of my close, high net worth individuals in USA to invest in my airline so that I can get me more airplanes on lease. Security clearance is required for all directors, share holders and other related parties of Aviation companies, which not only take 12 months, but also doesn't make any sense. The PMO with top level bureaucracy decided to have the system online to avoid corruption, knowing well that this has been one of the loopholes and collection center of bribes with precedents like Gopal Kanda, Vijay Mallya and hundreds of others holding security clearance! But these bureaucrats are so thick skinned, they exactly know what the online screen should reflect at a particular stage of the process and one has no choice but to meet them to 'resolve that query'. They asked me for Rs. 11 lakhs as bribe for each application and despite of me escalating this issue wildly, last I learnt that those corrupt officers still hold the same positions in the ministry! 
With nexus like these, the bureaucrats have been nothing but blackmailers to the businessmen and entrepreneurs of India, since independence. The amount of curses they earn from innocent and decent businessmen throughout their careers, leave them with such miserable death in the end including problems to their children, but they won't improve despite of realizing the truth.
Without mentioning anything about USA economy and their exports, to which just one order of Boeing airplanes from Spicejet (the pet airline of BJP) was worth 1 lakh crore, equivalent to countless farmers promoting agricultural economy! Purposely avoiding European exports including Rafael jets from France which may very well be used against China's barking dog Pakistan! Is it just Rs. 20 Lakh Crores which is needed to start working and exporting Made in India brand, or efforts much more than that, more positive and revolutionary?
Who ever has been acquainted with USA procedures and lifestyle, would know that every individual in USA for his job, receives a specific training from the employer. Whether it's making burgers in McDonald's or driving forklift in a warehouse, making machineries in large plants or developing defense equipment, all recieve training and strictly follow a check list! Country of India, on the contrary, receives training on how to pull everyone else down in their life, and the check list usually maintained discreetly purely talks about lacuna and their blackmailing amounts and threats!
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