BOYCOTT CHINESE PRODUCT: ALTERNATIVE OF CHINESE PRODUCT :ATMANIRBHAR BHARAT

BOYCOTT CHINESE PRODUCTS?

 

After the violent confrontation between Indian and Chinese troops, that has led to the loss of life of many Indian soldiers the question to be asked now is what should be India's response now, of course at the political level, strategic and military level, the people in charge are going to be on top of this but the one thing that we'd like to  discuss today on this topic is ,with respect to trade with the loss of life of our soldiers at the NAC is it right to continue trade with China because first time in 45 years that the India China border has seen such violence, of course the number of casualties on the Chinese side are pretty unclear and going by how they actually were very transparent with the Covid 19 days I don't expect China to come clean on this - on the Indian side of course which should be of greater concern to us we've lost 20 brave soldiers it's a huge loss and the one question everyone will be asking is , boycott of China in terms of trade because every citizen now wants to contribute in this response to China the military will do what it has to do ,diplomatic channels will do what they have to ,the politics will take care of itself but the problem is that the Chinese products has a share in - total export and import is 9% and 18% respectively ,so while we are not exporting as much as we should we're importing a lot of stuff the trade deficit is always in the neighborhood of 50 billion dollars and if you go by the total trade surplus China has with countries across the globe it's somewhere in the neighborhood of four hundred twenty billion dollars and India's it's in the neighborhood of fifty or fifty-five billion dollars so that's one eighth of the deficient that we already share with China but of course ,if we to take boycott the Chinese products is this notion that immediately the trade surplus will come down to zero but things aren't always that simple, should we boycott China when it- the products are absolutely can be boycott right away I don't think so but ,why - shall what do we have to wait for. Why not we get started and cut on it right away I mean it can be a movement.

But let me show you some number stats-

20% of the auto components

70% of the electronic components

45% of consumer durables

40% of leather goods and

70% of pharmaceutical ingredients

 came from China these are huge numbers we talk about renewable energy all the time the solar cells 90% of them are coming from China you know just to give you some more numbers.

80%of the antibiotics imported by India they come from China

60% of the components of electronics they come from China So it’s true that we need a movement we need something to boycott but here's the challenge the dependency on China is such at this point and it's India which is to blame for itself because the last 30 years ,while China was becoming the factory of the world we did little, and anything about capacity building this is when you actually realize that you should have invested more in capacity building people talk about Chinese smart phones ,people talk about the pharmaceutical industry ,people talk about the chemical industry all these industries are heavily dependent on China while I very much sympathize and even they endorse the idea of movement when people can come together and boycott Chinese products it's a little tricky.

 

India depend the most on Chinese inputs for producing its own exports so India to create finished products which are later exported to other countries their raw materials needed for those and 34% percent of those inputs come from China in fact Saudi Arabia ,Switzerland ,UK they all constitute in the neighborhood 3% but China it's 34% current that's a huge figure so even what India exports depends on the lot on what India inputs from China.

 

Why we don’t have alternative of the Chinese product?

  I'll take you in the year 2014 the time of Micromax lover these were some national mobile companies, today Micromax is just making TVs but they started with making mobile phones the constitute a very greater part of the market share in India they were making force even though they were importing components from China and assembling them in India but they were at least up to something not today they share the likes of Lava,Micromax a less than 10 percent and mostly in the future phone segment because the smart phones they produce it's so very inferior quality now .I come to the “ATMANIRBHAR BHARAT ABHIYAN’. let's give you an example of the mobile phone market now digital revolution has been a big part since GIO(telecom company) came in 2016 everyone wanted a slice of that piece, poor person cannot afford a Samsung or an apple phone current and even though the Apple iPhone is assembled in China ,it's incorrect to assume that the poor person can afford a smart phone which they really want to which is not from China, VIVO and OPPO it's not only to the customers they're being able to offer those margins even to the dealers the people I talk to into mobile markets in my city they are very happy to endorse Vivo and Oppo because of the kind of commissions they get on selling those phones while a company like Samsung which I would honestly endorse against the Chinese company since Samson comes from South Korea Samson pays the dealers on the basis of the volume so if they sell in expensive phone they have more money to make that's how this give the Commission's to the dealers   Vivo and Oppo actually pay dealers to put up their hoardings to market their entire things like that so that's one example but if we talk about the mobile market it's just not about vivo and oppo really current 5g it's coming up after what happened on border, Huawei should be you not even be considered last year after the informal summit in India between Jinping and Narendra Modi Ji .Huawei had been given the permission to run some trials knocks that should not happen ,Huawei cannot be a part of India's 5g future not because of the data concerns not because of anything else but we cannot give such delicate access to company which is in bed with the Chinese government which is in bed with the Communist Party in Beijing so that's one way IOT is going to be a big thing in the future current now if we are depended on cheap smart phones today one foot on China tomorrow will be dependent on them for cheap Fit bit gadgets things like that we need to stop that right away so this is where the lesson is you want to boycott absolutely boycott but also ramp up the capacity-building you know 5G is going to be a thing why not look towards the waste talk to the likes of Eric since the Nokia's tell them to come build in India that's Atmanirbhar for you,you know IOT is going to be a big thing people would want to have those smart gadgets and watches and things like that endure some national brands get some Western companies to produce in India now where the problem happens, we do not have the infrastructure the strait training this is what Atmanirbhar bharat it should really mean boycotting Chinese products won't give you the atmanirbhar bharat you're seeking but ramping up your capacity building over the next ten years until 2030 that would atmanirbhar bharat and that's what will give you an economic leverage against China that's what we are seeking now.

 

SHORT TERM AND LONG TERM SOLUTION

 

First, we did not show a defensive posture against China the land we're defending in Ladakh it should be defended at all cost if it comes we'll have to of course go for a trade embargo situation spirals down south but I'm talking about the long term solution ,what happened on border it has opened a new chapter in the diplomatic relationship between Indians and things are never going to be normal again because until now we were looking back at the 1962 1967 and 1975 the wars and the transgressions that followed the battles that followed what happened on 15^th June 2020 - this is going to rewrite history so we need to start thinking long term it might have be a defensive in this short term it might appear that as we are endorsing China's trade interest here but in the long term this is what's going to benefit India and India needs to understand if it's sharing 30,400 kilometer border with a country like China and they need to ramp up the capacity they need to hold that economic leverage I will give you an example of the pharma industry before the lockdown happened a pharma industry so reliant on China the paracetamol which is a common medicine used in every household the raw material comes from China, Ajit Doval actually made this point very early in the first year of the Modi government that the reliance of the AAP [active pharmaceutical ingredients] in China will come back to haunt us and it's coming today if we boycott China this could be a problem and this could indeed result in manufacturing problem in India shortage of medicines long run we need to look for new partners we need to ramp up a national manufacturing we need to look at alternative solutions outside China but short term we need to be a little rational we have to be in a defensive posture but we should be little aggressive in the long run

 In fact the configuration of all India traders you know very recently they release the list of products and they said if we can create alternatives to these products and they are actually planning to include some 450 broad categories of goods they said we could cut down a trade deficit by 13 billion dollars by December next year so that's where the citizens are taking it up I would insist that people come out the ones who can should not go for Chinese products for instance Diwali is just four months away people should not look for the Chinese lights they shouldn’t look for the Chinese “diyas” and things like that ,let’s start small but in the long run focus on the capacity-building that's where China is holding an advantage against us today that is where we failed in the last 30 years we shouldn’t make that mistake again in the next 10 years.