Arising China

Arising China We have been coming to China for the last three years to participate in the China Adolescent Science and Technology Innovation Contest (CASTIC). Organized by the Youth Centre of the China Association of Science and Technology (CAST) the event is hosted by one of the provinces of the country. 22nd CASTIC was held in July 2007 in Kunming ( Unnan Province ) followed by 23rd CATIC held in Urumqui (Xinjiang province) in July 2008. CASTIC 2009 is arranged in Jinan , a capital city of Shandomg Province. Unnan province has a fertile land with huge production of flowers that are exported globally. In fact, the city of Kunming is known as Garden city. In contrast, Urumqui is located in Gobi desert with scanty rainfall. Jinan city is full of springs with its nick name spring city. We, thus, had an opportunity to visit three diverse provinces of China . In spite of these diversities there are a few commonalities in all these provinces that clearly bring out the developmental status of the country. The first thing that strikes us when we travel in China is its infrastructural development. The network of highways is so developed that you do not find any difficulty to travel from one place to another. We had traveled to Turpan, which is about 125 miles from Urumqui through desert but the road condition was very good. Same is the case when you undertake journey from the cities of Jinan and Kunming to nearby areas. The driver does not have to worry about the speed of the vehicle as there are no speed-breakers on these roads. Enough number of flyovers are constructed to facilitate smooth movement of the vehicles on the roads. What attracts the traveler the most is the landscape on both sides of the road. The trees and gardens are developed in such a way that you see the greenery all along, which many times hide small houses and crops in the farms. China has been constructing 5000-8000 kilometers of expressways every year whereas Indian planning is just for a few hundred kilometers of road per year. There is no comparison between these two countries as far road construction is concerned. China opened up just three decades ago and followed the path of industrial development for the upliftment of people in the country. One notices the impact of this policy as one takes a round of the city or travel outside. On both sides of the road one notices a large number of industries in working conditions producing material to be exported all over the world. Starting from mall computer parts these industries produce big spare parts used in automobiles. Cement factories and Steel industries are also seen at many places. It is their own industry that has supplied these raw materials for the huge construction work undertaken in the country in the last three decades. In comparison, India is falling behind in manufacturing departments. A large number of industries in Industrial Development Areas are being closed one after the other. We have now become an importing country buying not only heavy machineries but also toys and household things from China . It is surprising to note that the rakhi that a sister puts with love on the wrist of her brother on the auspicious day of Raksha Bandhan is often made in China . Chinese goods have even entered into our worshipping place as Ganesh idols that we place there are many times made in Chinese factories. There is now an urgent need to take a stock of our industrial policy and plan a workable strategy encouraging Indian small scale as well as large scale industries.

Electricity has now become an essential commodity for development. Indian production of electricity is always short of the requirements. Almost all the states India have a practice of load shading to overcome the problem of short supply. A large number of industries are finding it difficult to run their machines. Farmers cannot take out water from their wells and supply it to their crops. Even household machines cannot be used as there is no electrical supply for many hours of the day. In contrast, the electric supply in China is uninterrupted and abundant. India produces about 10, 000 MW electricity per year, while China adds about 75, 000 MW per year to ensure constant supply to its growing industrial and household demands. Realizing the depletion of coal and its environmental ill effects China has already erected a few hydro electric power stations and some more at in the offing. In addition to electricity water is another commodity that any society needs for survival and progress. Indian situation in this regard is very grim. There are thousands of villages where there is no regular water supply facility. The reservoirs used by the villagers gets dried up in the summer and the women in these villages are forced to walk miles together to get water for their families. The situation in urban areas is also not different. Following the delay in the arrival of monsoon the municipal supply of Mumbai, an economic capital of the country, had to be curtailed. In contrast, the Chinese policy is to supply water continuously throughout the year. A case of Shondong province can be given as an example. Realizing the fact that this province has low precipitation, a systematic water conservation policy has been implemented in this province. It has constructed more than five thousand reservoirs to tap the scanty rainwater falling in the region. In addition to this, it has come out with a novel idea of providing ample water to the people of the province from the Yellow River that flows through the province. Chinese authorities have successfully diverted the water from yellow river before it meets the sea to its cities. This task required a construction of canals as long as 293 kilometers. But they have done it. Education is a means of manpower development. India has come a long way in boosting the literacy rate as compared to that at the time of independence. Nonetheless, we have not been able to achieve 100 percent enrolment till today. A large number of those who enroll in schools drop out before they complete their school education. Our university education is still preparing persons who lack entrepreneurship and are unemployable adding to the number of unemployed youths every year. The so called elite institutions in India are spending huge amounts of meager national resources to prepare manpower for the developed countries. Against this pathetic situation of Indian education, China has achieved 99 percent enrolment. They claim that the drop out rate is very small enabling large number of students to complete their school education. There is a big channel of vocational education which the student opt for after school education. As a result, they become employable immediately in growing number of factories and service sectors. In an informal interaction with the student in Jinan it was learned that the Government encourages entrepreneurship among Chinese youths and provides all the help needed. India and China are the two competitors claiming to be the superpowers in the near future. When one compares the policies and preparation of these countries one comes to the conclusion that there is no need to consider India as the potential competitor. China

has a constant growth rate of about 10 percent while the India ’s average growth rate is close to five. The foreign direct investment in China is growing by about USD 50 billion every year while it is close to USD 50 billion in India till today. There is not much enthusiasm in investing in India because of poor infrastructural facilities, stringent government rules and high corruption rate. Apart from the software export, India could not make an impression in the export market. The IT supremacy is also coming down because of the global recession and because a large number of young persons in other Asian countries are preparing themselves to cope with English. The time has come to rethink of our policies. Since independence India is a socialistic democratic country. At least on the paper all our policies are to alleviate poverty and help rural agricultural sector. The amounts spent on these projects are massive. However, the numbers of poor and output in agriculture have not changed significantly. We are in a grim situation on infrastructural fronts, especially in case of energy which is the engine for growth. In contrast to this, China officially is a communist country having a party dictatorial system. On the front of population both the countries are close to each other. Why then is China so ahead of India ? The reasons are very simple. At least today China ’s policies are down to earth geared to nation building and not to build image of any individual or a party. Mao and Maoism in China have been framed to a portrait of Mao in Tiananmen Square as against Maoist movement in India spreading its tentacles to nine states and hindering development in respective areas. Unfortunately, so called intellectuals supporting this activity ideologically have strong connections with political elites of India . The sycophancy in China is hardly visible as against in India the so called democratic structure has been reduced to vulgar sycophancy and family business. China ’s development is not only restricted to communication infrastructure but it is also promoting science and technology development with same enthusiasm. The contribution of Chinese research papers in high impact factor journals of the world is far more than Indian contribution. In the recent budget of China there is a rise of 25 percent to Biotechnology research. Even in the field of sports, China ’s development is far superior than that of India . Their sportsmen perform better on the ground than in the advertisements. As in India China has a large number of television channels. They have also copied western programmes in content and style. However, one thing is clear that under the pretext of press and speech freedom media has not fallen prey to “breaking news” culture. Media is largely still used to educate people and build the nation. China Daily, a popular English newspaper, which one time was exclusively parroting government agendas, is now very critical to government policies without being abusive. Not that everything is China is smooth and fine. China ’s growth agenda is definitely going to face problems especially in the field of environment and urban planning. The neo rich of China are also going to pose trouble on issues like quality of life and western style concept of freedom. However, policy makers are making conscious efforts to

prevent vulgar westernization in life styles. They are trying to promote traditional Chinese value system on all fronts. What India needs today is clean and bold leadership which China got about three decades back. S C Agarkar and V V Bedekar