And for a Friday on the eve of one of Independent India’s biggest road shows, G20 commencing tomorrow in New Delhi, some thoughts….. some musings…..
Ever since India beat UK to become the fifth largest economy, the world has woken up to recognise India’s economic strength with new glasses and the opportunity for the Nation to host G20 has been grabbed with both hands. G20 is a gettogether of 19 Countries and the EU, constituting 85% of the World GDP and 2/3rd of world population. India, as President country this year, has already conducted 200 preliminary meetings on various subject matters in 60 cities in almost all states in the country, hosting more than 100,000 International delegates. The most critical aspect is to note the inability of Chinese President Xi Jinping to attend. He would never give up a chance like this to show off the Chinese superpower status particularly when President Biden, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, Chancellor Olaf Schulz, President Emmanuel Macron and other VVIP world leaders are all in India. With so many bilateral State Head to Head private meetings, his absence clearly shows the underlying huge Social, Political and Economic crisis gripping China. Real estate, the backbone of the Chinese economic miracle is crumbled and in shambles. Foreign Minister Qin Gang has been removed from his post for unknown reasons. Two of the most powerful Rocket Forces Generals have been sacked. Many reports say Zeng Qinghong, a former Vice-President, who was most instrumental in propping Xi Jinping has also turned against the President. Unlike democracies, the world will not know what’s happening in a dictatorship country like China. But that’s India’s opportunity. Apart from US, we need to ensure both Chancellor Olaf of Germany and Premier Kishida of Japan are fully convinced that the “China-plus-one” strategy has to only mean India. No other country can match India’s potential in terms of Demography, Local market, human resources and Technology at scale. The early thoughts of Vietnam, Thailand, Bangladesh have all evaporated. None have the capacity of a sustained growth of 7% and becoming the world’s third largest economy within three years.
Let’s also not forget that India is no cosy walk-in country to do business. We are a noisy, cacophonous, overcrowded and corrupt society, aiming to reform and become a model democracy for the Global South, the hard-working way, the transparent way, the SEEGOS way.