China is clinical. India is messy. Period. Well, think again. Times have changed, and with time India is changing too.
Author Michael Schuman, in a Time magazine piece, writes that Indias infrastructure projects are caught in long-winding bureaucratic procedures and takes double the time than Chine to complete. India has a complicated democracy with a muti-party system and its citizens have the right to protect their land. On the other hand, China with an authoritarian form of government finds it lot easier to get land for industrial or infrastructure purpose.
Reform in India has often ebbed and flowed on the unpredictable tides of electoral politics. While villagers in China can get cleared away to build a new road, villagers in India have rights to protect their interests and their land, slowing down the pace of development. Indias overly bureaucratic bureaucracy ties up power projects and other important investments in regulatory knots Schuman explains.
But is change in the air in India? The author certainly feels positive.
The recent wave of policy decisions by the Centre suddenly took everyone by surprise as there was a long lull to it almost to the brink of paralysis. The author gives credit to Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who within two months of his return to the finance ministry, let his intentions be well-known.
Chidambaram has been on a bit of a roll lately. Just when it seemed the current administration of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was too tied up in politics to mount any meaningful reform effort, Chidambaram engineered a flurry of measures over the past two months, which further opened the retail, insurance and airline sectors to foreign investorswrites Schuman.
India is way behind China now. But by 2050, India may be numero uno, say Citigroup
China is cool, but bet on India, writes Time | Firstpost
Author Michael Schuman, in a Time magazine piece, writes that Indias infrastructure projects are caught in long-winding bureaucratic procedures and takes double the time than Chine to complete. India has a complicated democracy with a muti-party system and its citizens have the right to protect their land. On the other hand, China with an authoritarian form of government finds it lot easier to get land for industrial or infrastructure purpose.
Reform in India has often ebbed and flowed on the unpredictable tides of electoral politics. While villagers in China can get cleared away to build a new road, villagers in India have rights to protect their interests and their land, slowing down the pace of development. Indias overly bureaucratic bureaucracy ties up power projects and other important investments in regulatory knots Schuman explains.
But is change in the air in India? The author certainly feels positive.
The recent wave of policy decisions by the Centre suddenly took everyone by surprise as there was a long lull to it almost to the brink of paralysis. The author gives credit to Finance Minister P Chidambaram, who within two months of his return to the finance ministry, let his intentions be well-known.
Chidambaram has been on a bit of a roll lately. Just when it seemed the current administration of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was too tied up in politics to mount any meaningful reform effort, Chidambaram engineered a flurry of measures over the past two months, which further opened the retail, insurance and airline sectors to foreign investorswrites Schuman.
India is way behind China now. But by 2050, India may be numero uno, say Citigroup
China is cool, but bet on India, writes Time | Firstpost