The single biggest reason why China surged ahead in last 10 years while India fell by the wayside

[Dungeness]

The single biggest reason why China surged ahead in last 10 years while India fell by the wayside
By Swaminathan A Aiyar
TOI Contributor| Updated: Jan 20, 2019, 02.16 PM IST

Ten years ago, India was seen as a potential superpower, capable of combating the rise of China. Today China has risen so fast that it challenges the techno-military might of the US. India is too far behind to matter.

The main reason is India’s dismal educational system, producing unemployable college graduates and schoolchildren close to functional illiteracy. The latest Annual Status of Education Report reveals that barely 50% of children in Class 5 and 73% in Class 8 can read a Class 2 text. Only 44% of Class 8 children can do simple division. How can such a country become a superpower?

Ten years ago, China was still exporting mainly labour-intensive items made in factories employing thousands of workers at low wages. India at the time had emerged as a formidable exporter of computer software, ahead of China in this high-tech area. It had also risen fast as a world-class exporter of generic drugs, small cars and refined petroleum products.

Today, China has not just surged ahead of India but created hi-tech world champions, such as Huawei in 5G telecom, and BYD in batteries. China is the world’s largest producer of solar cells, aluminium and steel. India meanwhile has not produced a single global champion or become a global power in a single new field in the last decade. Its eminence in generic drugs has been eroded by growing dependence on Chinese active drug ingredients. India’s software industry is struggling.

As columnist Gurcharan Das has pointed out, China’s success owes much to its emphasis on meritocracy. Its high-quality educational system has driven relentlessly to catch up with the West, and now produces world-class academic output. China overtook the US in the number of published academic papers in 2016, though it lags well behind in quality. China’s R&D spending is 2.1% of GDP, less than the US’s but higher than Europe’s average. India’s R&D spending has stagnated at around 0.65% of GDP for two decades. It lacks not just money but quality scientists for research.

BJP-leaning scientists at the recent Indian Science Congress claimed India had test-tube babies in the Mahabharata era (hence 100 Kauravas), and aircraft in the Ramayana era. One scientist rejected the theories of Einstein and Hawking, instead proposing “Modi waves”, for which he wanted to get a Nobel Prize. If this is the direction in which politics pushes science, India has no future.

In China, local bodies hire teachers on three-year contracts and sack them if their performance is poor. But in India, we have an army of unsackable teachers who do not teach half the time. A million teaching posts lie vacant and unfilled, with state governments preferring to spend money on freebies and projects yielding kickbacks. Desperate poor people are switching their children from free government schools to costly private schools, even though the latter frequently have unqualified staff.

Cheating in exams is rife. When the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh enacted a tough anti-copying law in 1993, Mulayam Yadav became the only politician to lead a pro-cheating agitation. He argued that without cheating the backward castes would fail to compete with Brahmins! He abolished the anti-copying law on coming to power in 1994. Whither excellence?

Narendra Modi has promised six new Indian IITs and seven IIMs. Alas, this will just create a thin upper crust, whose members will mostly end up with jobs abroad. It cannot remotely compensate for the lack of skills and productivity in the vast majority of Indians beneath this upper crust.

China has decent colleges in almost all provinces. President Xi is determined to become world No 1 in technology and economic clout, and so aims to raise university teaching and research standards consistently. Deng Xiaoping decreed decades ago that China must send tens of thousands of students abroad every year, ignoring worries about a brain drain, convinced that many would return to enrich the country with world-class human capital. In 2008, China launched a Thousand Talents scheme to woo back top-quality overseas academics with world class facilities and salaries. This has greatly boosted human capital and buttressed China’s hi-tech capabilities.

By contrast the higher educational debate in India is dominated by the provision of quotas for sundry castes. State after state has moved in this direction, and the latest constitutional amendment aims at a new 10% quota in private as well as government colleges. No political party attaches any priority to merit or excellence. We have a lobby for every caste, but none for excellence. In such a milieu, excellence will wither while quotas proliferate.

Read more at:
//economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/67609221.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

 

[Han Patriot]

The single biggest reason why China surged ahead in last 10 years while India fell by the wayside
By Swaminathan A Aiyar
TOI Contributor| Updated: Jan 20, 2019, 02.16 PM IST

Ten years ago, India was seen as a potential superpower, capable of combating the rise of China. Today China has risen so fast that it challenges the techno-military might of the US. India is too far behind to matter.

The main reason is India’s dismal educational system, producing unemployable college graduates and schoolchildren close to functional illiteracy. The latest Annual Status of Education Report reveals that barely 50% of children in Class 5 and 73% in Class 8 can read a Class 2 text. Only 44% of Class 8 children can do simple division. How can such a country become a superpower?

Ten years ago, China was still exporting mainly labour-intensive items made in factories employing thousands of workers at low wages. India at the time had emerged as a formidable exporter of computer software, ahead of China in this high-tech area. It had also risen fast as a world-class exporter of generic drugs, small cars and refined petroleum products.

Today, China has not just surged ahead of India but created hi-tech world champions, such as Huawei in 5G telecom, and BYD in batteries. China is the world’s largest producer of solar cells, aluminium and steel. India meanwhile has not produced a single global champion or become a global power in a single new field in the last decade. Its eminence in generic drugs has been eroded by growing dependence on Chinese active drug ingredients. India’s software industry is struggling.

As columnist Gurcharan Das has pointed out, China’s success owes much to its emphasis on meritocracy. Its high-quality educational system has driven relentlessly to catch up with the West, and now produces world-class academic output. China overtook the US in the number of published academic papers in 2016, though it lags well behind in quality. China’s R&D spending is 2.1% of GDP, less than the US’s but higher than Europe’s average. India’s R&D spending has stagnated at around 0.65% of GDP for two decades. It lacks not just money but quality scientists for research.

BJP-leaning scientists at the recent Indian Science Congress claimed India had test-tube babies in the Mahabharata era (hence 100 Kauravas), and aircraft in the Ramayana era. One scientist rejected the theories of Einstein and Hawking, instead proposing “Modi waves”, for which he wanted to get a Nobel Prize. If this is the direction in which politics pushes science, India has no future.

In China, local bodies hire teachers on three-year contracts and sack them if their performance is poor. But in India, we have an army of unsackable teachers who do not teach half the time. A million teaching posts lie vacant and unfilled, with state governments preferring to spend money on freebies and projects yielding kickbacks. Desperate poor people are switching their children from free government schools to costly private schools, even though the latter frequently have unqualified staff.

Cheating in exams is rife. When the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh enacted a tough anti-copying law in 1993, Mulayam Yadav became the only politician to lead a pro-cheating agitation. He argued that without cheating the backward castes would fail to compete with Brahmins! He abolished the anti-copying law on coming to power in 1994. Whither excellence?

Narendra Modi has promised six new Indian IITs and seven IIMs. Alas, this will just create a thin upper crust, whose members will mostly end up with jobs abroad. It cannot remotely compensate for the lack of skills and productivity in the vast majority of Indians beneath this upper crust.

China has decent colleges in almost all provinces. President Xi is determined to become world No 1 in technology and economic clout, and so aims to raise university teaching and research standards consistently. Deng Xiaoping decreed decades ago that China must send tens of thousands of students abroad every year, ignoring worries about a brain drain, convinced that many would return to enrich the country with world-class human capital. In 2008, China launched a Thousand Talents scheme to woo back top-quality overseas academics with world class facilities and salaries. This has greatly boosted human capital and buttressed China’s hi-tech capabilities.

By contrast the higher educational debate in India is dominated by the provision of quotas for sundry castes. State after state has moved in this direction, and the latest constitutional amendment aims at a new 10% quota in private as well as government colleges. No political party attaches any priority to merit or excellence. We have a lobby for every caste, but none for excellence. In such a milieu, excellence will wither while quotas proliferate.

Read more at:
//economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/67609221.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=cppst

I told you, the TOP 10 schools in China are as good as any US schools. The problem is ENGLISH. You can get half of them fluent in English, the Indians are gone. And also we lack the bullshitting and mouth power, overseas Chinese are good in this. East Asians and Germans in general despise such qualities.

 

[Śakra]

That's not right, the problem is cultural. Indians are divided people while chinese sre a united people. A huge amount of resources goes into keeping India from balkanized, starving other areas

 

[Dungeness]

I told you, the TOP 10 schools in China are as good as any US schools. The problem is ENGLISH. You can get half of them fluent in English, the Indians are gone.

The gap in education quality between these two countries started much earlier, like in 1950's. Both countries were ready to paint their own future after their respective independence. India paints hers on "a thousand year old oil painting", and China paints hers on a new canvas. Hence the difference today.

 

[Han Patriot]

The gap in education quality between these two countries started much earlier, like in 1950's. Both countries were ready to paint their own future after their respective independence. India paints hers on "a thousand year old oil painting", and China paints hers on a new canvas. Hence the difference today.

It's the Hindu caste baggage, they didn't advance as a nation, the elites and Brahmin advanced.

 

[thesolar65]

Right. we have to admit. There should be no feeling of being ashamed. Parents High expectation from Children, Studying for ultimate aim...jobs, thereby resorting to cheating etc. is becoming the bane. Don't know when this cheating will stop.

The percentage(I mean Ratio) of honest, laborious and studious people to the population some 50 years ago is the same even today. The increase is in worthless products.

 

[Khan_21]

I told you, the TOP 10 schools in China are as good as any US schools.

No they are not. Check any reputable rankings like QS or Times and see the noticeable difference.

 

[thesolar65]

The problems are manyfold. Mainly education. We in our generation virtually never went for home tuition. The school teaching was enough. We gave respect to teacher and were fearful of them. Whenevr we spotted a teacher from a long distance we avoided him lest he informs our parents and a lot of question. Teachers took care of students like their own.

Parents are also equally responsible. Just look at present parenting. No moral value stories that guided us through our grand parents. Everyone is busy after money and their own self gratification. Even our parents tought us up to certain level. Now from Std-1 we are sending to tuition....I mean all subject!

 

[Dungeness]

Here is what the hedge fund Guru, Ray Dalio, said about his first hand experience of Chinese primary education in 1995, in his recent linkpage post:

As an extension of these sentiments in 1995, I had my 11-year-old son Matt live with an extraordinary and humble Chinese woman, Madame Gu, and go to a poor local school (Shi Jia Hu Tong Xiao Xue). All schools in China, like most everything else, were poor then. Though this school was poor (e.g., there wasn’t heat until late November so students wore their coats in classes), I saw how they had smart and caring educators who provided the children with an excellent, complete education that included character development. While Matt’s lifestyle was poor (e.g., he couldn’t take hot showers because the old apartment building he lived in only had hot water two days a week) he was superbly educated, loved, and better developed than in our rich Greenwich community. The experience changed his life forever and led him to set up a foundation to help Chinese orphans that he ran for 12 years that brought him and me into many more experiences with Chinese people and Chinese culture in China.

https://defence.pk/pdf/threads/look...0-years-of-reforms-in-china-ray-dalio.598259/

 

[thesolar65]

And the introducing of Private Engg. colleges and medical colleges.....the less said the better. I am not saying they are bad, but maintaining quality. The founders fear of failing the students. They think it will ruin their institution financially. The parents think their children must pass because they have given huge donation. The college authorities do that by making the students pass by hook or crook.

And what Govt. can do? It has no money to run its own school. Every month I see Teachers of different veraity (schhols, colleges, junior, senior) are busy infront of state assembly for venting their anger over some issue or the other. where is the time to teach? Every body is busy to earn extra amount through coaching.

These coaching institute................I cannot write any further!.....Man.....It's heart wrenching.

And Pakistanis.....don't feel good. Your situation is just like ours or even worse.

 

[Han Patriot]

The problems are manyfold. Mainly education. We in our generation virtually never went for home tuition. The school teaching was enough. We gave respect to teacher and were fearful of them. Whenevr we spotted a teacher from a long distance we avoided him lest he informs our parents and a lot of question. Teachers took care of students like their own.

Parents are also equally responsible. Just look at present parenting. No moral value stories that guided us through our grand parents. Everyone is busy after money and their own self gratification. Even our parents tought us up to certain level. Now from Std-1 we are sending to tuition....I mean all subject!

The same thing happens in China. Private schools mushroom and teachers teach for profit. The difference in China is government school are still adhering to a certain quality, teachers come to work n get paid. We don't have much politics in education. Due to a smaller family, parents can devote the best to their kids. Our vocational training is also acceptable not up to German or Japanese levels but the students are employable. The problem I see in India is you are either a college student or you are a farmer. You lack proper vocational schools.

 

[TaiShang]

Today, China has not just surged ahead of India but created hi-tech world champions, such as Huawei in 5G telecom, and BYD in batteries.

In June, Huawei will start selling its first 5G smartphone.

And also we lack the bullshitting and mouth power

Some Mainland exchange students who desire to go to Europe or US for study ask me advise. I tell them not to be over humble or courteous. I tell them to maintain some balance.

Probably because of India's rape culture, corruption, and then getting on the internet and saying how great the disgusting Indians are when everyone knows they are scum.

I think this comment is unfair and disrespectful.

Unfair because it disregards the ongoing developments and potential in developing countries, including India. Disrespectful because it paints a whole people with the same brush.

Developed countries have their own problems, too. US has rampant violence (like yesterday 5 people were shot dead). Nevertheless, there should be development despite problems.

 

[Hakikat ve Hikmet]

That's not right, the problem is cultural. Indians are divided people while chinese sre a united people. A huge amount of resources goes into keeping India from balkanized, starving other areas

In all seriousness, India needed a fascist type but sincere, honest, impartial and extremely nationalistic leadership to stream out the differences....

 

[Śakra]

Probably because of India's rape culture, corruption, and then getting on the internet and saying how great the disgusting Indians are when everyone knows they are scum.

@waz @Dubious this behaviour has gone on too long. Please ban this racist.

 

[925boy]

Right. we have to admit. There should be no feeling of being ashamed. Parents High expectation from Children, Studying for ultimate aim...jobs, thereby resorting to cheating etc. is becoming the bane. Don't know when this cheating will stop.

The percentage(I mean Ratio) of honest, laborious and studious people to the population some 50 years ago is the same even today. The increase is in worthless products.

Nigeria seems to have India's same problem- They focus on STUDYING, PASSING TESTS and CRAMMING, not LEARNING.