Wake up Call

Wake up Call 1: One of the first impression, you get when you go to any tier 1 city in India, is how congested it is. Ease of doing business, made many big companies of India choose these cities. These companies lobbied with the government for rolling out policies, which brought in allied industries to the same place. Government policies made more companies to opt for the same place. With each companies being opened, more and more people started migrating. These cities have reached a stage wherein life in these cities is choking, but people here don’t have much choice other than to live with it. Government on its part is trying to enhance the living conditions but I always feel these are temporary solutions. Many past events have exposed the structural problem of these cities but unlike Covid, they were not successful in breaking the resilience of the people. Covid, has brought these cities to standstill forcing the migrant workers to go back to their hometown. I feel, this is a golden situation for government to correct many of the past mistakes and even out the growth across cities, thereby reducing the burden on tier 1 cities in India. Today India has better infrastructure and capital which can be made available for companies to flourish from tier 2, 3 & 4 cities. Without touching the agricultural lands in India, government can make available lands for industries to cater to the demands of India and the world. I sincerely hope, industries wake up to utilize the opportunity being provided to have a sustained developmental growth.

Wake up Call 2: Everybody wants a good return on the money they spend. We would opt for a product/service if it is one rupee less. Chinese companies provided us products which was seen as value for money. China flooded markets including India first with products which didn’t have durability but was cheap. Upon capturing the markets, they quickly cemented their supremacy with their engineering capabilities. Quality products still at a cheaper rate are being provided by these Chinese players, which pushed local complacent players to the periphery in their own markets. Local players kept complaining and influencing government to hold on to the market without much focus on R&D to match the Chinese competition, but these didn’t have any effect, as Chinese players were able to provide product at cheap cost despite paying higher duties. Common people, who were not affected by disruption of their local industries preferred these Chinese products, as they were getting value for their money. The recent border dispute and unfortunate loss of our soldiers life, has brought in a change in mindset and there is an emotion prevalent across the country to boycott the Chinese products. Government, which is already faced with reverse migrations of people to the Hindi heartland, is seen to be taking steps to create employment by rolling out beneficial policies for Industries which wants to set up their units. Global companies which are having units in China are being wooed to move their business to India. The local players, who were sidelined have to grab this glimmer of an opportunity to produce goods in India which gives value for money being spend. It is easier said than done, as this is huge battle to be won against the superiors and capital rich Chinese companies. Government tough stand coupled with strong sentiments of the people should be the nitro-booster used by these companies to catch up with these companies. There wouldn’t be a better time than this.