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