Monday, September 28, 2015

Flexible Chinese

One significant reason for rapid growth of the Chinese economy has been the flexibility of the Chinese and their systems. Popular perception that they are hidebound is far from true. They are pragmatic enough to do what the economy needs rather than wear ideological blinkers.

Two developments in the recent past illustrate this. Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank promoted by China and supported by many countries including Australia, Britain and South Korea has openly stated that its goal is not poverty reduction but development of infrastructure. There is no mincing of words here.

Realising the need for quickening the disposal of court cases, the government has decided to streamline the judiciary, keep politicians away and enhance the emoluments of judges. Ideology has no place in this.

Contrast these from what generally happens in India. All our financial institutions must first pay lip service to eradication of poverty. A new commercial bank was opened to promote women's welfare exclusively. Now, the government appears to have realised the inanity of this political idea and action is afoot to merge the bank with possibly SBI. Judiciary and the government are repeatedly lamenting delay in judicial processes, but nobody bells the cat.

2 comments:

MUTHU PRASANTH said...

China, because of the authoritarian government, is implementing reforms like drifting a race car, taking sharp turns wherever needed. But in India, it's like making a turn in a train, too smooth. The other side is, like people experiencing jerks in a drifting car, people of China feel it difficult to accustom to the reforms initially. But in India, the reforms are too slow that people enjoy the LUXURY of smooth turns at the cost of speed and sharpness.

K.R.Srivarahan said...

I understand there are no jerks in a bullet train. Proverbially the slow and steady wins the race. But Indians seem to be slow and unsteady. Hopefully, things would change.