The previous mail was sent off by mistake with nothing in it:)sorry abt that.
V.
Beyond the edge.
by Masood Hasan.
(The writer is a Lahore-based columnist and a well-known journalist)
THE NEWS INTERNATIONAL (Pakistani Newspaper)
DECEMBER 14, 2003
The sight of Indian actress Urmilla on the rooftops of the old city
of Lahore is a sight for sore eyes any time of the day. This week
another 270 delegates from India among which are Naseeruddin Shah and
Shabana Azmi, are expected to cross over into Pakistan. As both
countries take a series of steps, gingerly to start with, there is
just that little light at the end of the dark and endless tunnel that
has held us "prisoners of our own device" - as The Eagles put it in
the famous number Hotel California. Will these measures lead to peace
is a question for which even Tauqir Zia has no answers. All we can do
is hope, pray and contribute in whatever way we can to normalise
relations and bur!
y the
many hatchets that we have brandished for the
last half-century.
Travelling last week on the Wazirabad-Sambrial road towards Sialkot,
the potholes and bumps on that narrow ribbon strip road began to
revive memories of long forgotten journeys made on that same road. I
could have, after a few violent and rib-shaking miles, sworn these
holes and craters were the same when one was in Kindergarten. Nothing
seemed to have changed except that the dust was thicker, the
pollution dismal and the people in numbers too large to comprehend.
Perhaps in most of India the situation is not very much different and
our much-touted smirking observations that India has huge problems
might have given us years of self-induced smugness, but things across
the divide are changing at a speed that baffles the mind. Some years
ago, an Indian said to a Pakistani, "It is true we are both in the
gutter. The difference is, we are looking at the sta!
rs. You
are
looking at the gutter." Many of us associate India's new progress
with its IT revolution and it is partly true. Indian companies
Only Rs 1,000 crore - Indian rupees I might add. This firm sells data-
storage products to seven of the world's top 10 CD-R producers. There
is another unknown. Tandon Electronics. Its hardware exports are Rs
4,000 crore.
There is more depressing data, all of it quite true and impartial.
15 of the world's major automobile makers are obtaining components
from Indian companies. This business fetched India $375 million last
year and in 2003 the number will be $1.5 billion. In half a decade,
they will reach $15 billion. Hero Honda with 17 lakh motorcycles a
year is now the largest motorcycle manufacturer in the world. The
prestigious UK automaker, Rover is marketing 1 lakh Indica cars made
by Tata in Europe, under, wait a minute, its own name.
Bharat Forge has the world's la!
rgest
single-location forging
facility. It produces 1.2 lakh tonnes per annum and its clients
include Honda, Toyota and Volvo among others.
Asian Paints now owns 22 production facilities over 5 continents and
is the market leader in 11 of these countries. Hindustan Inks has the
world's largest single stream fully integrated ink plant of 1-lakh
tones per annum capacity and 100% owned subsidiaries in USA and
Austria. Essel Propack is the world's largest laminated tube
manufacturer with presence in 11 countries and a global marketing
share of 25% already. Ford has just presented its Gold World
Excellence Award to India's Cooper Tyres.
Other industries are winning equally prestigious awards all the time.
While on cars, Aston Martin has contracted prototyping its latest
luxury sports car to an Indian-based designer and is set to produce
the cheapest Aston Martin ever. Suzuki, which makes Maruti in India
has decided to !
make
India its manufacturing, export and research hub
outside Japan. Hyundai India is set to become the global small car
hub for the Korean giant and will produce 25,000 Santros to start
with. By 2010 it is set to supply half a million cars to Hyundai
Korea. HMI and Ford.
India are leaping ahead, posting astonishing results in the global
markets from Brazil to China.
The Indian pharmaceutical industry is blazing ahead too. At $6.5
billion and growing at 8-10% annually, it is the 4th largest
pharmaceutical industry in the world. Its exports are over $2
billion. India is among the top five bulk drug makers and at home,
the local industry has edged out the MNCs whose share of 75% in the
market is down to 35%. Trade of medicinal plants has crossed Rs 4,000
crore already. As for technology, India is among the three countries
that have built supercomputers on their own. The other two are USA
and Japan. Not a bad club to!
be in,
is it?
India is among six countries that launch satellites and do so even
for Germany and Belgium. India's INSAT is among the world's largest
domestic satellite communication systems.
Here are more depressing facts. India is one of the world's largest
diamond cutting and polishing centres. About 9 out of 10 stones sold
anywhere in the world, pass through India. With China, India's arch
enemy, trade has grown by 104% in the past year and in the first 5
months of 2003, India has amassed a surplus in trade close to half a
million dollars. In the recession-hit West, Indian exports are up by
19% this year and the country's foreign exchange reserves stand at an
all-time high of $82 (Now over 100) billion. India is dishing out aid
to 11 countries, pre-paying their debt and loaned IMF $300 million!!
And since we think banning fashion shows is the way ahead, it might
be interesting to know that Wal-Mart sources $1 b!
illion
worth of
goods from India - half its apparel, GAP about $600 million and
Hilfiger $100 million.
These success stories are not propaganda and haven't happened
overnight or by good fortune. The Indians have the same bureaucracy
and many of the politicians simply play politics, the infrastructure
creaks and poverty abounds, corruption flourishes and there are huge
pockets of inefficiency and walls that block meaningful progress.
Sure, it has an army that is not bursting with power-grabbing and
subjugating its people every few years, but India's success can no
longer be denied and the gap between us and them grows wider by, if I
may use my childhood idiom,leaps and bounds. What makes them tick?
The answers are not simple and require great space and analysis by
minds far superior to that of a weekly hack, but Cost and Brains are
two factors. Add to that, a determination to rise above what faces
you everyday, a vi!
sion of
the stars as the man said. India provides
IT services at one-tenth the price. No wonder more and more companies
are basing their operations in India. An Indian MBA costs $5,000. An
American MBA $120,000. Development of an automobile in the US costs
$1 billion. In India, less than half. A cataract operation costs
$1500 in the US. In India, $12. Bypass in the US anywhere up to Rs 6
lakhs. In India, it is Rs 40,000.
Over 70 MNCs have set up R&D facilities in India in the past five
years. 100 of the Fortune 500 are now present in India vs 33 in
China. Intel's Indian staff strength has gone up from 10 to 1,000 in
four years. GE with a $60 million invested in India employs 1,600
researchers, while it has only 100 in China. With better systems
comes efficiency. The turnaround time in Indian ports is down to 4
days from 10 and its telecom infrastructure in 1999 provided a
bandwidth of 155 Mbps. Today, it is 75,000 time!
s more
and with fibre
optic networks in 300 cities, it will change the face of business.
Mobile phones are growing by about 1.5 million a month. Long distance
rates are down by two-thirds in five years and by 80% for data
transmission. The facts go on and on.
So what are the answers? They lie in the way we look at things, our
discourse, our vision, our ability to look ahead and our desire to
genuinely put our country on the right road. The people of the
subcontinent are naturally talented and bright. When will we unleash
the great potential of our people that lies dormant, crushed by the
forces of evil that stop our progress for their personal agendas?
Isn't it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do "practice"?
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