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Home > Top Stories > Business Saturday, October 02,
2004
| Nation | World | Business | Sport | Entertainment |
Infotech |
Business
(Dari Indian Express)
India’s potential being recognised worldwide
Vivek Bharati
Posted online: Friday, October 01, 2004 at 1636 hours
IST
Updated: Saturday, October 02, 2004 at 1036 hours IST
As I settled down in the flight from Bangkok to Hong
Kong last week, I was drawn to a front-page report in
the Asian Wall Street Journal describing how China
and, on a much lower scale, India are pulling away
jobs from advanced countries. Another report in the
same paper compared levels of internet penetration in
Asian markets. Despite the fact that India was at the
bottom of the table, I was pleased that we figured in
the story.
Why feel good about small mercies, one may argue. But
just a few years ago while the world was busy taking a
hard look at the Asian economic story, particularly
the amazing transformation of China, we found no
mention in newspaper reports. The fact that media has
now begun to take notice is proof of the fact that
India’s economic potential is now being recognised.
Some weeks ago, Newsweek ran a cover story on how
India is emerging as one of the world’s best
investment destination.
This view is being echoed in other credible global
investor meets across the world. A decade ago,
businessmen abroad would cast a condescending glance
as I exchanged my visiting card with them. Today, they
treat Indians with respect even though they may not
want to be part of India’s cumbersome business
environment. Yet as one travels around Asia, the gap
between what has been achieved by even small countries
in the region and India hits you like a tornado and
one gets that sinking feeling that we continue to be
not years but decades behind. The sheer scale at which
these countries have conceived and built projects
makes one feel small and insignificant.
The Changi airport at Singapore, built over two
decades ago handles more passengers than all our
airports put together. The 70 km expressway that
connects the international airport at Kuala Lumpur to
the city and built years ago, is as good as one gets
anywhere in the world. The Hong Kong airport is
connected to the city by the world’s longest
suspension bridge, bigger than the Golden Gate. Within
the city, there is a web of quality double-carriage
roads at times crossing each other at three or four
different levels. Hong Kong and Singapore have two of
the busiest ports with perhaps the largest container
terminals in the world. Far more trade is conducted
through these two ports than all our ports put
together. The tourist handling capacity of Bangkok,
Singapore, KL and Hong Kong outstrips that of our
entire country by a multiple of twenty or more.
The sad part of the story is that we have not begun
thinking on that scale. The highways, ports, airports
that we are building now are not a patch on what you
see in Southeast or East Asia. The fact that we cannot
even build 500 metre flyovers or bridges on time
speaks of our abysmal project management abilities.
The skylines of our cities look puny compared to what
one sees in this region. The Petronas towers in Kuala
Lumpur makes one desperately look for one symbol of
modern urban India that can attract tourists and make
them carry tales of our construction capabilities.
• Yes, India is now being recognised as an important
investment destination
• Yet, there’s a feeling that we are far behind other
smaller countries
• PM’s statement on his government’s first priority
needs to be implemented
We have not one convention centre that can seat 5,000
delegates while China and its neighbours have these in
good number. There is not one city in the country that
can boast of a taxi service for tourists at par with
our competitors in Asia. One can go on and on. The
short point is that we have a long way to go. The
contrast between the unfulfilled promise of the sea
bridge connecting Bandra to Worli in Mumbai and the
suspension bridge in Hong Kong is a pointer to the gap
that separates us from our eastern neighbours and
China.
We surely do not lack the capability. We have built
impressive dams and hydro plants, implemented projects
like the Konkan railway, created reputed institutions
like the IITs and IIMs that are now the envy of the
world. We have some of the world’s best engineers and
technicians. I have met some European engineers
working on the Delhi Metro who believe that the Indian
engineering talent deployed on the project can teach
project managers anywhere in the world a thing or two.
We now need to harness and marshal this talent and
tell the world that we too can create modern
structures. Dhirubhai Ambani built the world’s largest
refinery at one shot. That is the vision that must
underlie our plans to build modern infrastructure that
can support the enormous growth creating potential of
India’s people and its entrepreneurs.
While in Hong Kong I was delighted to read the Prime
Minister’s statement in the US that infrastructure and
improvement of the enabling environment for business
was his government’s first priority. Our planners must
turn this priority into a mammoth blueprint of how
India must look ten years down the road. The blueprint
should comprise a collection of projects that could be
defined as say as 50 major expressways, 100 key
bridges, a dozen airports, five key ports and logistic
hubs, ten world-class cities with services that
compare with the best in the world, 100 new townships,
20 convention centers, 30 mega power projects etc. All
these projects should have the technical and quality
parameters that set new global standards.
The plan cannot be realised unless we have project
managers to implement these projects. Let us choose
5,000, or even a thousand project managers from both
government and private sectors, expose them to
projects all over the world and give them intensive
training in project management. The government cannot
do this alone. This will have to be a partnership
between public and private sectors on the one hand and
Centre and states on the other. Let us launch a
national mission on “infrastructure” to be completed
within a defined time frame.
The author is an advisor to Ficci
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