Think India

Recently the accountant who handles my investments told me that I should sell some of the American stocks I hold and buy foreign ones. He mentioned those hot Chinese company stocks people have been gravitating toward, but also Brazilian and Indian stocks. It made me curious as to just how advanced Indian business has become. I knew that India is one of the hot places in which western businesses have relocated, but I was surprised when researching the Indian economy that India, not China, is now the most attractive foreign relocation places for The U.S. and Canadian businesses.

I recently a book, Think India, which makes that case. It is impressive one. The fact that India has the advantages of English language skills, management and IT education (India has several generations of it's elite trained in western business practices), a democratic government (The Chinese government can order a factory to increase its production but it can not order it to innovate) that does not inhibit western business, has a free media, no internal disputes (in particular, no ethnic disputes) and the innovation found in Indian business makes it more likely that India will replace China as the darling for western businesses.

India is far ahead of China today in total production, but the gap is closing and India is already, as I mentioned above, the number one relocation choice for western businesses today. It will be interesting to see if the authoritative regime of China winds up as the cause of halting the Chinese economic miracle as more and more Chinese citizens ask for more freedom. This happened in Russia in the early 90's after the collapse of the Soviet regime. And today, Russia is far behind both India and China in business productivity. Too, Russia seems in disarray politically which makes business run from it. I wonder if China could have the same fate as Russia.

I see also that the U.S. and Japan are backers of India, because they feel that India could be a stabilizing force in Asia as opposed to the Chinese threat to it. The support India has from western business and western governments is making it the more attractive alternative to China. It is said that already, because of the huge population in India, that the brightest 25% of India already outnumber the entire population of the United States. It seems we may soon have to get used to reading "Made in India" on the goodies we love to buy and consume.