“I dislike feeling at home when I am abroad.”
— George Bernard Shaw (Irish, 1856-1950)
Word for the day
Dyad (n)
Group of two; couple; pair.
(Source: Dictionary.com)
Teaser for the day
Does Bhartiyata (Indianness) involve atonement,
forgiveness, evolution, faith, devotion, tolerance, mutual respect, and belief
in divinity?
Economics of Jugaad - good for survival, not so
for growth
‘Jugaad’ in economic field is as dangerous as in personal
(like self medication) and political (caste and religion based politics,
adhocism in key socio-economic policies etc.)
After BJP issued its
2014 election manifesto early this month, the media debate for once appeared
focusing on issues like economic growth and development, employment, inflation
etc. I was gratified to
note the diversion from redundant issues like communalism and dynastic
politics towards more relevant issues. But my state of gratification did not
last beyond two days. The media debate has blatantly reverted back to
conventional adrenaline enhancing subjects.
In past few days,
both the leading PMship contenders have mostly focused on criticizing each
other; in between offering some glimpses of their economic thoughts.
Unfortunately, except for communists, no other party offers any material
economic solutions. The communists’ solution naturally suffers from antiquity
and dogmatism.
A close study of the
economic part of their manifestos and their subsequent public utterances would
suggest that they intend to continue pursuing the economics of jugaad that in
my view has done tremendous harm to the country and her people in past six decades.
The ‘jugaad’ mindset
has perennially pushed back India and Indians tenaciously into survival mode,
preventing development of a strong foundation for economic growth and
prosperity.
The ‘jugaad’ mindset
reflects poorly on almost every aspect of the socio-economic life in India.
This has severely impacted the pursuit of excellence, a hall mark of Indian
art, culture, engineering, architecture, industry till 19th century,
at least. Today, “Quality” is something India and Indians are not particularly
known for globally.
The ‘jugaad’ mindset
has also doggedly constricted the vision of an average Indian entrepreneur.
Except for a handful of Indians, most of whom have the benefit of studying
and/or working overseas, not many have thought about scalable business models.
Consequently:
·
Despite having a rich culinary tradition for
centuries, millions of connoisseurs, and thousands of great eateries – why we
could not create a McDonald, Dominos or Pizza Hut in India?
·
Despite having over 2000yrs of rich tradition of
fashion, fabric manufacturing, dress designing and abundant raw material
availability why no Indian textile or fashion brands figures prominently in
global fashion and textile industry?
·
Coke quit India in 1977-78, leaving behind all
manufacturing facilities, customers with taste for soda based drinks,
distribution and marketing channel and sales infrastructure. For 14yrs Indian
manufacturers had no competition whatsoever, till Pepsi and Coke re-entered
India. Why did Campa cola, Parle and Duke not survive the competition from
Pepsi and Coke even for a decade?
·
Despite being one of the oldest civilization,
tradition of living and networking in communities, spending considerable time
in chaupals and doing Adda till late night, availability of tremendous IT
skills – no Indian thought of creating Facebook – an e-chaupal with over
US$150bn in market cap.
·
Despite claiming ourselves to be the world
leaders in the field of religion, spirituality, culture etc. we could not
create Mecca, Vatican, Jerusalam out of Vrindavan, Kashi, Tirupati, Ajmer,
Haridwar, etc. Most of these places are filthy and criminally inadequate in
basic tourist infrastructure.
·
Despite slavery of many centuries, why we still
depend on those very foreigners for supply of equipment, arms and ammunition
for our armed forces?
·
Why failing to win an Olympic gold medal is a
subject of national shame; failing to get nomination in Oscars is subject of
national disappointment, but not getting a single Nobel for mathematics,
science or literature post independence does not evoke any regrets or
discussion? Remember, we always proudly claim ourselves to be pioneers in the
fields of mathematics, physics, astrophysics, metallurgical and medical
sciences etc.
·
Why we derive pride from the success of
emigrated Indians who have taken foreign citizenship?
·
Despite being the largest producer of milk, and
huge surplus food grain stock, why India is bracketed with some poorest third
world countries in terms of child malnutrition?
·
Why an average Indian male feels proud in being
sexist when our religion, culture, and traditions propound supremacy of
feminine power (The Mother Supreme)?
·
Why an average Indian feels proud in being
racist when our religion, culture, and traditions preach universality of human
(Vasudeva Kutumbakam)?
These are not but just a few of the
illustrations that explain the harmful effects of the ‘jugaad’ mindset.
‘Jugaad’ in economic field is as dangerous as in personal life (like self
medication) and political (caste and religion based politics, adhocism in key
socio-economic policies etc.)
Rahul Gandhi says that his priority
would be to get petty low skill mass manufacturing industrial jobs back from
China. This is ‘jugaad’ at its worst. Why on earth you want those low paying
low skill jobs and highly polluting industries back. The focus should rather be
on skilling the work force and creating high paying skilled jobs in advanced
technology industry and services sector.
Narendra Modi says that he will brand
Indian cities by occasionally holding international conventions, summit meeting
and high level dignitaries’ visits to various places of tourist interests. I
would like to bring to his notice that Rajiv Gandhi used this tactic by
organizing “Bharat Mahotsav” in a ’jugaad’ fashion. The most recent example is
organization of CWG games in 2010.
Another example is much touted solar
power plant over Narmada Canal in Gujarat. Studies suggest that this ‘jugaad’
model may be at least 25-30% more expensive and inefficient than conventional
models.
A few years ago popular economist and
columnist Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar wrote in vehement
support of ‘jugaad’. I strongly beg to differ. I believe we need a strong
conceptual framework for quality, sustainability, and scalability to grow
faster. Jugaad may be good for 5%.
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