Superpower?
The Amazing Race Between China's Hare and India's Tortoise
By: Raghav Bahl
Published: October 28, 2010
Format: Hardcover, 272 pages
ISBN-10: 1591843960
ISBN-13: 978-1591843962
Publisher: Portfolio/Penguin
"It's an amazing race between between China's hare and India's tortoise - one that China need not automatically win, and India should not believe it is bound to lose", writes founder, controlling shareholder,and director of Network 18, India's largest television and business network, Raghav Bahl, in his incisive and thought provoking book Superpower? The Amazing Race Between China's Hare and India's Tortoise. The author describes the challenges facing the rapidly expanding economies of both India and China, and provides important insights into the future growth of the the two Asian giants on the global stage.
Baghav Bahl presents a balanced account of the potential for growth, and the obstacles in the path, for both India and China. The author emphasizes the similarities and vast differences between the two contenders for leadership in Asia, and their place in the globalized economy. When the world economy melted down in 2008, both India and China were affected by the resulting recession. Both domestic economies recovered, but at different rates, and through different means. While China increased its debt load dramatically, and experienced rapid economic expansion, the result has been massive increases in infrastructure, and huge but perhaps unsustainable growth rates. India, on the other hand, took a different route to recovery that reflects the national approach to economic growth. Slow and steady, but built on a wider base and lower debt levels, was the response that was taken by India. The recovery from the global meltdown demonstrated the differing means by which these two huge countries conduct both their business and their politics.
Raghav Bahl (photo left) recognizes that both India and China possess enormous economic potential, as well as some very unique challenges and roadblocks. For China, the business structure is very heavily tilted toward huge state run enterprises, influenced by the political will of the country's political elite. The Chinese government can create massive growth in the economy through its state owned banks and businesses. India, on the other hand is the world's largest democracy. As a result, the change will be slower, but grounded in a more entrepreneurial setting, where private investment leads the economy. India's very heavy bureaucracy, however, very often acts as a brake on the intentions of the private sector investor. Faced with growing populations, resource shortages, rapid urbanization, and environmental issues, both countries are responding in very different ways. Some initiatives are successful, while others are very often counterproductive. For the author, the winner of this race of titans may be the more innovative and entrepreneurial country. At the moment, the outcome is still very much in doubt.
For me, the power of the book is how Raghav Bahl describes the current status of the race between China's hare and India's tortoise. The author also shares his insights into the future of the two Asian giants, and how their current actions will affect their future economic status. Baghav Bahl compares and contrasts the strengths and potential liabilities of each economy in a fair and objective manner. He presents real world observations on the public and private sectors in both countries, and shares their triumphs and their failures.
The author doesn't fall into the trap of simply extrapolating the current economic, demographic, and political underpinnings of both countries into the future. Instead, he examines how both India and China are evolving, and renewing themselves, and the radically differing routes that have been chosen by their local and national leadership. The possibility of India overtaking China, due to its more ground up entrepreneurial style, combined with its democratic political system, is discussed in the book. Raghav Bahl is careful to point out how the large, state owned companies in China are also a powerful force for innovation, but in a different form from the Indian entrepreneurs. The race result is not a forgone conclusion of victory for China, as many in the West suppose. The case for India moving ahead is equally compelling, but not as immediately apparent.
I highly recommend the important and must read book Superpower? The Amazing Race Between China's Hare and India's Tortoise by Raghav Bahl, to anyone seeking a deeper understanding of what is really happening in the economic race between India and China. The book also contains some very powerful and well researched information on the social, political, international, and demographic challenges facing both countries as we move farther into the twenty-first century.
Read the informative and fascinating book Superpower? The Amazing Race Between China's Hare and India's Tortoise by Raghav Bahl, and discover for yourself the critical importance of the race between India's tortoise and China's hare. The outcome will have reverberations that will be felt around the world. This book will prepare you to meet that economic reality successfully.
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