Following the barbaric killings of twenty Indian soldiers by the Chinese People Liberation Army personnel on the night of 15th of June, 2020 in the Galwan Valley, there has been a growing antagonism and resentment against China among the Indian population and among this growing protests against the Chinese side, there has been a popular call of a complete boycott of Chinese products and services as a retaliatory move against the imperialist communist nation.
Setting this move apace, in a communication to the state-owned telecom operator, Bharatiya Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), from the Department of Telecom (DoT), the telecom service provider should not use any Chinese components in its 4g up-gradation process as the operator plans to adapt 4g.
Likewise, Indian Railways has dumped a Chinese engineering company of a tender it won in the year 2016 valued at Rs 471 crores, on grounds of poor quality and slow speed of work.
There are also talks for cutting down the imports of electronic goods from the neighboring nation as electronics form a major constituent of the total imports from China.
Although such calls may make for a good strategy so as to boost the morale of Indian citizens and as well as calm their growing unrest against this horrendous act of absolute barbarism but India needs to plan an approach from a more realistic and pragmatic approach to send shockwaves to Beijing especially as the world steps into the post-COVID economy.
The chief cause of concern should remain on the set of repercussion that comes packed with the boycott of the Chinese economies. Notably, India only accounts for a micro share in the total exports by China, however, the backlash on the Indian side may be on multiple stages.
The Indian economy’s import basket from China comprises a wide range of commodities accounting from electronics to agricultural commodities, and an even more interesting fact is that many of domestic manufacturing units producing, Made in India output are dependent on their Chinese trade partners to fuel their business operations by supplying the necessary inputs. This poses a threat to these domestic firms and also to the export capacities of India.
The Indian consumers may also need to accept an additional burden in the initial years of this movement’s operationalization as the Indian side faces the backlog resulting from competitive advantage to their Chinese counterparts as the Indian side may move to provide for starting with tariffs or non-tariff policies.
Therefore, in the short run, India should be at a much greater downside if there are disruptions to the supply chain from China to India.
Another area of concern for India is the investment of the Chinese capital firms in the Indian startup segment particularly in India’s unicorn start-ups, namely, Zomato, Paytm, Byju, and Ola cabs to name among several other such companies.
This makes India’s trade and economic relationship with the Chinese even more complicated. Therefore, each and every plan of the Indian government needs to be double-checked so as to inflict maximum damage and face minimum losses in reactionary moves. The guiding factor shouldn’t be driven on an emotional note but flow out from a pragmatic viewpoint.
However, none of this should disappoint you as all these factors simply add up to our disadvantage and inflict backlash upon us only in the short run.
The indigenous capacity of all domestic manufacturing outputs needs to be improvised inclusive of the primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors. All the legislative hindrances that continue to create bootlegs need to be cleared and all the pending statutes seeking approval from those in the chair should be provided a way for that could ease the ability of doing business for native traders. The long term strategy may be to improve its competitive strength in the supply chain and aim at acquiring a larger share in the world economy. These all are however long term propositions and could be possible of all 130 crore Indians,
Jai Hind.
Ayush Bansal
Grade XII, ST JOSEPH SCHOOL, SILIGURI.
Ayush has keen interests in matters concerning India and has attended numerous mock youth parliament where he has presented his calibre for public administration and policymaking. He aspires to be an IAS officer and serve his country.
