Welcome to read this article, click to follow, get more exciting content, thank you for your support!On August 15, 2023, India celebrated the 70th anniversary of its independence. Speaking at the commemoration celebrations, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "When poverty in a country decreases, the strength of the middle class will increase significantly. In the next five years, I promise that India will be one of the top three economies in the world. This was a surprising remark. Because people have always had the impression that India is a country that is associated with poverty and backwardness. Until now, there is still an extreme gap between the rich and the poor in India, and it is difficult for the people at the bottom to ensure their livelihood.
Under these circumstances, how dare Modi say that India will become one of the top three economies in the world within five yearsIn fact, however, Modi's claims are not unfounded. If we look at India's GDP data over the past few years, we can see that India's GDP has shown an unprecedented boom. According to statistics from the United Nations last year, India's economy has reached 35 trillion US dollars, ranking fifth in the world. And in 2022, their economic growth rate is about 65%。Surprisingly, even amid a general global economic downturn, India's GDP growth rate in the first quarter of 2023 still reached 61%。
These staggering figures make it difficult to associate them with India. Is it true that India has quietly ushered in a huge economic transformation?However, most people remain skeptical of India's economy. The main reason is that the living conditions of the entire country of India do not correspond to its GDP figures. In a country with such rapid GDP growth, the standard of living of the people should at least be enough to feed the majority of the population, but it is clear that India does not meet this condition. As a result, the boom they are presenting in terms of GDP growth is actually a false boom. So, what exactly is causing the imbalance between India's economic numbers and the actual state of the economy?
This needs to start with India's economic model. One of the most important pillars of the economy in India is the software outsourcing industry. According to statistics, the software outsourcing industry has generated $190 billion in profits for India since its independence. The fundamental reason why India has been able to dominate this field is related to its colonial past. Due to the long period of British colonial rule, India has unexpectedly become one of the regions with the highest English penetration rate in the world. In the 70s of the last century, both the British and the Americans discovered the potential of India as a blue ocean. Since the locals were fluent in English, they soon moved some of the Anglo-American secondary industries to India.
These jobs, while not highly technical, are an integral part of every industry. Businesses have to spend a portion of their paycheck to maintain their remote after-sales service. India's cheap labor is clearly a huge advantage in this area, and major companies have outsourced after-sales services to India. This became the backbone of the local economy. With the success of the first round, it was not long before the British and American companies decided to move their software development projects to India. The reason for this is that despite India's backward level of education, they still have top universities, the most famous of which is the Indian Institute of Technology, which was established in 1951.
The college is capable of training more than 8,000 science and engineering talents every year. It was established with the joint support of India** and European and American capital. In order to build this college, India spared no expense, both in terms of teachers and teaching materials, and strive to be on par with Europe and the United States. The students who are admitted to this school are among the top talents in India. After graduating, most of them went on to pursue a career in software development. This is determined by the market. As more and more British and American companies move their software development operations to India, there are a lot of job openings in India. Thus, the graduates of the Indian Institute of Technology ushered in the spring.
They find a job in their home country with a good salary, and they are also able to directly serve famous European and American companies. It's a huge attraction for them. As a result, there is a cycle between the Indian Institute of Technology and British and American companies, which is constantly sending talent. And these people who have successfully entered the software industry have also become role models for successful people in the hearts of Indians, men, women and children. Becoming a science and engineering professional, growing up to work in the software industry, became the most ambitious dream in the hearts of middle-class children in India. This industry has brought unprecedented profits to India, but it has also come at the cost of countless sacrifices.
For many years, European and American countries have placed so much trust in software outsourcing in India because of the dedication of the Indian staff, who can support customers almost within 24 hours and have a complete after-sales process. To this day, India's software outsourcing company is still the number one company in the world, thanks to their attentive service. These companies are able to flexibly adjust their working hours according to the time zone of the client's country, which is unmatched by other countries. While software engineers are already decent jobs in India, their salaries are meagre compared to other engineers around the world.
If a Chinese software engineer can get an annual salary of 200,000 yuan, then an Indian software engineer can only get a salary of 50,000 yuan. A few years ago, many senior engineers in India were treated with low salaries, pointing out that there is a double standard in European and American companies, and their work is almost the same as that of American engineers, or even harder, but their wages are far less than those of American Xi. Although, these engineers still have to go back to their jobs, because in India, as a cheap labor factory in Europe and the United States, this job is the best they can get.
While there are some top Indian engineers who go abroad in search of higher salaries, they are in the minority. India's pillar industry is the cheap labor market behind the boom, and Indians do not pay as much as they get. This is evident in the software outsourcing industry, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Even if the economy is truly prosperous, it will be difficult to change the status quo in India, because cheap labor is the foundation of the Indian economy. The United Nations issued a population warning in July 2021 that India's population will reach 14 by 20232.9 billion, surpassing China to become the world's most populous country.
India's population has grown by 200 million in the past decade, but this excessive population growth has been exacerbated by an already struggling country like India. Although the number of newborns in India is still increasing, India as a country does not provide them with a good living environment. In India, less than 10% of the population has access to good health and education, while more than half of the population is still struggling to make ends meet. As a result, although the birth rate of India's population is high, the mortality rate is also high, which cannot ensure the basic livelihood of the people.
Despite India's abundant labor pool, unfortunately, most people do not even qualify for a career in software engineering and become a high-paying workforce. Because if you want to work in software, you need at least a higher education. However, the illiteracy rate in India is close to 30 per cent, and only about 20 per cent of the population is able to access universities. Most of those who do not have access to a university education are still engaged in low-paid manual labor, with nothing to do with the ostensibly prosperous economic bubble. Another consequence of low levels of education is that it is difficult for India to transform its economy on its own.
In contrast, China has successfully transformed from an agrarian to an industrial country, but India is still hardly a true industrial country. Because they can't even build a complete industrial chain, for many years, they are only engaged in some basic manufacturing such as leather, plastic and wood. Some people might say that software production is a relatively high-tech industry. However, it is worth noting that despite India's decades of experience in software production, its achievements in the Internet sector are limited.
In today's global digital economy boom, major powers are entering the market, but India has not taken a place, which is not in keeping with their self-proclaimed image as a software powerhouse. In fact, India's software outsourcing work is essentially a simple technical process, and their market depends on handouts from European and American countries. A slight upheaval in the global supply chain could bring down India's economy. For a large country with a large population, such a fragile economic situation is extremely unfavorable. In addition, India's software market is close to saturation, and even if the demand in Europe and the United States is large, the number of jobs available is always limited.
In recent years, the employment situation has been poor, and more and more high-quality Indians have begun to compete in this field, resulting in the industry's upside has been compressed to a minimum. Although the industry has been developing for many years, India has never been able to create more jobs, or even become a dominant player, so it can only follow the instructions of European and American countries. The predicament facing India is truly sad. Recognizing this problem, Modi stressed the need to develop India's own manufacturing industry and upgrade its industry. However, it will not be easy to achieve this plan. First of all, industrial upgrading requires a large number of talents. However, India's talent has long since migrated to Europe, the United States and stabilized in the software industry.
The rest is a group of illiterate and semi-literate people, unable to carry the development of the country's manufacturing industry. In addition, India does not have an advantage in the manufacturing sector, and Asian countries are developing their own manufacturing industries. As a result, Modi's economic transformation is already a step late. In addition, India has received several international orders, but there are often water and electricity outages in factories, so that countries around the world do not dare to easily hand over orders to India. Indians are also reluctant to choose this profession because they will soon not be able to afford to eat. Modi is trying to attract foreign investment, but building a factory in India is a nightmare for Europe and the United States. In short, the economic environment facing India is dire.
Modi's economic reform policies have not found a real way out for the Indian economy for several years, but have instead led to soaring inflation figures. The manufacturing sector, on which Modi has high hopes, originally accounted for 15 percent of India's national GDP. By 2003, that number had dropped to 13 per cent. In addition to software outsourcing projects, India** also owes a lot of foreign debt. These embarrassing things don't appear in their pretty numbers, but they have a real impact on the lives of Indians. Despite the passage of time, India is still a destitute country, with a third of the world's poor people said to live here.
But Modi has repeatedly expressed his ambition to make India a developed country by 2047. However, this is only a distant dream, and for outsiders, this is obvious. Before pursuing to become a developed country, India should first keep its feet on the ground and think about how to truly eradicate poverty. Wang Jian's "The Truth of India's Economy" and Tu Qi's "India Wants to Enter the "Top Three in the World"" both have relevant reference materials. This article is the original of "Literature and History", and has been protected by the whole network