What are some of the things that Americans don't understand about India and
China and what you call tectonic economics?
Most Americans do not even understand that India and China are growing so fast. It is not really on Americans' radar screen. It is like the majority of Indians are not paying attention to what's happening in Kansas City,
Kansas -- or China, for that matter -- and are getting on with their daily lives.
It is a real shame that many Americans are not aware of the growing power of India and China because India and China are so dramatically affecting Americans in their daily lives. Americans understand or notice that when they go to a Wal-Mart in America almost everything they buy comes from China. They see the impact of China from the falling prices on Wal-Mart
shelves. Now, that's on their radar screen but they don't really understand what that means. They understand that their telephone calls are frequently answered in India but they haven't really thought through the implications of that combination of change.
The rise of India and China marks a major shift in post-Cold War geopolitics. The rise of these economies has caused the entire earth's economic and political landscape to shift before our eyes. Because the strands of the global economy are now held together more than ever, the changes in India and China are shaping the future of the rest of the world.
Never before has the global market been so hyperconnected: Imagine if the massive trade flowing over the Silk Road were combined with that of the Spice Route and this mix of global commerce were supercharged with modern technology.
The Chinese and Indian economies are growing so fast that they are transforming the world economy. And the last time a shift of this kind happened was when America became an economic power in the 1800s. After that there were smaller and yet important developments in the global economy: First the German economy became very strong, then in the post-World War II
years the Japanese economy took off, and after that the Asian Tiger economies as a group took off.
But India and China are just such big and fast-growing economic powerhouses and their rise, especially their simultaneous rise, is a very dramatic change for the world economy. We have before our eyes two economic giants, each with 1 billion people, embracing globalisation and capitalism at the same time. And that is an amazing change.
India always had a complicated relationship with capitalism but it is really embracing it now. And that is a change I would like to see more of because it would help India.
There is a vast movement of white-collar, back office work to India whether it is tax preparation, medical transcription, reading of x-rays or preparation of corporate tax returns or legal discovery work for trials happening in America or even highly paid investment banking. Those tasks have moved to India in great numbers but most Americans don't have any idea
that is happening. It seems so far away, Americans would not even think of it, except when they hear a foreign accent on the phone.
In terms of accents, by the way, in America there are so many regional accents. Someone from Texas knows when he or she is on the talking on the phone to someone from New York. So he can easily tell someone is from New York. By the way, sometimes a New Yorker will have a harder time understanding a Texas accent than an Indian accent! But despite having heard about call centres based in India, most Americans just do not have the full picture of how many white-collar jobs are moving to India.
Photograph: A passenger vehicle makes its way through the hill tracks past a billboard on the proposed re-opening of the Nathu La Pass, the India-China border between Sikkim and Tibet, at Bardang, some 30 km south of Gangtok. Indian and Chinese officials finalised July 6, 2006 as the date for formal trading to begin at the 15,000 feet Nathu La Pass. Photograph: Deshkalyan Chowdhury/AFP/Getty Images
Also read: Chart: The Strengths And Weaknesses
Advertisement
