Super Power? , livre ebook

RAGHAV BAHL
Super Power?
The Amazing Race Between China s Hare and India s Tortoise
Contents
About the Author
Dedication
Preface WHY DON T THEY GET INDIA?
Prologue CHINA AND THE ART OF ESCAPE VELOCITY
A BRIC-by-BRIC Shift of Civilizations
Colonial Twins by the Bend in the River
The Hare and the Tortoise: A Twenty-First Century Fable
One THE RACE BEGINS
The Pillars of a Post-Lehman World
A Hare on Steroids
A Tortoise with New Muscles
Rule of Law, Rule by Law
India s Twice-born Constitution
China s Story of Virtual Justice
My Scam Is Better than Your Scam
Two GEO-POLITICS
The Re-arranging World of an Eagle, a Dragon and an Elephant
As the Dragon Makes Peace with the Eagle
As the Dragon Slays the Elephant
As the Elephant Makes a Nest with the Eagle
As the Dragon Also Makes a Nest with the Eagle
As the Eagle, Dragon and Elephant Crowd the Same Nest
Three ENTREPRENEURS, CONSUMERS AND ENGLISH SPEAKERS
A Tale of Two Demographies
Will China Grow Old before Getting Rich?
From Communists to Crony Entrepreneurs
Death, Consolidation, Rebirth
The Story of Two Stock Markets
China s 2-Trillion-Dollar Trickle Through
Two Drunken Steps Forward, Two Sideways, One Back
Ni Hui Shuo Ying Yu Ma? (That s Do You Speak English? in Chinese)
Four URBANIZATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE
A Rich Dragon s Glorious Head Not Slushy Paws
Stifled Voices, Hopeful Slums
Roads Have an Ideology-They Are Capitalist!
Of Roads, by Roads, for Roads
Toll-Ways of Growth
Indian Rail: Squandering a Quarter-Century Lead
Hurtling at 200 km per Hour
Re-inventing the Wagon-Wheel
The Wright Cousins of India-China
Air Pockets of Nationalization
A Twenty-First-Century Roller Coaster in the Skies
No Contain(er)ing China s Growth
Ports of Good Hope
Power Games in China, Enron in India
Power Thieves at the Taj Mahal
Five SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURE
Land Ahoy!
The Farmer Shareholder
Everything Else Can Wait, but Agriculture
But China Is Acres Ahead
And India Should Take the Tractor by the Tail
(S)Killing a Growth Story
(S)Killed By Politics
Bamboo Shoots after a Spring Rain
Wealth Is Health
A Giant Leap Backwards
Epilogue FIFTY-FIFTY?
Afterword ONE FROM THE ROAD
Illustrations
Appendix
Select Bibliography
Acknowledgements
Copyright Page
PORTFOLIO
SUPERPOWER?
Raghav Bahl is the founder and majority owner of Network18, one of India s largest media conglomerates. Over the course of the last decade and a half, he has built Network18 into a media powerhouse with an array of market-leading brands in television news and entertainment, web portals, feature films and special interest magazines. Network18 is the partner of choice for CNBC, CNN, Viacom, History Channel and Forbes in India. It is perhaps the only instance where all these global media giants have chosen to align with the same group.
Raghav Bahl has over twenty-two years of experience in television and journalism, winning the Sanskriti Award quite early in his career. A widely admired entrepreneur, he was hailed as a Global Leader of Tomorrow by the World Economic Forum and selected by Ernst and Young as Entrepreneur of the Year for Business Transformation in 2007. Despite his tremendous success as an entrepreneur, Raghav remains a journalist at heart continuing to serve as the Editor-in-Chief of Network18.
This is his first book.
ADVANCE PRAISE FOR SUPERPOWER?
A unique and gripping account of the evolving geo-politics and the role of India and China in a transformational shift, this book will be of much interest to policymakers and investors alike. -Anand Sharma, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Government of India
The hare and the tortoise story is a radical and compelling shift from the tiger and the elephant paradigm. This book is the most eloquent description of the race and the opportunity India has in the long run over most emerging economies. Raghav makes a persuasive argument that eventually India will leverage its intrinsic advantages of democracy, demography and diversity . Raghav s insights will help entrepreneurs, corporates, governments and societies at large understand the undeniable story of India and Indians rising. -Mukesh D. Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Ltd
In his inimitable way, Raghav Bahl has painted very insightful and highly data-rich perspectives on the history and potential of India and China. His powerful storytelling, backed with analytical research, brings to life many critical inflections and contrasts in the developmental journey of both countries. I recommend that young global citizens, with aspirations to build a better tomorrow, should refer to and assimilate this work. -N.R. Narayana Murthy, Chairman Emeritus, Infosys Technologies Ltd
Truly fascinating much more than a work of instinct, intuition and experience as Raghav modestly describes it. The book is rich in historical perspective, analytical rigour and anecdotal evidence. It is superbly written and accessible to lay readers as well as experts. Highly recommended for all those who are interested in India s problems and prospects as an emerging power of the twenty-first century. -Bimal Jalan, Former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India
The rise of India and China is one of the great stories of the twenty-first century. In this wide-ranging and sweeping book, Raghav Bahl, entrepreneur, commentator and journalist, compares and contrasts the rise of these two Asian giants. Raghav s perceptive and insightful treatise is a great addition to the literature on this very strategic topic. -Nandan Nilekani, Chairman, Unique Identification Authority of India
An insightful narration on the two most talked about nations in the world today, India and China. Raghav has delved into events, both current and historical, to compare and contrast the economic environment, polity and society. -Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman and Group CEO, Bharti Enterprises
An insightful comparison of the potential and the pitfalls faced by two giants, both racing towards their tryst with destiny. A must-read for those seeking to decode the India versus China enigma. -Anand G. Mahindra, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Mahindra & Mahindra
Raghav brings to bear his unique perspective as a journalist and entrepreneur to a discussion of history, economics and politics, presenting a broad sweep of information and ideas in an immensely lucid, entertaining, articulate and readable way. Un-put-downable! -K.V. Kamath, Chairman, ICICI Bank Ltd
The ascent of more than a third of humanity is a fascinating enterprise, especially seen through the eyes of a successful entrepreneur. While China s rise is scripted by an amazing state from above, India is climbing organically, chaotically from below, almost despite the state. This is perhaps why India s path is surer and likely to be more enduring. -Gurcharan Das, author of India Unbound and The Difficulty of Being Good
Raghav Bahl s narrative is absorbing. It follows two features I have long valued, a historical sensibility to inform today s reality, and a deep understanding of the value of comparative analysis. These two giants-China and India-desperately need to understand each other better, so this is another valuable addition to the field. -Tarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo Lemann Professor, Harvard Business School, author of Billions of Entrepreneurs: How China and India Are Reshaping Their Futures and Yours
This book is different because of many reasons: the multidimensional analysis on issues of history, demography, economy, society; the view through the eyes of an Indian living in India; and that it is not afraid to challenge popular opinion. It made me think again many times. -Rama Bijapurkar, author of We Are Like That Only: Understanding the Logic of Consumer India
Dedicated to my late grandparents and my late father for teaching me the virtues of ambition and excellence and to my mother for being an embodiment of resilience
Preface
Why Don t They Get India?
A lot of Indians believe in rebirth and transmigration of the soul. While it is an intellectually rich philosophy, its quick and everyday version simply means that a person s second, third, fourth or nth life is influenced by his actions, or karma , in previous ones. By this simplistic yardstick, I must have been a foreign investor in at least a couple of my earlier births!
Ever since I began my entrepreneurial life in the early 1990s, I have dealt, rather pleasantly, with foreign investors of all hues, shapes and sizes. One foreign investor or the other sits atop every key milestone. In the early days, there were venture capitalists just coming to grips with the maddening complexities of India. I was, in their lingo, a person with promising intellectual capital in a virgin consumer-focused business which was likely to witness explosive growth as India s GDP shifted gears and consumer aspirations stretched beyond the needs of daily survival . In other words, I was a poor but bright fellow, bereft of any financial capital, brimming with special media skills and ideas, capable of creating value as the country s television content business was unleashed . So if they gave me $5 million in cash and a chunk in equity, I could build a team of professionals and a company which could become a leader in India s nascent media industry . That s the first kind of foreign investor I encountered way back in 1993.
I must hand it to these guys for getting it somewhat right. Frankly, if I had $5 million in those days, I would have kept it under the mattress, but never given it away to a struggling thirty-two-year-old who barely had enough money to buy a second-hand car. But these guys did bet on us, and I daresay, made plenty of money. As our operations grew, we took bigger bets-and ran into even weightier foreign investors! The early-stage venture capitalist gave way to the late-stage private equity chap, wh