IS 'VIDESH' AFFECTING SWADESH?

By Ruma Dubey

You go to Big Bazaar, it is very likely that majority of the stuff, over 50% of what you buy/see there would have a ‘Made in China’ tag.

You want to buy a TV? The choices are Samsung, LG, Sony? Local brand like Videocon? No one buys that and do we have local brands in TV anymore? EcTV, anyone remembers, the good ole’days of B&W TV where no choice made viewing so easy.

McDonalds, Subway, PizzaHut and Dominos – everywhere around us we see only foreign brands. Try telling your teenager son/daughter to invite friends over for idli/dosa or roti/bhaji party… you can be sure that party will never happen.

Everything that we use today, right from the toothpaste to the air conditioner in which you sleep in, all are almost always a foreign brand. The stock market too is today at the mercy of the FIIs and that makes us wonder whether it is right to have so much foreign dependency?

In the pre-Independence days, we were under the British but all products were Indian made and we were then amongst the richest economies in Asia. Today, we are free from the British rule but slave to all things foreign – right from the safety pin to the cars we drive.

Many would find this thought process to be pretty ‘backward’ or too conservative but the real truth today is that too much of this globalization, which is one-way into India, is hurting us. How can all reforms be only about Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)? Be it aviation or courier or pension or insurance – almost each and every sector is today seemingly able to survive, if and only if FDI comes in.

Yes, we need technology and we need to grow economically. But how can this way of making India into a factory while the world reaps benefits be the right way? ‘Made in China’ has proliferated all around the world –in the same way because we constantly compare ourselves with China, can India boast of any ‘Made in India’ mass produced, global product?

Take the case of this recent ban on Indian getting LCD TV’s from the foreign trips to Dubai or Thailand. In a flight of over 300 passengers, over 50-60 passengers were carrying big LCD TVs. The Govt, under the pretext of wanting to curb the falling rupee, put a clamp down on this. But what the Govt really needed to think about was why Indians were getting these TVs from abroad, going through so much inconvenience. The reason was simple – it was simply cheaper to bring it from there. A Sony 46-LCD TV costs around Rs.68,000 to Rs.70,000 in India while the same model in Dubai cost around Rs.37,000. The 40-inch Samsung LCD in India comes at Rs.74,000 while in Bangkok it comes at around Rs.42,000. Why do the same companies sell it so cheap in other countries and so expensive in India? Well, the companies say that it is due to the 30-35% composite tax imposed on flat TVs in India. They also blame it on higher overheads and operating costs on account of multi-layered distribution structure and size of operations. Then the question which comes to mind is – what is the point of having these brands in India when it is more expensive here than in other countries? Aren’t we then getting a raw deal?

If FDI is supposed to give us only global brands but at more expensive rates and at the cost of domestic manufacturers, is this then good for India? Manmonhan Singh opened up the Indian investment doors to the world then but today, that alone will not work. The systems put in place then have far outlived their use and now the internal systems need a complete overhaul. Is this going to be done by the FIIs and FDIs? There has to be a balance between domestic investment and FDI. If there isn't, if FDI is much higher, then surely there is something wrong with the local economy.