wharton: will india match china's manufacturing might?

apr 11th, 2011 CE

china's dream run in manufacturing may come to an end, but for india to grab the lead the leadership crisis needs to be fixed. need honest people and leaders who care for the nation's economic well-being, not just for their own swiss accounts. 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ram Narayana

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/india/article.cfm?articleid=4583 

Will India Match China’s Manufacturing Might? 

Published: April 07, 2011 in India Knowledge@Wharton

When C. Northcote Parkinson -- economist, historian and humorist -- wrote "East and West" in 1963, the book’s basic theme was that one day, India and China would combine to take on the West. At the time, the Sino-Indian war had just ended, and the book didn’t make many waves. Over the past few years, however, things have changed; everyone has been talking about the powerful combination of India’s expertise in software and services and China’s capabilities in manufacturing. Today, there’s a new twist. China has been upping its strength in the former and India has a newfound confidence in its might in the latter. 

This is not confined to the IT arena. "India will emerge as a strong manufacturing base," predicts Janat Shah, a professor of production and operations management at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIMB) and founder-chairperson of its Center for Supply Chain Management. Jagdish Sheth, marketing professor at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School in Atlanta, adds that India will become "a second sourcing destination" for the world economy.

The numbers have already started signaling this development. In March, a new United Nations Industrial Development Organization report put India as one of the top 10 manufacturers in 2010. "India tops developing countries (China excluded) in production of textiles, chemical products, basic metals, general machinery and equipment, and electrical machinery," the report noted. In motor vehicle production, the country has overtaken Brazil and is behind only Mexico among developing countries. India’s manufacturing value added has grown by over 10%, compared to 3.4% for the industrialized countries. The share of China, India and Brazil in world manufacturing output is now 32%, up from 20% a decade ago.

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