ARE WE OBSESSED WITH FDI AND FIIs?

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.

And that’s not all. Something as mundane as fruits. Try to buy some Indian apples or other fruits – you will simply not find anything. All that the fruit vendors sell is either from China or USA or New Zealand o Thailand. Have we become so lazy that we need to now get fruits from abroad?

Everything that we use today, right from the toothpaste, clothes you wear, food you eat 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 or defence– 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?

This Govt too, like the previous one is more bothered about placating the FIIs and getting in FDI. But what they forget that it is ‘one’ of the ways and not the ‘only’ way to move ahead. Currently we are too dependent on FDI coming in and this could pose very serious repercussions for the domestic industries, which as such is in the doldrums. Bringing in FDI is good from a capitalistic point of view. But if we take a moment to sit back and look, it makes one wonder whether we are opening up too much? The Wall Street crisis affected almost every American, directly or indirectly. Europe is yet to recover.

The Govt is pushing forth reforms in sectors which at this point of time does not affect the common man much and has turned a blind eye to real issues which if not addressed first will affect this FDI dream too. Non availability of land, lack of research in agriculture, rising cost of labour, unemployable unskilled labour,  lack of roads, power shortages; there are so any crucial infra links which have collapsed. Will FDI alone in some sectors help? 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? There are innumerable operational hassles faced by companies like storage, transport, especially of oversized cargoes, the list is endless. So instead of dealing with any of these, the Govt wants to do only that which will grab local and international media attention. And even companies in India Inc- why have they become so dependent on economic reforms and less on their own innovations?

Look at how the FIIs have held the markets at ransom ever since MAT was announced. Before that, reports were abound about India being THE only emerging market available. Overnight, the tone changed and they are scooting to other countries to exploit. Is this the kind of fickle minded bunch of investors India needs to boost its growth? Doesn’t that make the growth also pretty fickle?

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?

PS: Our PM needs to get over this phoren fixation first. Maybe a Bharat darshan and speeches in India would be a welcome change; after all touring the globe for a year could be quiet taxing. Great foreign diplomacy has been established; now time to look back into India.