The birth of an Idea
It seems like the two sleeping giants - India and China are wakening upto the dreams of the modern world. Each has had her share of the spoils and taken different avenues to get to the pedestal they seem to be on right now. The Mao Revoltuion, the 100 Flower Campaign, the Tianmen Square Incident and the Little Red Book of the Communists are some of the highlights of the China’s Modern History. Gandhi, Nehru, Sachin Tendulkar, BPO and Pakistan seem to be the highlights of the Indian one. When you look at these two countries, you will see alot of differences from the characterisitics of an Indian/Chinese to the makeup of the infrastructure the two countries possess and the list goes on. The greatest similarity you will find is that the two countries have been the greatest beneficiaries of ideas born abroad.
I am a firm believer in the philosophy that if an idea or a thought if unique and powerful and attains an audience of an apprecitable amount, it will succeed in the country of its birth or the regions where the idea was blossomed in. Obviously this applies to alot of modern day concepts but there are some ancient ones that I will highlight as well. Capitalism, Energy, Computers and Transport- some the more talked about concepts and entities were all born in the “Western World” in countries like America, UK, etc. This is why these concepts and technological revolutions continue to succeed and are accepted by indivudals in those nations. The East possess its own ideas as well. There is a lot of pride about a country’s history, their old ancient traditions and family values and of course religion. Currently what seems to be taking place from a global point of view is an export and import of ideas, theologies, concepts, fundamentals, arts, etc. Americans are learning yoga and the average Indian knows about the gangster rapper 50 cents. There is an influx of ideas flowing both ways across the map. Yet, these ideas are not ones that will cause a major revolution or the birth of newer more powerful ones. The main driver behind China’s manufacturing industry is the Western powers’ investment and the same applies to India’s BPO Industry. The product life cycle theory was not created in the blink of an eye and one can see its implementation in the world today.
At a certain point of time, more countries especially in the developed world are going to buy into the “globalization” theory and would want a chunk of the economic growth that countries like China and India have tasted. This would lead to more competition, jobs going away from Indians/Chinese and a whole lot more playing grounds for the Western powers. Some might argue that India and China will be prepared for this but to be prepared does not mean that the CEO of Wipro or the President of China knows the precautions to take. It has to be each individual’s role to be prepared, to take strides to counter attack the possibilities of jobs going to other countries, economic freedom in other nations. Each individual has to be taught to think on his/her own, to generate ideas on their own, to think for themselves. One of the reasons why a programmer in India is very good at what they do is because they do not question the reasoning behind their work. They just do it. ” Sir java or jsp ?”seems to be the only question.
Although America seems to have lost in the export of manufacturing goods and services to China and India, it has done extremely and powerfully well in the export of culture, concepts and especially ideas. Yes like I mentioned before there are followers of yoga, green tea and Krishna in the Western countries, but this is very minute when you compare it ideas like HipHop, democracy, abolishment of communism/socialism, free speech, computers, technology, modern day healthcare and CAPITALISM.
These are all ideas being bought by an Indian and Chinese everyday. Unless they come up with their own idea, their own innovation or their own big revolutionary concept that will attract a global audience, they will always remain the countries that followed America’s ideas and built their success on it.
“Great Ideas and Innovations Distinguish a Great Leader and a Simple Follower”
- { I took Steve Jobs’ quote and manipulated it}
