That India would develop the Andamans into a free port, an Indian Hong Kong, and they would move in there to create an archipelago of prosperity for their motherland to rival Hong Kong. Those left behind now talk bitterly of that dream, of the short shrift it got and how they are convinced that India is so burdened with sanctimonious hypocrisy it could never rival China's energy or enterprise, prosperity or pragmatism. On the flight back, I run into dear friend Nikhil Gandhi, dressed impeccably and full of beans as ever. Nikhil is not 40 yet, has outfought cancer, works a long day, neither says no to anything nor takes no for an answer and is in so many ways an entrepreneur in the classical mould of the Hong Kong Chinese. Except, today he is upset.
Somebody needs to tell our government that.
I am not sure this is such a good idea for four reasons. First, our politicians would never understand, anyway. Third, they may just get so scared at the pace with which China is leaving us behind, they may give up competing even before the competition has begun. And fourth, they only need to look at some basic figures to know how much we lag behind. We all know the Chinese exports are much larger than ours but dismiss them as the success of sweat shops producing cheap toys.