Hacker News Reader

Comment by dragonsh | Hacker News Reader

India theoretically could have taken advantage of trade war. But for that to happen it needed 3 things:

1. Skilled workforce

2. Infrastructure

3. Rule of law

Present India lacks all 3 in one or the other way and indeed moving towards authoritarian government with shutting down internet at will, arresting people for post critical of govt or it's ministers [1] [2] [3] [4]. Looking at what's happening with economy, fudging economic numbers, large young unemployed youth, faltering manufacturing sector. These are ticking timebomb.

Obviously the major beneficiary has been south east Asia, especially Vietnam. Not sure India can take advantage.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_India

[2] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-46631911

[3] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/13/indian-police-...

[4] https://m.hindustantimes.com/india-news/arrested-over-a-face...

View on HN

Those problems are nothing new. India doesn't have an entirely literate population which contributes to lack of skilled workforce and slow pace of Infrastructure building. Add to it the democratic nature(unlike China) of politics which stalls mega projects for years.

As for the rule of law, India is severely underpoliced[1].

While the current Government is indeed authoritarian, it's a major improvement over the previous ones when we include national security in the picture. Also, the region where Internet was shut is Kashmir, which is heavily infested with Pakistan-backed terrorism.

1. https://www.quora.com/Why-is-India-underpoliced-even-after-b...

If people of India wants a authoritarian government they have one.

Like Trump uses China to gather support from population and disregard the economic reality, current Indian govt uses Pakistan. These are just political moves. It results in loss of average citizens freedom and affect economics, but help the incumbents as history shows.

>Obviously the major beneficiary has been south east Asia, especially Vietnam. Not sure India can take advantage.

They need to get rid of income taxes and GST.

Honestly, if they do not do this now - there will be nothing to tax in future.

Permits, licenses also need to be removed barring some sectors which include healthcare, education and food.

Also land is a big problem in India, government should overtake all the land and lease it out for good use and not allow any person or entity to own land. People seeing land as a store house of value is really bad thing!

Get done with import duties because this is making local manufacturers weak (use indigenous shoddy tools you end up with shoddy output), remove unfriendly rules which prevent foreign players from selling their expertise here.

Annex private gold holdings, it will be next big thing after demonetization. It will make the citizens more equal.

People should know if there is anyway to get rich is not by hoarding land or putting money in bank, but by starting business.

> People should know if there is anyway to get rich is not by hoarding land or putting money in bank, but by starting business.

India still has a long marathon ahead, might take a decade or two to just let people start business easily [1]. When it cannot even help keeping existing business open, its wishful thinking to create an environment to flourish business.

But don't worry economy is not important factor in Indian politics, so its alright the incumbents will continue to pursue other agendas especially the one which secure them vote bank based on divisive politics.

[1] https://www.doingbusiness.org/content/dam/doingBusiness/coun...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com