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Software, they said, was where India was ahead of China. But Tarun Khanna has pointed to other industries.
Well, guess what---they're barking up the wrong tree, it seems. The industries (if that's the word) that China really ought to envy, as Harvard B-school professor of strategy, no less, Tarun Khanna has outlined recently are advertising, film-making, publishing and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). What, what, what and what? You read those right. Now that the word's out, the Chinese of course will have to send another set of spies in---trained in a different set of applicative skills. Er-uhmm... trained? By government agencies? Well then, wish them luck. Because the factor that is common to the four industries is part of the title of the forth: non-governmental. Advertising, at least the finer parts of it, is an industry that has long had a mind of its own---taken neither from the West nor flagellated into shape by state control. And it retains some originality even against ever-increasing pressures. Film-making, of course, is in a creative league of its own---an industry that thrives on market appreciation, with its market defined in terms much broader than most other Indian industries. Publishing, while less flamboyant (and perhaps bold) in addressing the intellectual challenges of a country as unique as India, is another industry that could potentially work global wonders---despite the predominant language of operation being an 'import' once upon a time (boy, has India been a lucky early globalizer). NGOs are NGOs. Aggressively non-governmental. India would be utterly dull without them. Good. But even if the Chinese did manage to find the talent to track all these, where would they begin? All four are way too haphazard (and that's the fun part) to make for five-minute-read executive summaries, let alone locate the 'source code' or whatever. It's a task that could drive just about anybody crazy, information boom or no boom. Anyhow, even spies get lucky (as 007 would attest). Imagine the implausible dream sequence of a Chinese undercover agent barging onto the 'item number' sets of a dancer called Lucy Bartholomew, following her into the shower to get her soap brand preference, and gatecrashing a website to find out where it's all headed---only to discover how much more independence is needed.
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Remember
stories of Chinese spooks prowling around Bangalore to locate the secret
of India's information technology success ("Simple, find out what
language they speak..." some hacks quipped)?