India is a nation of festivals. One such festival is
Deepavali or Diwali. Its celebrated across the India and is one of the major
celebration throughout the country. This is the occasion when Lord Rama
returned home after 14 years of exile. Back at Ayodhya, his people celebrated
his return as a festival by lighting Diya or Deepa in the streets to welcome
their beloved King. And the tradition was carried on for generations.
Festivals equals celebration which is also equal to the expenditures. People
celebrate with open hands. They spend money on these occasion. As I said
earlier the return was marked with lighting Diya/Deepa/Lamp, today we often see
electric lamps replacing them.
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| Made In China Crackers |
Festivals are celebrated on the name of Deities.
We bring home the idols of Gods during festivals. Also we bring home Pooja
materials like agarbattis etc. We spend lot of money I these purchases, as we
see this as one time occasion of the year. But have you given a thought to
where is this money, from your wallet, is reaching? Who is profiting from it?
And who is getting stronger?
Aatmanirbhar Bharat, a self sustain nation scheme, is heavily promoted on the
social media. You can hear people talking about it, across country. But the
reality is different. People are always ready to compromise. And the same
attitude is seen during these festivals.
This article isn’t for stopping you from celebrating Diwali this year. But the
scope is to make you understand the cash flows that in-turn might affect our
economy.
Well many of you now might have understood that we are talking about China. All
the things, including the things I mentioned earlier, are made in China and are
sold in India. When it come to selling, there is trade. Lets discuss about it
first.
China - India trade :
In this article, we will just focus the topic to this year.
Not less nor more, Only 2021. After the Galwan Valley, we saw several boycott
against China. But China still stands as Supreme in terms of Consumer Products.
Even after all actions against China, this year China have had $90 billion
worth trade with India. And its no surprise that, it will reach $100 billion
till the end of this year. The factual that I am going to share to you now
might upset you. Out of $90 billion trade, China owns $68 billion value and the
rest is owned by India. That means, for $90 billion trade to happen, China has
exported $68 billion value products to India, while India has exported only $22
billion to China.
The difference is $46 billion, which is 2 times the share of Indian Export. And this difference in economy is called as Trade Deficit. Cut short, Trade Deficit indicates that, in a trade between two people, the one who has more deficit has less negotiation power. Well in this case, India's trade deficit with China is much larger. You can understand how bad position it creates for us.
This digital article you are reading, needs a medium to communicate and all
these mediums are majorly dominated by Chinese Manufacturers. Be it Phone
,Tablet, Laptop etc. Each device has at least one part or whole part
manufactured in China.
Lets only focus our attention to Diwali Season.
China makes 1000 crore rupees of trade, just from the Lights you use to decorate your house during Diwali. Other than this, China also has a control over the god idols. This is what our Finance minister is concerned about. All these data are in news but the bitter truth is it may not be reaching you.
In India, we are seeing a huge crack down on the manufacturing of fire crackers. Of course, environment comes first. Lesser you pollute more safer for next generation to celebrate Diwali in their time period. But have these laws been upheld in right manner ? No. Firecrackers are imported illegally from China and are sold. Like cherry on top, they harm our environment with various chemicals that are harmful.
China makes trade of 3500 crore from the gifts that you gift to your loved ones. Maximum sale of these ( about 70-80% ) happen during Diwali. From toys to electronics, every things are labelled as Made in China.
Now the question is, why we import so much from China ?
Answer is in one line: “Low quality. Cheap products”
The quality is so poor. Just like a famous proverb 'defective one will work
till evening and the good one can work till moon'
There is no consistency in quality. When you get 10 lighting's at the cost of 2
lighting’s, you blindly buy them. “What if 5 of them are defective, we still 5
more working”. We Indians always have such mentality.
And that is where China fished out our Pockets, thus making a profitable deal.
Due to this cheap demand our trades and shopkeepers become more dependent on
import from China. India has the finest artisan skill of making the idols,
which are evident during Ganesh Chaturthi and Navaratri. But they come with
high prices. China sees this as an opportunity. It makes idols, more shinier by
keeping inside hollow, and sell them at cheap prices. Some of them might turn
defective too. But money is always spent on buying cheap products. And this
money goes to China.
And after these money goes to China, you know how it is utilized. I don’t need to brief you over that area of affairs. But this might become a danger to our country’s growth. If we have to stop this then there is only one solution, and that is spreading awareness awareness among people
Sharing these kind of factual articles, might give them some knowledge on what
they are buying, how a big market is created.
Most of you must be think and might ask as well. Why Am I writing articles on
such topics? Does it change anything? If
it changes, why not in all previous years? Does it change anything?
Is Aatmanirbhar Bharat, a necessity? Or is it just a fictional hypothesis ?
Well, there is no personal profit from writing these. But I really feel that would be helpful for Country. This work needs a collective approach and this can happen only when each one of the country men join hands. And for that basic knowledge is very important.
I will share some examples to showcase how this change is really required and how change is happening inside India.
In Delhi alone, the sale of idols from China was 80% till last year. And later it was dropped to 10%.
Even in Gujrat, sale of China products have been reduced by 20% in one year.
Deepak Singhal from Meerut, who owns a gift manufacturing business, says
“We are expecting 25% increase in gift sales this year. The product may be 10-15% costlier
But we give guarantee of product.”
These type of customer oriented market and Aatmanirbhar
Bharat sentiment being high, the change has already hit the market. All we need
is a push from our side.
If more and more awareness is reached to the people, through
mediums like this article, we may even see jump in this.
I agree that this road is long and difficult.
All these gift, toys etc are just 1-2% of China’s total export in India. Bigger
share is Electronics, Nuclear Reactors, Steel and Chemicals. China, right now,
rules Electronics Market by $20 billion, Nuclear reactors by $10 billion, Steel
Manufacturing & Export by $2 billion and Chemicals export by $6 billion.
The keypad I am using to type this article, is made in China. In fact, you, me & whole of India uses products from China in their day-to-day activities. But this doesn’t mean change cant happen. Of course will happen. Even though road is long, a single spark in the engine can lead you to the end and so is the Change. And to bring this change we need a behavior and attitude that is purely based on the knowledge.
When you go for Diwali shopping, keep these things in your mind. I am sure you will take the right decision.
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