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Checkmate China

Want to have hakka noodles? Never. The world is seething with anger, at the sight and sound of anything 'Made in China' - a tag that defined life and living, until it spelt death!

By Namrata Kohli

The Ministry of Home Affairs just issued an advisory to stop the use of Zoom platform for video chat. The tik tok was previously (temporarily) banned. The world is waking up to a new movement and this time it is – "Anti-Made in China".
Once upon a time, anything and everything, from drugs, pharmaceuticals, to cheap smartphones and electronic equipment, plastics and metals, components and machines, apparels, vehicles, to even our Ganeshas and idols were China imported! That’s what defined our workplace, our households and to use the title of my favourite author Ellizabeth Gilbert we did “eat, pray, love” China products and may I add, live and finally die for (pun intended) coming a full circle!

Rely on someone and he will prove unreliable at some point. That is the big lesson we could learn from this historic episode, after what has unarguably been the biggest deception of the century. The question is can we harness our anger more constructively towards building a self sufficient India. Can our mantra now be to just "build, build and build". And here we must look at the Chinese ingenuity to erect a full hospital within days, not months or years, to cope up with sheer numbers of Covid 19 patients. That is the speed of response we need in today's world.
I am talking about indigenous capability – a "Make in India" at an unseen, unheard of, pace as well as scale. We are a nation of so many innovative builders, construction giants, techno-preneurs and can we work collaboratively to build a new India. Forget being constrained by mere niches, our current areas of interest and profitability, core competencies- can we look at stretching our capacities fully actualize self sufficiency. India should become self reliant and not be dependent on China for servicing its basic needs and wants. It may call for sometimes even sacrificing gains, but can we put the national gain over our personal gains with one guiding principle - Service to the Nation. 

The West is already looking at the East – Trump sought India’s help for anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and India responded in time, and so favourably. But now is the time, to seize the time – the opportunity, like never before. China’s loss can be India’s gain. Can we work towards self-sufficiency where we don’t have to knock at anyone’s doors, any longer.

Let’s come to a point where we don’t have to look out for some one. Instead, the world looks out for us.

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