The Cappuccino that Is India

Posted by Reading Time: 2 minutes

May 4 – An Indian investment banker recently likened India to a cappuccino, aptly summerizing the workings of the south asian country. “There's coffee at the bottom and lots of froth at the top,'' he says. “It can take a while to get to the coffee. People want more coffee and less froth.'' Dilip Parameswaran, head of Asia credit research at Calyon, Credit Agricole SA's investment-banking unit, told Bloomberg. Parameswaran's analygy of the coffee as actual growth and the foam as the bureaucracy is apt to summerise India's growth, wherein its might take an especially long time to get to the bottom of things.

In a well written article on India, the pace of development and reasons for its slower growth as compared with China Bloomberg contemplates and contrasts, the advantages and disadvantage of the hare and tortoise and finds that the tortoise might just win this race too. The story says, the idea of China as the hare and India as the tortoise has been mentioned before. Yet operating in China's shadow is lighting a fire under officials in New Delhi. The question is whether India's infamous bureaucracy is getting the message quickly enough.

To back up theory, the article touches on reasons why India might just win the race in the long run. While India's showcase citiies of Mumbai, New Delhi and Bagalore might not be as impressive as Beijing or Shanghai, its rural areas are better developed that China's. The Indian government spends millions annually upgrading, and making sure every village is connected to a water and electricity, telepone and internet supply.

India also has the advantage of innovation over imitation. Wherein, Indianfirms prefer to create their own products and technology, the Chinese model is more based on replicating.