Asymmetrical Information

Now, I'm really liking this book about India, Imagining India by Nandan Nilekani. It fills in a gap in my knowledge that I always wanted filled, but didn't really want first hand experience. Just not a big fan of Indian culture. But the possibilities that the book gives us a glimpse of is too powerful to ignore.

India and China both lead the world in human capital. Most people, even if most of them are uneducated at the moment. The problem is that while India focuses on a exporting service industry with domestic manufacturing, China is operating the other way, with exporting manufacturing industry and domestic service. And unlike India, China's population will soon reach a standstill as the one child policy will cripple its usable workforce while their seniors increase. India has the enviable position of having the baby boom later than the baby boomer population of the Western world, allowing them to ride the wave of development.

However, there is still the stigma of domestic vs. imports. Imports, by their very nature, are more desirable than domestic goods. That stereotype and branding is still there. While India's economy is driven towards cutthroat pricing and affordability, American brand cars still do well given their Import prestige and the lack of need to reduce their cars to bare essentials.

And yet, for a country that is still swooning over cars made by companies proven to not know the pulse of the people, their technology growth is astounding. While I understand people here have to support legacy systems of technology, India by their very nature can leapfrog ahead of us because of the relaxed need to support those systems. What I don't understand is why are we falling behind?

Is it because we don't have the population necessary for such a system? Or does that just mean that our marketing schemes fail in a world filled with skepticism? Are we all jaded and scared that we would rather stick with what we know? Perhaps. I think that in the end, we have to ask ourselves, how can we use this knowledge to benefit ourselves?