China model inspires Niti Aayog’s three-year economic action plan

muscle but also highlights how India comes up short.

China may not be the most neighbourly neighbour – Doklam standoff is in its third month — but it is the world’s second biggest economy and has a lot going for it. From special economic zones to job creation, from world-class universities to modern cities, from communication technology to soft power – the Niti Aayog, which is chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has taken note of it all.

The agenda underscores the need to “replicate” China’s very large special economic zones along its coasts by developing two employment zones on India’s east and west coasts.

For Make in India to succeed, the country would have to manufacture for a global market, as China and some other countries do. But for that, Indian products have to be competitive, it says. The Shenzhen model of urbanisation could inspire smart cities. Shenzhen used to be an unremarkable town until 40 years ago but an urbanisation push transformed it into a megacity, one of China’s wealthiest. Highlighting the role exports play in increasing productivity, employment and wages, the document says there are only four developing countries — China, Taiwan, Singapore and South Korea — that “successfully transformed themselves” within three decades. But China, with a population similar to India, is most comparable.

“In 2015, the world merchandise exports amounted to $16.6 trillion. China accounted for 13.72% of these exports and India only 1.67%,” says the report. The Aayog’s governing council, including Modi, many Union ministers and chief ministers, deliberated on the draft document in April.