If one wants to capsulize the most perturbing trend in contemporary life in two words, this author's vote is for `Unbridled Competition'. Even if you are not looking out, what hits you in the face unfailingly whenever you step into public domain (even if that is a group of two including yourself) is the strident and naked aggression displayed by competing forces in all spheres of life. Be it media/TV channels or e-tailers or political parties or educational institutions or your own family and friends. Just look up and you will see Bajirao Mastani is head to head with Dilwale; Sharukh Khan is jostling with Amir Khan always; Arnab Goswamy is crying hoarse competing with himself and Rajdeep Sardesai simultaneously. Ours is a society wherein parents and educational institutions bully children to compete ruthlessly, right from lemon and spoon race to IIT exams and torment youngsters if they do not live up to their (parents') own skewed expectations. If a school is perceived not to be aggressively competitive enough in its ways, parents have no compunction in pulling out the kids, even if the latter are really enjoying the school time. Very seldom does one get a reprieve from this onslaught and one cannot hide indoors from this menace since our belligerent TV channels compete to serve huge dollops of this during prime time at your own home and one's own kith and kin are avidly and unabashedly involved in this pursuit. So, instead of peeking around the corner apprehensively, this scribe, fortunately blessed with a huge dose of pragmatism, decided to leverage the meta-data in his own possession to see who is competing with whom, for what etc. Here goes.
Countries are competing heavily in the global arena, obviously. Russia, for instance is perking up of late with Putin, being a man heavily shorn of subtleties and readily abrasive, rattling the sabre rather violently at USA and the West in Ukraine first and then in Syria. While harking back to the pre-Gorbachev era when USSR was a super power could ostensibly be a reason, some collateral benefits might also be in the cross-hairs. One, with oil prices going down convulsively, Putin might have decided wisely to use surplus unsold stocks for his own air force and navy instead of selling below cost to disrespectful renegades, who have joined NATO with unseemly haste in the past decade or so. Two, while in Syria, he may also decide to bomb a few oil fields (allegedly producing or selling oil for the benefit of ISIS and also a few guiltless others, to be explained as collateral damage) out of existence in the middle east - that will mean reduced competition in oil in future. If, in the bargain, after the US led and Russia led groups cause adequate mutual destruction, they manage to scratch the offending ISIS ultimately, both competing sides can indulge in macho chest-thumping for having saved the world -- all those who suffered due to their own actions be damned!
India and China competed, till two decades ago, only in the area of exercising the loins of their men and women, resulting in population explosions in both countries. But the latter has since moved ahead in terms of economy, manufacturing etc thanks to its military-style do-or-die political structure (this is not referring to the spirit of the Chinese) embracing capitalistic communism (??) India, in the meantime, as the most lawlessly democratic of democracies, has been mired in its own native version of internecine squabbles, losing myriad opportunities to catch up on economic progress. But now, interestingly India wants to compete with China in the area of Bullet Trains. Not in manufacturing them but in running them wherever it can. True, India should logically focus on running all its ultra-slow trains without any accident for a decade before increasing the speed even marginally. But logic be damned, for some inexplicable reason it wants to leapfrog to three times the current peak speed of trains at a massive cost and with fervent prayers, hopes to run the bullet train effectively, aided by the Japanese. So, India's bullet train will compete (not literally) with China's and this competition will be born of the intense rivalry between Japan and China to set up the bullet train technology in India with the former winning the mandate. So, now China will seek to set up Bullet Trains in Pakistan, where they are more critically needed!
PM Modi has India's competitive position globally in his mind all the time. That is why he is competing with a lot of over-worked long-haul commercial pilots to log the most air miles in a year, in his attempt to make the world realise that India is seriously competing for global attention as well as a permanent seat in the UN Security Council. So that it can really begin believing that it has started competing with China in the world fora. Modi is also encouraging USA, Russia, Japan and European countries to compete fiercely in bringing those things to India which either they do not want in their own countries (like Nuclear Power Plants) or their military would rather manufacture at lower costs in other countries for re-export (like armaments, missiles etc). But, our PM cannot be blamed since he has very little political wiggle-room to legislate in favour of local manufacture, so going global seems to be the most productive alternative in order to manufacture locally. Undoubtedly, he is doing better business with foreign governments than in India, thanks to the hugely disruptive, suicidally inclined and pathetically breast-beating Congress party. That single reason is good enough to justify all his travels. And at the end of it, our military import bills might come down significantly in the next few years, even if nothing else is achieved. Which may mean we will not be in competition with Pakistan, but that should be fine.
What should baffle us in all this is this conundrum. China did not develop all the technology for things on its own; it reverse engineered most of it, learning from products of Western or Japanese manufacturers, be it the nuclear power plant or bullet train. Now, why cannot India compete with China by doing the same thing? Are we suddenly shy of something? Or we cannot even copy? But then we did complete a successful Mars mission. I get it, it is somewhat like Modi's travels. We can do things well, so long as we take off and go somewhere else but not in our own place.
Who else is competing? Flipcart, Snapdeal and the like. They are fighting viscerally to dole out filthy discounts on everything they sell. Such favours are not coming out of their own pockets but that is all the money investors have sunk, in the fond hope that they could see some profits a few centuries later. But, then the primary lure for the fiercely competitive investors is not the immediate profitability of the companies itself, but the truly bloated valuations done in the minds of hotshot financial wizards, who are very good at playing with others' money. Who are they competing with? Each other and all the brick-and-mortar retailers. While many of us might still want to visit a store, touch and feel before buying whatever, there is a horde of people, who spend oodles of time online, whether at home or at work. Actually, it is practically impossible to differentiate between this tribe's work time and shopping time because it is all done on the same device. And these people are vying with each other to avail more cashbacks, coupons, freebies from the etailers, probably buying things which they may not need or would not actually buy at a brick-and-mortar store.
Then there comes the list of competitive businesses which have not managed to damage the rivals seriously but have not done badly themselves despite all the newfangled competition. Take, for example, Cafe Coffee Day, Dominos, McDonalds and the like. Their arrival on the scene and growth has not changed the turf for small and big Udupi joints. Actually Adyar Ananda Bhavan has flourished in the last twenty years, precisely the period of growth for the fast food giants. All those grocery chains and supermarkets have not been able to obliterate the neighbourhood Kirana stores, which seem to be as determined and well-built for endurance, like the indomitable cockroach. My mother still calls one of these stores for all her groceries, the same way it has been for over four decades and things get delivered better and faster (managed now by the next generation's youngsters) than any online grocery store. This has transpired, principally because each segment has predominantly catered to its own clientele with the customers crisscrossing periodically from one to the other without any serious issue. Sure, some very small Kirana stores might have suffered, but the casualty may not have been humongous. My dear wife is raising that questioning eyebrow again and asking `how do you know'? I don't, am just guessing - that is my usual muffled answer, when the query comes from that particular incisive source!!
Countries are competing heavily in the global arena, obviously. Russia, for instance is perking up of late with Putin, being a man heavily shorn of subtleties and readily abrasive, rattling the sabre rather violently at USA and the West in Ukraine first and then in Syria. While harking back to the pre-Gorbachev era when USSR was a super power could ostensibly be a reason, some collateral benefits might also be in the cross-hairs. One, with oil prices going down convulsively, Putin might have decided wisely to use surplus unsold stocks for his own air force and navy instead of selling below cost to disrespectful renegades, who have joined NATO with unseemly haste in the past decade or so. Two, while in Syria, he may also decide to bomb a few oil fields (allegedly producing or selling oil for the benefit of ISIS and also a few guiltless others, to be explained as collateral damage) out of existence in the middle east - that will mean reduced competition in oil in future. If, in the bargain, after the US led and Russia led groups cause adequate mutual destruction, they manage to scratch the offending ISIS ultimately, both competing sides can indulge in macho chest-thumping for having saved the world -- all those who suffered due to their own actions be damned!
India and China competed, till two decades ago, only in the area of exercising the loins of their men and women, resulting in population explosions in both countries. But the latter has since moved ahead in terms of economy, manufacturing etc thanks to its military-style do-or-die political structure (this is not referring to the spirit of the Chinese) embracing capitalistic communism (??) India, in the meantime, as the most lawlessly democratic of democracies, has been mired in its own native version of internecine squabbles, losing myriad opportunities to catch up on economic progress. But now, interestingly India wants to compete with China in the area of Bullet Trains. Not in manufacturing them but in running them wherever it can. True, India should logically focus on running all its ultra-slow trains without any accident for a decade before increasing the speed even marginally. But logic be damned, for some inexplicable reason it wants to leapfrog to three times the current peak speed of trains at a massive cost and with fervent prayers, hopes to run the bullet train effectively, aided by the Japanese. So, India's bullet train will compete (not literally) with China's and this competition will be born of the intense rivalry between Japan and China to set up the bullet train technology in India with the former winning the mandate. So, now China will seek to set up Bullet Trains in Pakistan, where they are more critically needed!
PM Modi has India's competitive position globally in his mind all the time. That is why he is competing with a lot of over-worked long-haul commercial pilots to log the most air miles in a year, in his attempt to make the world realise that India is seriously competing for global attention as well as a permanent seat in the UN Security Council. So that it can really begin believing that it has started competing with China in the world fora. Modi is also encouraging USA, Russia, Japan and European countries to compete fiercely in bringing those things to India which either they do not want in their own countries (like Nuclear Power Plants) or their military would rather manufacture at lower costs in other countries for re-export (like armaments, missiles etc). But, our PM cannot be blamed since he has very little political wiggle-room to legislate in favour of local manufacture, so going global seems to be the most productive alternative in order to manufacture locally. Undoubtedly, he is doing better business with foreign governments than in India, thanks to the hugely disruptive, suicidally inclined and pathetically breast-beating Congress party. That single reason is good enough to justify all his travels. And at the end of it, our military import bills might come down significantly in the next few years, even if nothing else is achieved. Which may mean we will not be in competition with Pakistan, but that should be fine.
What should baffle us in all this is this conundrum. China did not develop all the technology for things on its own; it reverse engineered most of it, learning from products of Western or Japanese manufacturers, be it the nuclear power plant or bullet train. Now, why cannot India compete with China by doing the same thing? Are we suddenly shy of something? Or we cannot even copy? But then we did complete a successful Mars mission. I get it, it is somewhat like Modi's travels. We can do things well, so long as we take off and go somewhere else but not in our own place.
Who else is competing? Flipcart, Snapdeal and the like. They are fighting viscerally to dole out filthy discounts on everything they sell. Such favours are not coming out of their own pockets but that is all the money investors have sunk, in the fond hope that they could see some profits a few centuries later. But, then the primary lure for the fiercely competitive investors is not the immediate profitability of the companies itself, but the truly bloated valuations done in the minds of hotshot financial wizards, who are very good at playing with others' money. Who are they competing with? Each other and all the brick-and-mortar retailers. While many of us might still want to visit a store, touch and feel before buying whatever, there is a horde of people, who spend oodles of time online, whether at home or at work. Actually, it is practically impossible to differentiate between this tribe's work time and shopping time because it is all done on the same device. And these people are vying with each other to avail more cashbacks, coupons, freebies from the etailers, probably buying things which they may not need or would not actually buy at a brick-and-mortar store.
Then there comes the list of competitive businesses which have not managed to damage the rivals seriously but have not done badly themselves despite all the newfangled competition. Take, for example, Cafe Coffee Day, Dominos, McDonalds and the like. Their arrival on the scene and growth has not changed the turf for small and big Udupi joints. Actually Adyar Ananda Bhavan has flourished in the last twenty years, precisely the period of growth for the fast food giants. All those grocery chains and supermarkets have not been able to obliterate the neighbourhood Kirana stores, which seem to be as determined and well-built for endurance, like the indomitable cockroach. My mother still calls one of these stores for all her groceries, the same way it has been for over four decades and things get delivered better and faster (managed now by the next generation's youngsters) than any online grocery store. This has transpired, principally because each segment has predominantly catered to its own clientele with the customers crisscrossing periodically from one to the other without any serious issue. Sure, some very small Kirana stores might have suffered, but the casualty may not have been humongous. My dear wife is raising that questioning eyebrow again and asking `how do you know'? I don't, am just guessing - that is my usual muffled answer, when the query comes from that particular incisive source!!
5 comments:
As incisive and scathing as it can be! Sharing it with my friends on FB. Not sure if they read it. But hopefully they do.
Varad-san,
Poignant one. I am very used to apparently light weight laced with subtle humor ending with a half serious note write ups of yours. So it took a while to digest. Oh yes, it is true and scary.
regards
madhu
Lakshmi Balu from Madras via email: As always thoroughly enjoyed this one too. More serious than your usual light-hearted ones but well worth thinking about. Makes me think about things that I would normally not think about.
You are right. It's fierce competition everywhere. I feel that big malls have eaten away many small ones, especially in countries like Gulf. Here, the prices offered by malls are very aggressive and far cheaper than the smaller shops. In India, it's the reverse. AC malls like Spencers charge MRP and they don't pass on the benefits to customers. May be one reason why Kirana shops still have business in India.
Not the usual Varad fare, as astutely observed by Madhu Parthasarathy and appreciatively approbated by Lakshmi Balu. Wodehouse has put on the attire of Maugham!? For me it was a pleasant surprise - I thought it is a Chinese restaurant and I would get Schezuan Noodles. I get Hyderabadi Briyani with a tangy Gravy, instead. Next time onwards, say, Hurrah!, it will be a more like a blind date - I may get to savour the romantic Sushi or the valiant Taco or that irresistible Pizza Margherita or the versatile Nasi Campur, or the treacherous Champorado. What dish will you serve next, Monsieur? We are all waiting with bated breath to gobble up.
Ah! Competition is a fact of Life. Remember how You,me or any one of us, had to beat all those frantic Sperm Brothers of ours in the race to get conceived, at the very Start of this Life. So, Relax.
Yes, another thought: While we individuals can be forgiving, selfless and loving, Nations as a congregation of Men and Women are usually, ruthlessly egocentric. Let us live with it while all the time trying to alter it for the better. your Blog is one such attempt and I appreciate it.
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