I recall talking to an old hand at Li & Fung (they're the largest contract manufacturing company in the world) and he talks of the old days where Shenzhen was literally a village with no factories, no paved roads, and no electricity. When they wanted to manufacture textiles back then, they literally had to build a factory from the ground up.
It's true India has a lot of issues. But the good thing about investments like these is that it creates an opportunity for everyone involved to potentially make a change for the better. This could be the start of a new series of investment in manufacturing and the potential could batter enough heads together to fix issues like electricity reliability especially if every has a vested interest in making it work out.
I'm not saying it will definitely happen, but these are the sort of gamechangers that could disrupt the status quo for the better.
> It's true India has a lot of issues. But the good thing about investments like these is that it creates an opportunity for everyone involved to potentially make a change for the better. This could be the start of a new series of investment in manufacturing and the potential could batter enough heads together to fix issues like electricity reliability especially if every has a vested interest in making it work out.
In theory this is all true, but you really have to look at the facts on the ground and the specific situation. Tons of folks have agreed with what you're saying, and poured in investment, and the situation remains really challenging. It's not for a lack of effort — India has a huge potential labor force, it's well-situated for shipping to emerging markets (like China, parts of Africa, or India itself). And, as was pointed out above, it has a strong democratic tradition that makes it appealing to Western investment.
But that same democratic tradition makes it a very different situation from China. It can take literal decades to organize and satisfy all the constituencies involved for projects like a power station, factory complex, or highway construction. Labor constituencies are strong and organized enough to seriously push back against projects, and are often skeptical of foreign investment and "interference". Political parties even resort to violence to stop initiatives that they disagree with.
I'm not saying that it's going to be like this forever. As a US national of Indian origin, I would be happy if the the situation was different so that I could work with manufacturing partners in India. Having some cultural and legal ties to the country would give me an advantage that I don't have when working with partners in Shenzhen or Shanghai.
But it's really just not the case right now. By all means, I'm happy that this investment is happening, but I think we need to be realistic. For a manufacturing ecosystem to develop that looks anything like China does, it's going to be more on the scale of 50 years or more, not 5-10.
> Shenzhen was literally a village with no factories,
Indeed. The thing is that China has been investing like crazy in infrastructure projects which proved crucial to develop industry and its physical supply chain.
> no paved roads, and no electricity
And they built all that first.
I was in Shenzhen 10 years ago with an Indian colleague, its first trip to China. He was shocked when he saw that Shenzhen was a modern metropolis with large avenues as he was expecting something like in India...
>Li & Fung (they're the largest contract manufacturing company in the world)
May be they were, but I doubt they are the largest anymore. LF is has been selling asset after asset and their share price are now in 20 Yr's low. Basically they are a dying company.
It's true India has a lot of issues. But the good thing about investments like these is that it creates an opportunity for everyone involved to potentially make a change for the better. This could be the start of a new series of investment in manufacturing and the potential could batter enough heads together to fix issues like electricity reliability especially if every has a vested interest in making it work out.
I'm not saying it will definitely happen, but these are the sort of gamechangers that could disrupt the status quo for the better.