Opinion - Letters to the Editor   

India and China

Sir, — The article by Subramanian Swamy, ``The economy: is China ahead?'' (Jan. 14) was revealing. He is critical about the assessment of the Indian and Chinese economy by Amartya Sen and others. The question is if the Chinese economy is so inefficient, then why are global investors investing more in China than in India, in spite of the communist regime in China and the so-called market-friendly democracy in India? Have they not taken into consideration all these basics?

Dr. Swamy's stand is that China does not comply with the U.N. standard on statistics and China measures the paddy in a different way. How are our statistics compiled? If we examine a few village crop records of Dr. Swamy's own constituency, it would reveal that banana is cultivated in 20 acres in that village which would not have even seen banana. This is reflected in the national statistics.

The aim of Dr. Sen and others is not to portray the Indian economy as weak or to give a false picture about any economy, but rather to help the economy to rectify its defects and improve the approach to development.

S. Kasimayan,
New Delhi

* * *

Sir, — I guess that Dr. Subramanian Swamy's article has put a big sign of diffidence on the purported buoyancy of the Chinese economy. The overstated rate of growth, non-compliance of the U.N. standards on national statistics, bloating NPAs, unending sweat shops where labourers are exploited and last but not least, public sector enterprises which are allowed to milk the banks to the last drop of blood, all reflect a cautious approach which investors need to chart while considering China as an investment destination.

Ranganathan Srinivasan,
Jaipur

* * *

Sir, — I heard Amartya Sen's talk in the plenary of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas. It was quite shocking that he should call Panini an Afghan when such a designation did not exist during that time. Should we describe Akbar and Porus as Pakistanis and Alexander a Yugoslav?

G.S. Iyer,
New Delhi

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