அமெரிக்காவில்....!

Rahul Gandhi - USA....!

I have said this a couple of times: if you look at global production in the '40s, '50s, and '60s, you would find that it was dominated by the United States and the West. If you wanted to buy a car in the '60s, you would want to buy an American car; if you wanted to buy a refrigerator, you would want to buy an American refrigerator. The West and India handed over that role to China.

The reality is that the cellphone you are using, the shirts you are wearing, and the shoes you are wearing—most of them are not made in the United States, Europe, or India; they are made in China.

Countries can engage in two activities: organizing production and organizing consumption. China organizes production, while the West, India, and America organize consumption. China also organizes consumption. Uber organizes consumption, Ola in India organizes consumption, Foxconn organizes production, and Elon Musk organizes production. The components of his cars, including batteries and motors, come from China. The problem is that a large country like India cannot avoid organizing production. It just won’t work because you won’t create the number of jobs you need.

That’s what’s happening. In India, there is an IT industry that employs 1-3% of the population, but if you are a young person seeking a blue-collar job, it's not available. The only way to create those jobs is to start producing. India has stopped producing. If you look at our top businesses—Adani, Ambani, and the big players—they don’t produce. That’s the real issue. There is a whole set of structures that don't allow production. For example, GST is anti-production. You need to completely rethink your approach.

We have District Collectors; we should have District Producers. We need to focus on increasing production. We are not doing that because large monopolies prefer not to produce. It’s much more convenient to sell Chinese products. You make a profit from it, you don’t have to deal with the complexities of production, labour issues, or conflicts that production entails. And you make a significant amount of money, but it’s not sustainable. You can see social tensions rising and unemployment increasing. That’s what India needs to address. 

: Shri @RahulGandhi at the Georgetown University

 Washington DC