How can we decline the use of Chinese Products- India also struggling to balance the Trade Deficit. #BanChineseGoods

The "India - China border clashes" raised an issue once again, Should we Boycott Chinese Products??

There are enormous amount of protest we raised and none of them we took it seriously. 

The catch is, we must take it in a positive way, and learn from China. Now 

what is the Learning??

China make more exports rather than imports. They mostly depends on their own products. Either they made a copy of Western product or they invent their own technology like Tiktok.

The most common example of not using western product is Facebook and Google Chrome. China didn't allowed official entry of these products. They have their own social networking product and have their own browser.

But obviously they are using apple though it's an western product and Chinese Govt allowed Apple to built their manufacturing site and also selling. Even you will see apple products sold in India are made in China designed in US (design location, instance-California).

Many people not aware of the fact how much we are using the chinese product. The extent of using the chinese product is more than you can ever think of. From  very small to large products which includes many digital products.

What type of products should we boycott??

The first and foremost things one should remember that if you want to boycott, boycott  the product on the first instance when we know that the product is about to launch.

Why is So??

Every business is linked to many life, many people run their house hold because of that company. Based on the data china based mobile company have more than 30% of market share in India which is the highest than any other. So now immediate boycotting means 30% of the mobile user who bought this year should stop using their products. Which is not again possible and its completely hypothetical.

This is one common example which is very easy to understand. There are many other numerous examples too. If you look at your household products you will get to know. Every cheap plastic products we used are either made in China or their raw materials imported from China.

So immediate boycotting will not solve the issue. As it will directly impact life of those who are connected with this company directly (employer) indirectly (consumer- Chinese product user).

Coming to digital products, since those are related to sensitive private data, we can restrict ourselves to it. We have truecaller, Mozilla, Tiktok we should restrict where data breach is possible.

Why it is difficult to immediate boycott of chinese products?

Import of Pharmaceuticals Raw Materials:  Many core industries depends on China and Raw materials and also too some extent on the ready made products. One of them is Pharmaceuticals. Currently some key ingredients for antibiotics and vitamins are not manufactured in India which is Fermentation Based API (Active Pharmaceuticals Ingredients). It was on news recently that Pharmaceuticals industry of $163 billion are struggling to procure raw materials from the neighboring country China. The fact that OUR India is struggling is because we solely depends on China for raw materials. According to confederation of Indian Industry India imports $249 billion of key ingredients (FY19).

Important solution would be Diversification of the sources but the cost of the raw materials would be high in this case, which would definitely increase the cost of the products.

Import of Electronic and electrical Goods: Electrical parts or electronic products like smartphones, computers occupy the major portion in the import bill. Almost 88% of the components used in mobile handsets are imported from the China. PCB (Printed circuit board) used in electrical/electronic equipments, mobile, laptops, computers, gadgets are imported from China because of the low price.

Import of Medical Devices: Medical Technology market is a multi trillion dollar market globally and India is growing rapidly in this domain from last few years. While it is at present crossed 40,000 crore market , India depends 80% on the import which means India depends on 32000 crore of imports. Which means being a country of 130 crore, 80% we are dependent on imports & we don't have any manufacturing capability. 

                            

Out of these 80% the majority we depends on China. Hence Govt should encourage domestic bodies to manufacture device in India rather that imports and that's too mostly from China.

Pressure sensors, solenoid valves used in Ventilators are imported from China.

Import of Auto parts: As the government pushes to manufacture electric vehicles, there is a immediate increase in the electric cell from the China. Being the third automobile market in the world, India import 10 times more auto parts components (Electric vehicles components & battery Technology) from China than what they exports which is 27% of the overall auto parts imports. [News published in India Times Mar 15, 2019].

Steering followed by electrical, interiors and engine components are also the major chunks of imports from China. In Electrical Vehicle components, china produces 60% of global volume.

Import of Solar panel equipment :According to the article published by Saur Energy International,    

India imported $1.18 billion from China between April and December (FY 2019-2020). The solar panels or modules imported from China is of lower cost/ cheaper compared to manufactured by the domestic bodies as told by Union Minister of New and Renewable energy R.K Singh. 

While the Good news is that, there is a decline in the import from April 2019 to April 2020 to minimize the trade deficit.

What could be done to actually decrease the import from China.

1. India should diversify the import portfolio and not to be relied on one country specifically.

2. More encouragement should be given to the domestic industry to manufacture the product here such as Printed Circuit boards, ventilators components, Electric Vehicle equipment etc. and for that proper Technology need to be developed in India to minimize the cost of production. Technology transfer is the way and additionally India should give rebate on the taxation charged on those company initially.

3. There is also a lack of flexiblity in labour laws,high cost and low available of land and high cost of electricity is also one of the major draw backs. Some states like UP, Mp have some relaxation on Labour Laws and is followed by Karnataka to some extent.

An example to show why the cost of Production in India is High?

According to Vinod Sharma, MD of Deki Electronics--

Cost of  shipment of cable from Sanghai to Mumbai. distance 5,029 km is Rs4/Kg.

Cost of  shipment of cable from Mumbai to Noida factory distance 1400 km is 14/Kg.

This is one of the instances there are more instances and in multiple sectors which have added to the fact that why Indian Manufacturing sectors face problems. Every possible areas to be fixed and we need to move strategically prior to boycott the chinese products. Our role being a citizen is also played an important role to fix this issue. We need to endorse more Indian products. Industry must ensure good incentive to the retail shop as well as Wholesaler so that they themselves become enthusiast to promote Indian Products.Like Govt and Industries, role of Indian Customer purchasing mentality will also play an equally vital role in this Movement to make it success.

#ChineseGoodsBoyCottMovement.