India Is Behind China In Technology Leadership Race
China and India aspire to capture the leadership of the emerging nations. China's $ 11 trillion economy is almost five times that of India. But that masks the fact the China is way ahead of India in terms of technology in IT and telecom space. Since advances IT and telecom can impact growth of science and technology in other fields, India has miles to go before it seriously challenges Chinese leadership. China is emerging as a technology leader not only of the emerging nations but at the global scale.
In context of IT and telecom, differences are already visible. Due to its economic size, Chinese software industry is already bigger than that of India's which is one of the India's biggest achievement. More importantly China has created Baidu, Weibo and Renren which mimic functionalities of Google, Twitter and Facebook respectively. It has also developed an OS called Kylin. India is yet to make a mark here. China is home to global brands in PC, mobile phones and network equipment manufacturing e.g. Lenovo, Xaomi, Oppo, Huawei, ZTE etc. In these fields, visibility of Indian companies is limited to India. Though India has a pool of chip designers, chip fabrication is non existent in India. China is aiming to achieve global leadership in a decade and as many as 20 fabs units are under construction.
This will further consolidate its position as world's leading installer of solar photovoltaics. China has similar global ambition in Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and drones manufacturing. It is a force to reckon in each of these areas. India has no global visibility in these areas. This will further consolidate its position as global manufacturing hub as Robotics and automation increase the productivity leaving India on the sidelines. This is also getting reflected in Chinese ambition to have home grown driverless cars and Chinese companies e.g. Baidu, Geely, Changan etc are at the fore front of this. Chinese telecom giant i.e. Huawei is contributing to evolving 5G networks. India is likely to remain an implementer here
The gap is more stark in certain emerging technologies. China owns the world's fastest and the second fastest supercomputer. It has 160 machines in the list of 500 while India has 4. China demonstrated space based entanglement in the nascent QKD technology using its satellite, Micius which could enhance security of Internet. It is ahead of West in this area and India is nowhere in contention. Chinese scientists have also demonstrated a prototype quantum computer which may beat classical computers in future. China's COMPASS satellite system is contributing to writing standards for 6G networks.
Separately, China's efforts in fast trains, aircraft manufacture, development of aircraft carriers, electric cars, higher end telescope, genomics etc implies that it learns IT and controls systems in these areas etc. India lags China in these technologies and hence in the associated IT and control systems. Overall as per World Intellectual Property Organization, in 2015, China filed the most number of patents. India was at number 14.
China is ahead of India economically as it initiated economic reforms at least 1 decade earlier. Besides its current obsession of technological leadership will propel it further. Though India has slight advantage in growth rates, it needs more strategic thinking to catch up.
