India Restricts Import of Laptop, Tablets and Servers 38
India restricted import of laptops, tablets, other personal computers and servers on Thursday, the local Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in an amendment, saying it will impose a licensing requirement for imports in a move that analysts say appears to be aimed at boosting the local manufacturing efforts.
Kind of expected step (Score:3)
India has been quite protectionist in other sectors, so this one was definitely coming..
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Well, given than India has signed the WTO "Information Technology Agreement", definitely.
Specially given the previous findings by WTO where India went "We did not understand what we have signed" having ruled on similar things, so India cannot even use that excuse this time..
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India has been quite protectionist in other sectors, so this one was definitely coming..
As are many other Asian nations which tends to hold them back in developing status.
Mercantilism/protectionism (Score:5, Insightful)
It's known by anyone who's studied mercantilism and protectionism that it never works.
There is a temporary benefit to the allegedly "protected" industry, provided of course that one actually exists. But this happens at the expense of the overall well-being of the economy as a whole.
Other sectors that are forced to pay more to buy locally produced but inferior and/or costlier goods must either reduce salaries and wages, or increase prices, or both, in order to cover the increased cost.
Eventually, those industries that rely heavily on the protected goods end up having to relocate where they can get those goods at market rates.
Then the "protected" industry tends to collapse.
How about instead put someone in charge who understands economics, understands the principle of comparative advantage, quit the stoooopid protectionist policies, and allow India to prosper, in part because of access to computers that are made where they can be made more cheaply and/or better.
Shhhh! (Score:2)
It sounds like you are quoting Economics In One Lesson [wikipedia.org]. The Justice Department considered bringing a guy up on terrorism charges for distributing excerpts from that.
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So I'm a "terrorist" because I believe in freedom rather than mercantilism or feudalism. Sounds about right nowadays.
But if I was channeling anyone it is more likely Adam Smith, who explained all of this a lot better than I can, [wikipedia.org] more than 200 years ago.
That's good for America! - ever drive a Tata? (Score:2, Interesting)
It's known by anyone who's studied mercantilism and protectionism that it never works.
There is a temporary benefit to the allegedly "protected" industry, provided of course that one actually exists. But this happens at the expense of the overall well-being of the economy as a whole.
Other sectors that are forced to pay more to buy locally produced but inferior and/or costlier goods must either reduce salaries and wages, or increase prices, or both, in order to cover the increased cost.
Eventually, those industries that rely heavily on the protected goods end up having to relocate where they can get those goods at market rates.
Then the "protected" industry tends to collapse.
I am happy about this. Make India Shitty Again! (MISA?) Then, their best and brightest will flee to the USA, UK, or any other place that'll have them. This also ensures the industries of the world's most populous countries are slightly less likely to topple ours.
...not how much THEY love India more than
I work with a LOT of racist Indians. They're Indian supremacists deep down and occasionally one will get too comfortable or too drunk and go off about how superior India is to the rest of the world.
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Perhaps you need to get to know them better? (Score:1, Troll)
Even if I agreed that many Indians are racist - which has not been the case in my experience - I would not advocate nor recommend racism as a cure for racism in the opposite direction. That just isn't how it works. Having said that, India's economic policies including this one have certainly hurt the nation's economy and have motivated many among the more skilled and talented Indians to emigrate.
Racism is everywhere. It's not unique to Indians. However, I've found that many are raised on it back home, especially toward other castes in India. Most Indians that come here are too smart to show it overtly...or maybe you just know nicer people than I do. Get to know them better. Ask them about Pakistan or other Indians they don't like. Ask them how they'd feel if a black man dated their daughter. They won't go full KKK on you, but watch them get uncomfortable at the thought exercise.
I've found
Re: Perhaps you need to get to know them better? (Score:2)
Re:That's good for America! - ever drive a Tata? (Score:5, Interesting)
I suspect a large part of what has kept India from becoming a global powerhouse is that all of the ethnic and cultural divides within the country keep it fragmented and lead towards government policies much like this that are counterproductive. They'll get there eventually, but it's not like every other country isn't doing its own brand of insensible idiocy from time to time.
But they are the world's most populous country! (Score:3, Insightful)
The only Indian person I know who I'd describe as racist in any way is probably more racist towards other Indians than anyone outside of the group. There are a lot of different cultures in India as well as the historic caste system. Not to say your own personal experiences didn't happen, but it's hardly unexpected. There's always some percentage of a population that has a nationalist streak and considers anyone else to be some kind of subhuman barbarian that will eventually be brought to heel. I suspect a large part of what has kept India from becoming a global powerhouse is that all of the ethnic and cultural divides within the country keep it fragmented and lead towards government policies much like this that are counterproductive. They'll get there eventually, but it's not like every other country isn't doing its own brand of insensible idiocy from time to time.
They have every advantage: good education system, huge number of fluent English speakers, young population, huge numbers. They should be a much bigger player on the world stage than they are. India and China opened up to foreign investment around the same time. Look how far China has come (even if you think they're on a massive decline...they still rose to great heights). India should be rivaling China now and surpassing Korea or Japan as well as Europe in most industries. They're not. It's actually
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India has a good education system, you say? Like from worthless degrees from fake colleges [slashdot.org] and schools banning science [slashdot.org]?
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I think the reason is related to this:
https://worldpopulationreview.... [worldpopul...review.com]
IQ by country:
China 104.10
India 76.24
(USA for reference: 97.43)
Now this is related to math, and math can be hard. The above *does not* mean that Chinese or Americans are smarter than Indians. There are plenty of Indians with extremely high IQs, who are brilliant, and much smarter than most Chinese (or whites, other Asians..etc). As well, there are other causes related to education, sanitation..etc. that can be improved that cause impact
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How do the "researchers" normalized the data so they can provide a "uniform" IQ score for each nation? How did they get a sample size of enough participants taking the same "uniform" test, though in different languages?
Do you even realize that you citing the article, and then making presumptions based on the article, only demonstrate your level of cluelessness and gullibility (among other things)?
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This is a well developed and mature field. Normalization of data is also well understood.
Here are a few links to get started.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
https://psychcentral.com/healt... [psychcentral.com]
There are also many ways that the tests are standardized so they are agnostic and work across languages and cultures (questions with colors, shapes of blocks..etc.). Though the results may be controversial and unacceptable to some maybe, IQ testing and analysis is generally a mature and well developed field.
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I would like to second takochan here.
India reluctantly participated in the PISA testing for school goers in 2009, they even tried hard to fudge the testing process by selecting supposedly bright kids to participate in this testing. They managed to finish at the 72nd position beating only Kyrgyzstan.
Of course, among the 1.4 billion one would expect to see very bright people too. And many of these folks are the ones who are able to get the hell out of their country.
Re: That's good for America! - ever drive a Tata? (Score:2)
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I know someday a Bollywood film with breakthrough...just TMK none has.
Satyajit Ray's Goopy and Bagha is pretty good ;-)
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0... [imdb.com]
Re:Mercantilism/protectionism (Score:5, Informative)
Yes, I live in Argentina and we have exactly this problem.
The available machines are underspec crap sold at 3x international prices, by importers that use the "special economic zone" in the south to import them, stick a "Made in Argentina" sticker, and sell it as a national product.
Good machines have exorbitant prices, enough that no one really buys them here. It's literally, without exaggerating, cheaper to fly to Miami and buy a computer at best buy, than to buy one locally.
Also: phones and computers are considered "personal items" so they don't pay import taxes when you carry them with you. They pay all sorts of taxes if you import them via formal channels. The law is written specifically so rich politicians can travel and come back with expensive toys and pay nothing, and the average person is paying more for a product imported by a friend of said politician, who is the only one with the "authorization" to import.
With the previous government the formal channel was simplified greatly and the limits were increased, so it was very easy to buy from Amazon. With the new government, limits have been put back in place, $1000 max per order (including shipping). The excuse was "importers are illegally importing using this method which is only for individuals". weird because an importer will actually pay less taxes and could deduct other taxes when importing via their method, so they'd be losing money by doing it this way. the reality is that bitchy importers don't want ANYONE to be able to import anything because people have long realized they're being scammed.
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> It's known by anyone who's studied mercantilism and protectionism that it never works.
It worked for Japan and China.
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In what sense? The last time Japan was able to practice mercantilism was WW2. It did not appear to work out well for them. China has yet to be in a position where it can apply mercantilistic concepts to advantage itself over poorer nations. You don't gain wealth by limiting imports while subsidizing exports. You gain wealth by exploiting foreign populations, seizing their wealth and bringing it back to your nation, while limiting imports and subsidizing exports (practicing a mercantilist rubric).
No, wh
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> But its not your economy that grows, its the industry you're willing to subsidize on a national scale.
Perhaps they are willing to make that tradeoff to become less dependent on China for PC's. It's their call.
Re:Mercantilism/protectionism (Score:4, Informative)
Preach on.
You forgot one other reason that this sort of policy is counterproductive: Protectionism reduces the necessity for the protected to innovate, leading to longer-term loss of market share.
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Funny, I just saw a video on how the super computer industry pretty much died in India sometime ago due to similar tactics previously.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
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For lack of upvote feature in dear old Slashdot, I'll just say thanks for that. Great rec.
Although... I came away from that video with the impression that India's bonehead protectionism was as much a result of its being denied free exchange with western companies as it was of some misguided Keynesian mandate to create employment. Hard to know who to blame here.
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The sad part is that it way too often work in the short run for those local business magnates who get governments do stuff like this.
In the longer run it is of course goes as you say, but so many people are shortsighted, specially in the business world.
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Other sectors that are forced to pay more to buy locally produced but inferior and/or costlier goods must either reduce salaries and wages, or increase prices, or both, in order to cover the increased cost. Eventually, those industries that rely heavily on the protected goods end up having to relocate where they can get those goods at market rates.
Need != Want.
These sectors want cheap as all fucking hell inputs, but if they need to do business in India guess what they'll being doing? Paying the higher costs. Computing is in pretty much every industry at this point. Taking your comment to the extreme, are you really tying to say that unless India allows cheap ass computers, that they will have a completely dead economy? Even the locals need to eat buddy. There will be economic activity in India regardless of their new rule.
How about instead put someone in charge who understands economics, understands the principle of comparative advantage, quit the stoooopid protectionist policies, and allow India to prosper, in part because of access to computers that are made where they can be made more cheaply and/or better.
Because they don't want
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The vast majority of India may be literate but is still uneducated. And they can easily be influenced to vote with these kinds of naive policies, rather than more sophisticated policies that involve an understanding of economics. And usually the people who are able to get themselves elected are the people who can speak in the language of this naive vote bank too. No wonder Indian parliament is filled with nincompoops, starting from Mr. Modi. And then there is big big corruption, which is an industry in itse
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It's known by anyone who's studied mercantilism and protectionism that it never works.
There is a temporary benefit to the allegedly "protected" industry, provided of course that one actually exists. But this happens at the expense of the overall well-being of the economy as a whole.
Other sectors that are forced to pay more to buy locally produced but inferior and/or costlier goods must either reduce salaries and wages, or increase prices, or both, in order to cover the increased cost.
Eventually, those industries that rely heavily on the protected goods end up having to relocate where they can get those goods at market rates.
Then the "protected" industry tends to collapse.
How about instead put someone in charge who understands economics, understands the principle of comparative advantage, quit the stoooopid protectionist policies, and allow India to prosper, in part because of access to computers that are made where they can be made more cheaply and/or better.
This, an industry must be competitive to survive. Australia tried desperately to hold onto a car manufacturing industry by making imported cars as expensive as Australian made ones. The Australian made ones never sold anywhere else because they were too expensive for American tastes and too American for the European high end market. The end result is that the industry suffered a long, suffering, state supported death until someone finally turned off the money support machine and it finally died the death th
This doesn’t work (Score:3)
Trade restrictions are first off immoral. Two humans have the right to trade with each other. Second, even if they were moral/ethical they don’t work.
Government tried this decades ago in Brazil... (Score:2)
Yeah (Score:2)
This will end well...
A penny-ante seller (Score:2)
India has been doing this for several decades and its domestic manufacturing has certainly improved: Five businesses (including Tata automobiles) are building an EV battery factory, mostly for export.
India is still a penny-ante seller in the global market: They don't export large quantities of anything, even though they make more movies than any other country. The Indian goods of note are the hand-made rugs, which take a family a couple of years to make. Or, the lowest-quality coal hand-mined by childr