India bans Chinese power equipment imports; is it self-damaging hostility???

According to some Chinese experts, India’s discouraging behavior towards power equipment imports from China seems to be like a self-destructive opposition against its major trading partner after the boiling border tensions.

During a virtual press conference Mr. R K Singh, India’s Power Minister announced that as of the border dispute, the nation will provide no allowance for power equipment supply from China.  He also added that “There could be malware or Trojan horse in those which they can activate remotely.”

The nation is massively dependent on Chinese manufactured products for its power equipment imports. according to Mr. Singh, China-made imports accounted for 2.81 billion dollars or 21 thousand crore rupees out of India’s total power equipment imports of 71 thousand crore rupees.

Dongfang Electric, Shanghai Electric, Harbin Electric, and Sifang automation are the Chinese power network operators or equipment suppliers which got affected by India’s massive move.

The nation’s great move somehow justifies itself when the perspective of “local over global” comes into the picture. With the reign of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, there rose a wing of “Make in India” and Chinese offerings somehow underpin this attempt of India. It proved to be a stumbling block lying between the stairs of self-dependency.  

Some analysts analyzed the situation which will follow after the decision implementation. It becomes very clear that India’s native push towards opting for the local alternatives will result to put a heavier burden on the economy, both environmentally and financially as the local alternatives are meant to be more expensive yet less environmentally friendly to Chinese equipment and parts. India portrays its dependency on Chinese companies for the sales of FGD i.e. Fuel Gas Desulphurisation units and its installation at Indian coal-fired plants enables reduced sulphur dioxide emissions.

The Director-General of the Beijing based Information Confirmation Alliance, Mr. Xiang Ligang pointed that how India is a large developing country that possesses a huge demand for electricity and on the other hand China has secured a leading position of the world power equipment which includes power grid construction and extra-high voltage systems too. He also mentioned, “In this case, it is very unlikely for India to catch up or even replace Chinese equipment any time soon – not even 3 – 5 years.” He also chose to pull out a comparative fact by saying “the West can’t compete with China in this sector because their costs are too high and their efficiency is too low.”

The head of the South and Central Asian Studies at the Shanghai Institute for International Studies, Mr. Wang Dahua confronted the harsh reality to the media that the South Asian economy may be ambitious but fragile and hence they cannot find viable alternatives to Chinese offerings.

But apart from all these India’s Information Technology Ministry still chose to ban 59 Chinese mobile apps. The communication-based apps like WeChat impacted the communication resulting in inconvenience in work and living style in the nation. the businesses which were using these apps did not show much of suffering. They are still working on with no noticeable interruption.

Xiang concluded that “India needs China’s help in all these important areas, after all, our products have competitive advantages in terms of cost, performance, and efficiency.”

Now its India’s turn to show how it will stand by its decision and gain success in the same or will Xiang’s words will play the last move in the game….