## Colophon tags:: url:: https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/pratap-bhanu-mehta-writes-indias-delusion-of-relevance-9810515/ date:: [[]] %% title:: Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: India’s delusion of relevance type:: [[clipped-note]] author:: [[@indianexpress.com]] %% ## Notes > But India’s share in global FDI is close to 2.5 per cent in proportional terms and declining. With Indian consumption growing at less than 3 per cent, the country is not as big a deal for global exporters as you might imagine. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/5GaPPOHtEe-MI4eH9vhcuw/indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/pratap-bhanu-mehta-writes-indias-delusion-of-relevance-9810515/) big market fallacy? > Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: India’s delusion of relevance — [view in context](https://hyp.is/-izbyOHtEe-gREMaCJJfew/indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/pratap-bhanu-mehta-writes-indias-delusion-of-relevance-9810515/) date:: [[2025-02-03]] > The supposed opportunity for India provided by investment moving out of China has barely materialised. In proportional terms, India may at best get 10-15 per cent of that investment, and this was before the US’s insistence on onshoring. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/B7KzHOHuEe-l8mfZTSxD5Q/indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/pratap-bhanu-mehta-writes-indias-delusion-of-relevance-9810515/) > But claims about India’s purchasing capacity are hugely exaggerated. India has good talent. Indian science has been improving. But again, India is still relatively irrelevant to most of the global discussions on the frontiers of technology innovation. India has performed an important role in some sectors like pharmaceuticals and some low-cost medical innovation. But on any measure of critical technologies for the future, whether it is AI or green energy, India seems far behind the global competition. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/IslzNOHuEe-77fcRpLlXtw/indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/pratap-bhanu-mehta-writes-indias-delusion-of-relevance-9810515/) > India is politically important. But if you look at history dispassionately, it is hard to argue that that importance has increased. Reading archives, declassified documents and histories from the Fifties and Sixties leaves you with a distinct impression that India’s political importance has certainly not increased. But the source of that importance, contrary to what we think, was not India’s ability to project raw power, which is still quite limited. It was always the potential moral example of its democracy. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/RaTLfuHuEe-n7w8HQNTI1g/indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/pratap-bhanu-mehta-writes-indias-delusion-of-relevance-9810515/) Which has waned? > India has, in terms of relative authority, lost standing in the Global South. It is India’s great virtue that it can have good relations with every country in the world: It can deal with both Russia and the US, and Israel and Iran. But this supposed privilege India has in the world system also reveals its weaknesses. India’s position actually does not matter enough for countries to really get upset. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/Vc7wnOHuEe-yoofrzFUI8Q/indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/pratap-bhanu-mehta-writes-indias-delusion-of-relevance-9810515/) > The above account may seem a bit graceless. But this kind of cold shower is necessary if we are to confront one incontrovertible fact: India is really not significant to global consciousness as much as we like to think. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/YoW3EuHuEe-LcNdAMlgpeg/indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/pratap-bhanu-mehta-writes-indias-delusion-of-relevance-9810515/) oof > I was struck by the fact that India’s targets and aspirations are defined in terms of whole numbers that sound impressive — cumulative FDI of one trillion, or a five trillion economy and so forth. These make for nice headlines but are irrelevant. I was stuck reading old Chinese policy documents of how targets were powerfully defined in ways that made China indispensable to the world system — a quarter of global exports, X per cent of global critical technologies and so forth. They were emphatic statements of aspiration for relative power, rather than a number that looked big. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/fvZ8dOHuEe-NpafRzM9JsQ/indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/pratap-bhanu-mehta-writes-indias-delusion-of-relevance-9810515/) > But India’s share in global FDI is close to 2.5 per cent in proportional terms and declining. With Indian consumption growing at less than 3 per cent, the country is not as big a deal for global exporters as you might imagine. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/5GaPPOHtEe-MI4eH9vhcuw/indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/pratap-bhanu-mehta-writes-indias-delusion-of-relevance-9810515/) - Annotation: big market fallacy?> Pratap Bhanu Mehta writes: India’s delusion of relevance — [view in context](https://hyp.is/-izbyOHtEe-gREMaCJJfew/indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/pratap-bhanu-mehta-writes-indias-delusion-of-relevance-9810515/) - Annotation: date:: [[2025-02-03]]> The supposed opportunity for India provided by investment moving out of China has barely materialised. In proportional terms, India may at best get 10-15 per cent of that investment, and this was before the US’s insistence on onshoring. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/B7KzHOHuEe-l8mfZTSxD5Q/indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/pratap-bhanu-mehta-writes-indias-delusion-of-relevance-9810515/) > But claims about India’s purchasing capacity are hugely exaggerated. India has good talent. Indian science has been improving. But again, India is still relatively irrelevant to most of the global discussions on the frontiers of technology innovation. India has performed an important role in some sectors like pharmaceuticals and some low-cost medical innovation. But on any measure of critical technologies for the future, whether it is AI or green energy, India seems far behind the global competition. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/IslzNOHuEe-77fcRpLlXtw/indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/pratap-bhanu-mehta-writes-indias-delusion-of-relevance-9810515/) > India is politically important. But if you look at history dispassionately, it is hard to argue that that importance has increased. Reading archives, declassified documents and histories from the Fifties and Sixties leaves you with a distinct impression that India’s political importance has certainly not increased. But the source of that importance, contrary to what we think, was not India’s ability to project raw power, which is still quite limited. It was always the potential moral example of its democracy. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/RaTLfuHuEe-n7w8HQNTI1g/indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/pratap-bhanu-mehta-writes-indias-delusion-of-relevance-9810515/) - Annotation: Which has waned?> India has, in terms of relative authority, lost standing in the Global South. It is India’s great virtue that it can have good relations with every country in the world: It can deal with both Russia and the US, and Israel and Iran. But this supposed privilege India has in the world system also reveals its weaknesses. India’s position actually does not matter enough for countries to really get upset. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/Vc7wnOHuEe-yoofrzFUI8Q/indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/pratap-bhanu-mehta-writes-indias-delusion-of-relevance-9810515/) > The above account may seem a bit graceless. But this kind of cold shower is necessary if we are to confront one incontrovertible fact: India is really not significant to global consciousness as much as we like to think. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/YoW3EuHuEe-LcNdAMlgpeg/indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/pratap-bhanu-mehta-writes-indias-delusion-of-relevance-9810515/) - Annotation: oof> I was struck by the fact that India’s targets and aspirations are defined in terms of whole numbers that sound impressive — cumulative FDI of one trillion, or a five trillion economy and so forth. These make for nice headlines but are irrelevant. I was stuck reading old Chinese policy documents of how targets were powerfully defined in ways that made China indispensable to the world system — a quarter of global exports, X per cent of global critical technologies and so forth. They were emphatic statements of aspiration for relative power, rather than a number that looked big. — [view in context](https://hyp.is/fvZ8dOHuEe-NpafRzM9JsQ/indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/pratap-bhanu-mehta-writes-indias-delusion-of-relevance-9810515/)