I was not surprised to read Krishna Kant's front-page report, "IT beats manufacturing in employee productivity" (May 6). Given India's logistics deficit, socialist labour laws and inefficient labour, it can never compete with China, South Korea, Bangladesh and Vietnam in the manufacturing sector. Our domestic produce will always be more expensive than our imports, unless we impose unrealistic and unsustainable Customs duties.
On the other hand, we have several advantages in the services sector. I see no reason why we shouldn't leverage these.
Services and manufacturing are equally important. But if our people have an edge in the services sector, we must do everything to cash in on that. What is wrong if the contribution of services in our gross domestic product (GDP) rises above the present level?
Let's give our services export a bigger boost to bolster foreign exchange earnings, and import cheaper common manufactured items.
It is a myth that manufacturing creates more jobs per unit of GDP compared to services. Sectors such as tourism; banking, financial services and insurance; health care, as well as software development and the business process outsourcing sector have already proven their utility. They have the capacity to create far more jobs.
Krishan Kalra, Gurgaon
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