Decline Of The West?

The West may have to choose between being left behind by Chindia and innovating for them

Cambridge University keeps in touch with its past students by sending them Cam, a free magazine. It does not merely give news about the university; it is meant to educate and entertain. The last issue carried a debate between Jaideep Prabhu, who teaches Indian business and enterprise in the Judge Business School, and Professor Peter Williamson who was visiting Cambridge from INSEAD in France. Williamson argued that the view of India and China as manufacturers of cheap and inferior imitations was outdated. They were generating new technology, consumer choice and business models at a lower cost; so the idea that western countries could keep ahead through innovation was mistaken. Reva, the Indian electric car, was being driven around and being charged at kerbside power points in London; Huawei had won a contract from Telenor for the latest video-on-demand. A single Indian firm, Piramal Lifesciences, was developing 14 new compounds to treat all the major diseases of the West. The West was in trouble; its belief that it could keep ahead of the East with its innovation capabilities was wrong. It had to think of something else.