[Traditional Costume and Dance of India: Singing and Dancing Without Saying a Word]
Preface
India's Narendra Modi officially began his third term as prime minister in June 2024, and several goals that Modi often mentions are still fresh in everyone's mind:
- (1) During his third term, India's total GDP will be among the top three in the world, which means surpassing Japan and Germany within five years.
- (2) India will be established as a global manufacturing hub.
- (3) By 2047, that is, in more than 20 years, India will enter the ranks of developed countries in the world.
[Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on the left, Indian Prime Minister Modi on the right]
With a total area of about 2.98 million square kilometers and a total population of about 1.44 billion, India has officially become the world's most populous country by the end of 2023. Here we will not talk about India's goals, India's caste culture and women's rights, and not to mention the impressive and interesting Indian general election, but will choose jute, tea, bananas, minerals and other representative things to talk to you about another style of India.
【One of the landmarks of New Delhi, the capital of India: India Gate】
1. Unfinished hemp rope
The hemp rope here refers to jute, which is native to tropical and subtropical regions of Asia and is actually a good thing.
It is an annual herbaceous plant of the genus Jute in the linden family, with long, soft and shiny fibers, and it is precisely because of its golden yellow and silky luster that it is called jute. In addition to the fact that the seeds of jute contain a small amount of oil and have certain edible and medicinal value, the biggest use of jute is as fiber, which has the advantages of good moisture absorption and fast water dispersion, and can be used to make sacks, burlap, paper, ropes, carpets and curtains, etc.
[Indian workers carrying jute fabrics at the end of the 19th century]
More than 20 years ago, we would have been the world's largest producer of jute. But today, India is the country with the highest output of jute and jute-related commodities, there is no one, this plant that was slowly eliminated by us in the 90s, but has the reputation of "golden fiber" in India, which can not only solve part of India's employment problem, but also has been one of the main commodities for India's export to earn foreign exchange.
【Jute fabric in India】
Indian jute cultivation and processing also has a history of more than 100 years, and jute is not the origin of India - in contrast, our history of planting and processing jute can be traced back to the Northern Song Dynasty at the latest, which is clearly documented, in fact, India is under the requirements and arrangements of the British colonizers, large-scale jute cultivation, as for the British colonists, they think very simply: the climate and soil in most parts of India are very suitable for growing jute, and India's labor is very cheap, Jute fibers and related products are produced and exported, and the profit is very considerable.
【Jute growing areas in Assam, India】
If you count from the emergence of large-scale jute factories in India in 1879, India has a history of nearly 150 years of commercial jute cultivation and processing, and in 2019, in the ranking of global jute production, India continues to rank first with more than 1.9 million tons of jute production, while our annual jute output is only about 40,000 tons, in fact, we need to import a large number of processed jute fiber from India every year.
【Bundled jute】
By 2023, India's jute production will continue to grow, which can stabilize at the level of 2.3 million to 2.8 million tons per year, accounting for 55%-60% of the world's total jute production, and the number of people engaged in jute planting, processing, preparation, sales and other related work has increased from more than 20,000 in 1879 to more than 10 million now.
【Jute fields in India】
We take the initiative to eliminate large-scale planting and processing of jute, which is related to the actual characteristics of jute and our goal pursuit.
From the perspective of the market, since the early 90s, due to the comprehensive rise of synthetic fibers in our country, the market supply and demand for jute have been decreasing, and jute has even become a low-grade, low-value and low-price fiber product.
【Woven jute products】
From the perspective of environmental protection, the cultivation and processing of jute can cause serious environmental problems, such as jute will produce a very pungent and unpleasant smell when soaked, and it is not easy to be covered, and sometimes an entire river will become very smelly because of soaking jute.
【Indian jute woven rice bag】
Jute is a good thing and even full of treasures, but for different countries, different regions, and different stages of development, there will still be trade-offs, and they will not stick to the item itself, but according to their own needs.
【Jute fabric in India】
Second, the mine that cannot be dug up
Everyone is familiar with the hot weather in India, the dense population of India, the agricultural cultivation in India, the "clear and tidy" Ganges River in India, etc., but in fact, India is a very rich country in minerals - from this point of view, India has the basis to become an industrial power.
【Salt Mines in India】
For example, coal in India
The fifth largest coal mine reserve in the world, Indian coal is mainly found in the Late Paleobiogenic (also commonly known as Gondwana coal measure) and Tertiary periods, which is different from the Carboniferous strata in most of the major coal deposits in Europe and North America.
About 99% of India's coal resources are contained in the Permian, concentrated in the southeast of the Indian peninsula 1/4 of the country, the remaining 3/4 of the land actually does not have any important coal deposits - this feature is very important, once the situation in the southeast of India, there will be a major problem with coal supply, can only be imported from abroad urgently, so what if foreign non-supply, incomplete supply or logistics channels blocked?
【Coal Mines in India】
For example, other minerals in India
The world's largest reserves, such as mica from India, account for about 60% of the world's total reserves.
The reserves are the second largest in the world, such as India's barite reserves and wollastonite reserves.
The world's fourth-largest reserves, such as India's talc reserves.
[India is sacrificing the environment in exchange for higher mine production]
The reserves rank fifth in the world, such as India's coal reserves, ilmenite reserves, rare earth reserves, and chromite reserves.
The world's sixth-largest reserves, such as India's manganese ore reserves.
In addition, India's mineral resources include bauxite, tungstenite, barite, refractory earth, fluorite, gypsum, graphite, limestone, kyanite and sillimanite, phosphate ore, quartz and silica, and building stone, among others.
【Iron ore piled up in an Indian port】
You may say that it doesn't matter whether there are minerals or not, such as Japan, South Korea and other countries that lack oil and minerals, haven't they also grown into developed industrial powers? This situation really requires a very special background and foreign aid, which is an exception but not a commonality, and once an extreme situation occurs, including minerals, energy, rubber and other resources are difficult to import or even impossible to import, what should we do?
So that's the truth, but wouldn't it be better if it became a country with rich minerals and a developed industry?
3. Bananas that can't be eaten
Steady first
Who will be the country with the largest banana production in the world? I guess my friends are starting to think about Africa, the Americas, or Southeast Asia. In fact, India has been the world's largest banana producer for many years.
Taking 2023 as an example, the top three countries in the world in terms of banana production are all in Asia: India ranks first with an annual banana production of about 33 million tons; Our annual banana production is about 12 million tons, ranking second; Indonesia's annual banana production is about 8.7 million tons, ranking third.
【Bananas sold on the streets of India】
The difference is clear
However, there are clear differences between the three banana powers. India's bananas are fully sufficient for domestic consumption, and some of them will be exported; Indonesia's bananas far exceed domestic demand, so they are exported in large quantities.
And our bananas still need to be imported a part every year. Before 2022, we mainly imported bananas from the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and other countries, and after 2022, we mainly imported bananas from Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos and other countries.
【Friends party in the banana shop】
Why are there no Thai bananas in 2022? It's not that there isn't, but we can't rank in the top four, because we import too many kinds of fruits from Thailand every year, such as durian, mango, pineapple, dragon fruit, etc., so we will still allocate a part of the fruit import quota to Laos, Cambodia and other friendly countries.
【Deep-fried banana】
Strange question
The most anxious question of whether Indian fruits, especially Indian bananas, can be marketed in Russia, of course, is India, the source of Russian imported bananas is generally Vietnam in Asia and some countries in Africa, but after many negotiations between India and Russia in 2022, progress has finally been made: the first batch of Indian bananas in history has been shipped from India to Russia in January 2024, and the second batch of Indian bananas has been shipped to Russia at the end of February 2024, at this rate, India's banana exports should see a larger increase in 2024.
[Banana leaves can also be wrapped in food and roasted]
Friends may ask two questions: Will Indian banana exports to Russia be settled in rubles or rupees? Can Indian bananas be exchanged for oil or natural gas? These are, of course, two very interesting questions, because neither India nor Russia has published a methodology on these two issues, so please use your brains and discuss what they will do on a practical level.
【Split fried banana】
Bizarre way to eat
Indians have not yet developed to the point where bananas are a staple food (as in some countries on the African continent), but they are about the same. With so many bananas, the Indian people have long been dissatisfied with the traditional ways of eating them raw, roasted, fried, and making flying cakes. For example, almost all people in India use bananas to make wine; For example, to make mashed bananas, this one is rather bizarre: first peel the bananas, then cut the bananas into pieces and pour them into a jar, then add spices such as coriander, chili powder, salt, curry paste, etc., mix and mash constantly, so that a portion of mashed bananas is baked.
Fourth, the tea that cannot be picked endlessly
Tea, one of the world's three major beverages (tea, cocoa, coffee), also has its own four kings in the global tea field: three in Asia, namely us, India and Sri Lanka; One in Africa is Kenya.
India's total tea production is second only to ours, for example, in 2023, our total tea production is about 2.4 million tons, compared to more than 1.2 million tons in India. But when it comes to black tea, India has always maintained the world's largest production position.
[Most of the various teas sold in the Indian market are black teas]
Magical leaves from the East
In the past, there were no commercially cultivated tea plantations and tea mountains in India. Around 1833, the British imported about 80,000 tea seeds from us and concentrated them in Calcutta, India, for trial planting and propagation, but they did not expect to be successful, so the tea trees after the seedlings were sent to Assam, Darjeeling and other regions in India for planting, so the commercialization and large-scale cultivation of Indian tea began at this time.
【Indian Tea Farmers Busy】
By the 80s of the 20th century, tea has grown into one of the important pillars of India's national economy, 22 of the country's 28 states can grow and process different kinds of tea on a large scale, such as Assam, Tripura, Dargon, Meghalaya and other places in the northeast of India, which are the most important production areas of Indian tea.
In addition, there are also some different kinds of tea cultivated in the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Kenya - the tea seeds imported from us back then have been cultivated and propagated for hundreds of years, and have formed at least 20 varieties of tea with India's own characteristics.
【Indian tea farmers who are busy
Export capacity of Indian tea
India's total tea production is the second in the world and the world's largest black tea production, but India's tea export capacity is not outstanding, mainly for two reasons: the production capacity ceiling has come out, and it is India's limit to be able to maintain an annual tea output of 1.2 million to 1.3 million tons; In addition, the Indian people are one of the largest consumer groups of black tea, so India can export more than 200,000 tons of tea every year, taking 2019 as an example, this year is a peak of India's tea exports, about 270,000 tons.
If we look at it simply, the amount of tea that India can use for export every year is about 15%-20% of its total self-production.
【Tea plantations in Kerala, India】
It's not that there are no other categories
For Indian tea, whether it is for domestic consumption or export earnings, the vast majority is black tea, and as for other categories such as green tea, India will also make some, but the related quality and craftsmanship are dwarfed. If it is more accurate, the bulk of Indian tea is the black crushed tea made by crushing, tearing and kneading the process, which can account for more than 85% of India's total tea exports.
【Tea plantations in Kerala, India】
However, it is this red crushed tea that is most satisfied with the international customers of Indian tea.
Taking 2022 as an example, the top five international customers of Indian tea exports are: the United Arab Emirates, Russia, Iran, the United States, and the United Kingdom; The import volume was 47,000 tons, 44,000 tons, 25,000 tons, 14,000 tons, and 12,000 tons. Combined, these five major international customers can digest about 59% of India's total tea exports every year. As for us, we also import some tea from India every year, but the import volume is not high, and it cannot rank among the top ten international customers in India.
[Hope for a good harvest]
The only thing worth noting is that the UAE's demand for Indian tea imports continues to grow, and 2022 is a turning point – the UAE has overtaken Russia and Iran for the first time to become the largest importer of Indian tea. However, the UAE does not keep all of it at home for its own consumption, but imports a large amount of Indian tea for reprocessing (packaging) and entrepot trade.
[Indian people will have a lot of other spices when they drink tea]
As India's largest tea production base, Assam's tea production accounts for about 52-55% of India's total output, Assam black tea and Darjeeling black tea are well-known in the Middle East and Europe, taking Indian people drinking tea as an example, in addition to liking to add dairy products and sugar to black tea to make sweet milk tea, some people like to add ginger, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and other spices when brewing to make a cup of masala tea, also called Indian spice tea - this taste and habits are also too distinctive.
【Indian Milk Spiced Tea】
epilogue
India is a country with a long history, complex situation but abundant products, so there are endless hemp ropes and endless mines; Bananas that you can't get tired of eating and tea that you can't pick can only describe some of the outlines of India.
【Rajasthan, India】
While Modi and his team have laid out the best and grandest outlook on the prospects for India's economic development, the reality is that India's difficulties and challenges are just as salient and thorny:
- For example, there is a very short supply of energy, and the burden of electricity supply and oil and gas imports is very heavy every year;
- For example, infrastructure construction is very backward, such as roads, bridges, hospitals and other hardware is only one aspect, more important is the software part, especially in education, India will not have at least 20-30 years will not have and does not need to consider the engineer dividend.
- For example, at a time when the gap between the rich and the poor in India is even wider, the accumulation of capital and technology has not been completed, so the dependence on international funds, technology and even various aid is still very high.
As for the aforementioned caste issues, women's rights, and so on, there is no need to mention them again. Combined with the history and reality of India, those are basically unsolvable, and it would be nice and good to be able to alleviate them to a limited extent.
【Blue City, India: Jodhpur】