You know what’s trending in India?
Not another Mitron clone, but an app which helps you remove all Chinese apps.
The ‘Remove China Apps‘ helps users uninstall Chinese apps from Android phones and has now hit more than a million downloads (thanks to WhatsApp university).
One more step towards ‘Mera Bharat Mahaan + AtmaNirbhar’ ?
Another forward floating in WhatsApp carries list of startups that have Chinese investors (Paytm/Khatabook etc etc..pretty much every consumer startup).
Where do we go now?
Little do people realize that most of the components in their smartphone comes from China.
Little do people realize that smartphones + 99% of gadgets / devices / products are affordable because..of China’s scale of manufacturing.
Deleting apps is reactionary – it helps no one, but satisfies your instant ‘nationalist emotion’, an armchair (rather, appchair) Indian-trying-to-feel-good.
What’s the next best alternative?
Build better products than Chinese.
Start to pay a premium for ‘Made in India‘ products (without bargaining).
Trust ‘desi’ innovators / entrepreneurs and makers – and be an early adopter of the same (instead of becoming a cynic).
Supporting your local economy, even if you know they are charging you a little extra.
Building better products is a forward movement – it will take time. It will not satisfy your instant gratification of ‘nationalism’, but it is truly the only way forward.
Last, but not the least – hatred based movement goes nowhere. If we truly want to become self reliant, we need to start building great products and services – and not hide under the ‘jugaad’ umbrella we have been doing for all these years.
