Who’s afraid of China, anyway? Ask India’s industry, which is taking a bumper delegation of top guns and CEOs to showcase its might right into the heart of the Middle Kingdom next week.Between the no-holds-barred message that Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley will deliver on the morning of October 16 and the fashion madness that promises to singe Beijing the same evening, there’s a method in New Delhi’s economic diplomacy that the ancient Chinese strategist Lao Tse would have approved of. The battle-plans have been drawn up by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in close conjunction with the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). The Commerce Ministry is certainly on board. And the Prime Minister’s Office has given its blessing. India Inc. is girding up. Set to break out of the loincloth, the business suits flanking the ‘‘Made in India’’ event in Beijing and Shanghai have a sharp edge to them.Make no mistake, though. The impact of the Indian exhibition will certainly be one of the many cards that Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra will keep concealed and deliberately not deal when he meets Chinese senior vice-minister Dai Bingguo in the Capital on October 23. The two special representatives will engage in first round of talks on settling a 40-year-old boundary dispute that has cast a cloud on the relationship for as many years.But before the hardcore diplomacy the week after, here’s a preview into the other aces in India’s pack next week. The Taj Group of hotels will have set up shop at the Great Wall Sheraton Hotel in Beijing by Monday itself, flying in a chef to convert a few taste-buds. By the 16th evening all eyes will be on the Indo-Chinese fashion show, in which eight Indian models and four Chinese girls will walk the ramp in clothes designed by Ritu Beri and Hemant Trivedi.Arun Jaitley will, of course, be clapping hard at the ‘‘India Evening’’. So will nearly 50 Indian CEO’s including Sunil Kant Munjal of the Hero Group, Baba Kalyani of Bharat Forge, Jamshed Irani of Tatasons, KV Shetty of the Automotive Components Manufacturing Association, Gautam Thapar of Balarpur, Rajiv Kaul of Nicco, V.S. Jain of SAIL as well as CII’s inimitable Tarun Das.Fact is, and the rest of the world will easily testify, there are no easy options on dealing with China. Apart from its own stated intention to become an economic power by 2020 AD, China is unlikely to let down its ‘‘all-weather friend’’ Pakistan. And yet there have been signs, especially in a post-Iraq world, that Beijing is beginning to quietly test the waters for other friends.CII’s deputy director-general S. Sen puts it succinctly. ‘‘This is the first time that we’re going to showcase Indian industry in China. We’re ready to talk both complementaries and competition. We want to show our strengths to the Chinese, that there’s more to India than information technology. The Chinese are hardly aware of the strength of Indian industry,’’ he said.The Indian onslaught begins in Shanghai on Monday with conferences on health, tourism, banking & financial services, as well as a summit on manufacturing. Then there’s the formal inauguration of the ‘‘India Club China,’’ a permanent display of top-end Indian companies at the Shanghai Mart for a year.The caravan, then, rolls onto Beijing. CII’s Rekha Sethi points out that from October 16-19th five major events are planned. A round table on steel, besides conferences on textiles, auto components, tourism and information communications technology.Certainly, China has shown itself to be world-class player in some of these very areas. But maybe, India Inc. is also finally taking a leaf out of Deng Xiaoping’s own book. That it doesn’t matter what the colour of the cat is — as long as it catches mice.
