It’s the ecosystem, stupid!
Pulapre Balakrishnan
The news from Tokyo has warmed the hearts of Indians. It is not as if we have not had success at the Olympics in the past. For about half a century our hockey players excelled on the global stage through a display of skill and wile. Their dominance declined with the change in the surface on which the game is played. When astroturf replaced dirt the attributes for success altered; skill and nimbleness were replaced by speed and strength. But Indian hockey is bouncing back, with a medal for the men’s team and a commendable performance by our young women. In fact, it may be on the ascendant. Actually, this could be said for all of India’s future sporting endeavours, with Neeraj Chopra’s sterling performance opening up vistas in the track and field space.
Road to success
The rising level of India’s performance in sport has been evident for a while now, arguably starting with victory in World Cup Cricket in 1983. But something has changed of late. While half a century ago some of our stars were aristocrats, many of today’s sportspersons come from far less privileged backgrounds. Unlike the former, they were not trained on the storied playing fields of England but come from Tier-3 towns and even villages, rising through their own determination and self-belief.
However, admirable as their individual efforts may be, this could not have by itself got them where they are today. Their naturally endowed capability has been nurtured by an external agency. Though what is apparent to us are the sports bodies that are their chaperones, their rise has received financial support from the Indian state. There has been a substantial step up in this too, which has made a great difference. The training facilities at the nationally dispersed camps of the Sports Authority of India are close to being world class and the sportspersons get their healthy diet there. Funds have added a dimension unimaginable in the past. The best Indian sportspersons are now able to compete in global championships and have international coaches. In his interviews, Neeraj Chopra has spoken of the former driving him to produce superior results as he is pitted against the world’s best. Foreign coaches, trainers and physiotherapists are almost commonplace now. It is not their foreignness that has mattered but that they bring along the highest class of expertise available. It may be seen in the winning outcome from badminton to hockey. Something more than money would have been necessary to bring these wonderful gurus to our shores. This was the Indian government’s willingness to finally recognise what is takes to succeed globally.
An enabling ecosystem needed
Staring at the harvest of medals for India’s sportspersons the economist is left wondering how some of this can be replicated in our struggling economy. Surely it is a wonder that a land that once exported goods to West Asia and ideas to China, then the richest and most evolved civilisations, is now one of the poorest in the world. Why is India no longer a flourishing arena of economic activity?
A message has now reached us. It may be from faraway Japan but has emanated from the performance of our youthful compatriots in that country. One may as well paraphrase it as ‘It’s the ecosystem, stupid!’ Economic activity in India needs an enabling ecosystem, and everything from the availability of infrastructure to regulation of economic activity must be re-oriented towards creating it.
Compared to the attitude of our sportspersons, who went out fearlessly to meet their opponents on the world stage, the Indian leadership’s last-minute withdrawal from the prolonged negotiations on accession to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership appears as a skittish volte face. India’s producers, irrespective of their size, cannot expect permanent protection. At the same time, they would be within their rights to expect global standards in the bureaucracy they face and the infrastructure the state provides.