The $20 billion worth of financial pledge by the visiting Chinese president Xi Jinping, spread over next five years, has turned out to be way below the $100 billion promised by Chinese consul-general in Mumbai, Liu Youfa.
Beyond the bilateral bonhomie and warm feelings, if one were to look at pure business deals that the two Asian giants have managed to ink, it leaves much to one's imagination. Even the $20 billion investments have come with certain riders. Looks like India may have to wait a little longer for its bullet trains and smart cities.
A real joint venture between the "world's factory" (China) and the "world's back office" (India) will take a while before beginning to drive the Asian economy together. Modi's call for Chinese manufacturers to come to India and "Make in India" seems to have fallen on deaf ears, for now.
Soon after Indian prime minister's visit to Japan that threw up business deals worth $35 billion, also with several riders, everyone was eagerly awaiting Jinping's visit to India. Many even hurled China against Japan, and drew improbable parallels between the two.
As China continues to flood the Indian market with almost everything that an Indian wants, the country is at the receiving end of worsening trade imbalance, currently at $35 billion, more than half of the total bilateral trade at $66.4 billion last year.
All one can take solace is in president Xi's assurance that he would take concrete steps to address India's concerns. He has also promised to take forward the partnership and improve market access and investment opportunities for Indian companies in China. However, there is no roadmap announced to check the ballooning trade imbalance.
Narendra Modi has invited Chinese investments in India's infrastructure and manufacturing sectors. It is indeed a step forward for India, from those days when we kept all Chinese investments in India, especially in infrastructure sector, away.
More than a decade ago, India refused permission to Hong Kong-based Hutchison Port Holding, one of the world's biggest container terminal operators, which bid for a terminal at Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust for "security reasons". In November 2003, a report in the South China Morning Post blamed Indian internal security authorities for blocking the bid at JNPT, which is lying in close proximity to the strategically located Southern Naval Command. The involvement of foreign firms with Chinese (or Pakistani) connections in the project could have led to serious security implications. Hutchison was just one of the many Chinese companies that found India out of bounds.
Modi now claims the visit has opened "a new chapter" in Indo-Chinese economic relations. A bigger financial pledge would have made it much more illustrious.
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