Importing from China to become 'China Plus One' will never work, says Amitabh Kant

Speaking in a Q&A session at the CII Annual Business Summit 2025 in New Delhi, Kant said that Indian industry should adopt cutting-edge technologies to compete with China, as the industry "can't copy the Chinese".

Kant further added, "You'll have to do the technology leapfrogging. You can't copy the Chinese. You have to beat the Chinese with one up. This game of China plus one by importing from China all the time will never work."

The China Plus One strategy typically involves companies diversifying their investments to countries other than China. China Plus One strategy is a focus of government as well as industry.

Kant further stated that Indian industry will have to use completely new technologies to disrupt Chinese technologies.

"You have completely new technologies which are going to disrupt the Chinese. Technologies. Why is Indian industry not getting into them? Why are we not sourcing those technologies and using the size and scale of India to beat the Chinese through new technologies? And unless you don't do that, you'll have to do the technology leapfrogging," he added, suggesting the industry invest in R&D.

Asserting that in technology, first movers are never the winners, Kant said that the Artificial Intelligence (AI) race has just begun and urged Indian businesses to build foundational models.

India's G20 Sherpa believes that Indian models will provide solutions to many of the challenges faced by countries around the world.

"What we did in digital public infrastructure is that we used open source, open API, globally interoperable models, and those models will be the way forward for us. Therefore, India must build its foundational model. I believe India will provide these foundational models for many areas which have challenges for the world. How to improve learning outcomes, health outcomes and nutritional standards, etc. India will use its 22 languages and thousands of dialects to find solutions to many of the challenges of the world. Indian startups will do some pathbreaking work in this area," Kant said.

Talking about the ease of doing business, India's G20 Sherpa said that the Central government has put in the building blocks and that it is time for states to bring reforms.

He also urged the industry to invest in research and development to develop cutting-edge technologies to sustain India's accelerated growth. He also said that Quality Control Orders (QCOs) must be used rationally to ensure Indian industry can grow.

To make Indian industry more competitive, he suggested that states give land to the industry on long-term lease and privatise DISCOMS to make them more efficient. He also underlined the need for an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism to ensure speedy justice, especially in commercial cases. (ANI)