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Nithin Kamath
After a Chinese artificial intelligence startup called DeepSeek rattled the likes of ChatGPT and Nvidia, a number of business leaders have been praising China for its achievements in the technological field.
Zerodha's co-founder and CEO Nithin Kamath has joined the list.
Comparing the difference between China and India in terms of technological advancements, he stated that “short-termism” is one factor that prevents India from solving problems that require long-term thinking.
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CHINA, RESEARCH PAPERS, AND THE GLARING ABSENCE OF INDIA
In a post on X (formerly Twitter), Nithin Kamath wrote, “In the 1960s-1970s, India and China had roughly the same per capita GDP. They started their reforms in the 1980s, and by 1990, they had overtaken our per capita GDP.”
The Zerodha CEO continued by stating that even though China and India have a difference in their worldviews and economic models, the former's progress in scientific and technological disciplines is undeniable.
He wrote, “DeepSeek is just the latest example.”
According to Moneycontrol, Nithin Kamath shared a chart by the Economist. This chart ranked countries on the basis of how many high-quality scientific research papers they produced.
The chart revealed:
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China’s graph had a steep and significant rise.
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The United States of America witnessed a decline.
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The European Union remained somewhat steady.
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India was not even on the list.
In his post, Kamath wrote, “It gives you a quick and dirty idea of the progress China has made despite the fact that papers and citations can be gamed. India wouldn’t even show up on the chart.”
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“JUGAAD MENTALITY” AND “SHORT-TERMISM”
The Zerodha co-founder stated that one of the factors that inhibited India's technological growth was the mentality of “short-termism.”
He said that problems in India are usually addressed through a mentality of ‘jugaad.’ This results in a band-aid fix even for problems that require long-term thinking.
In his words, “Problems are typically addressed through a patchwork or the jugaad mentality. This is true when it comes to business, politics, regulatory approaches, etc. Many problems that require focused long-term thinking instead get band-aid fixes.”
“For example, you can’t just buy GPUs and expect Indians to create groundbreaking AI applications. Without the right talent and an enabling ecosystem that facilitates innovation, all the GPUs in the world will be pointless,” he added.
Nithin Kamath acknowledged that while India has great researchers, they do not get a helpful environment in the country. That's why most of them shift to the United States of America.
Kamath wrote, “While India does produce great researchers, we don’t seem to offer a conducive environment for them, which is why the majority of them go to the US.”
He emphasized that the country should focus on developing its research capabilities.
He further added that if researchers in India were provided with the right kind of environment, the country could hopefully see results in the next ten years.
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