'China is destined to be the greatest nation': Shankar Sharma after 4AM service reply

Market guru Shankar Sharma on Tuesday shared a post contrasting India's workforce with China's, pointing to what he called an unmatched level of service culture that, in his view, makes China “destined to be the greatest nation in the world.”

“Another post our Demographic Debt needs to see: I sent this tweet last night at around 12:00 midnight Dubai time to China (4AM). Reply was instant. The person is 27 years of age and makes Rs. 25k PM. No employee irrespective of age, in the whole of India, can ever match this level of service,” Sharma wrote on X.

“People make the mistake of thinking China is a manufacturing Giant. It is in fact an even bigger service Giant, given the incredible service they give even to a $200 purchase customer. And that is why it is destined to be the greatest nation in the world. No competition,” he added. 

Sharma has repeatedly warned that India’s much-touted demographic dividend is rapidly turning into what he calls a “Demographic Debt.” In December last year, he wrote, “Our Demographic Dividend — turning — into — Demographic Debt: watch this. Even Food Delivery jobs aren't safe anymore, once these come to India from Cheen (China).”

In November, Sharma had sounded a similar alarm over the future of India's services sector in the face of automation and AI. “More than 60% of India's economy comes from services and these services sprawl across all aspects of our daily lives: design, IT, KPOs, BPOs, legal services, advertising, media, journalism, finance. And there is nothing. I repeat, nothing, that AI won't be able to do better than any individual in any of the above businesses, including perhaps the CEO,” he had said.

Highlighting the challenges of India’s job market, he pointed out that “if IIT students don't get jobs, this danger is clear and present.” According to Sharma, the idea of a demographic dividend “maybe was a dividend at some point in time but we know how dividends have been taxed through our financial policies.”

He concluded with a sobering take on job preferences in the country: “The truth of the matter is that our young population does not want to work in factories and those may well be the only jobs that will remain in size, a few years out into the future.”