There's been a clamour for boycotting Chinese products amid a border stand-off with People's Liberation Army (PLA) at the LAC (Line of Actual Control) and criticism over Beijing's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

As per Times Social media team, there had been approximately 47,000 mentions on the hashtag #BoycottChina and 2,31,000 mentions on the hashtag #BoycottChineseProducts on the microblogging platform --Twitter-- between May 28 and June 1, 2020. However, amidst this clarion call across the country, how realistic is it for India on the economic front and would it be so easy to do away with China completely? Here is a look at what is at stake for Indians economically viz-a-viz. China:

Private Indian companies with major Chinese Investments - as per a March 2020 report published by Gateway House, 'Indian Council on Global Relations', lists major Indian companies with substantial holdings from Chinese investors. China's tech company and VC (Venture Capitalist) investments in India account for more than $ 3,600 million or $3.6 billion on one hand, while on the other hand, the report also states that most "Indian VC financiers are wealthy individuals or family offices – and cannot make the $100-million commitments needed to finance start-ups through their early losses," the report says.  

"For instance, Paytm incurred a loss of Rs 3,690 crore in FY19 while Flipkart lost Rs 3,837 crore over the year, which leaves western and Chinese investors as dominant players in the Indian start-up space," it added.

Most Indian companies with Chinese investments are E-commerce retail service providers offering doorstep delivery for customers. An e-commerce ecosystem consists of sellers, marketers and payment solution providers, the company, logistics partners and IT/ITeS organizations. A 2018 report by KPMG India states that “E-tail and the allied sectors, like logistics, warehousing, IT/ITeS” are expected to create direct employment for around 1.45 million people by 2021. With the world grappled with COVID-19 pandemic and Indian government’s push towards online deliveries, this number is expected to be much higher. Also, the amount of job and financial losses in case Chinese investors pull out of Indian companies is sizeable and cannot be ignored.

China in India’s' digital sector – Apps with Chinese investments constituted a substantial 50% of top app downloads (both iOS and G Play combined) which includes web browsers, data sharing and social media apps as per the Gateway house report. Also, as of October 2019, a browser with Chinese investment was said to have a "sizeable market share of 17.09% in the mobile browser market space and it also led the mobile phone segment in India with 21.38% market share". Not only this, but Chinese companies have also made sizeable investments in streaming services used in India such as apps for songs and OTT platforms. This certainly states that China already has deep roots in tech India which is growing substantially day by day.

Chinese FDI into India - As per the Indian governments' department for promotion of Industry and International Trade, China's FDI equity inflows in India was a meager 0.01% at US$ 2.91 million of the total FDI into India for the period between August 1991 to December 2005. The present FDI inflows from China to India stand at 0.51% at US $ 2,378.71 million of total FDI into India for the period April 2000 to March 2020. India has seen some of the highest FDI inflows from China from 2014 to 2019 as per the FDI statistics.

Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/business-economy/economy/article/is-it-realistic-for-india-to-boycott-chinese-products-investments/606752