India and Korea are two flourishing democracies in the modern world. There is much in common, although not very obvious, in the social and cultural spectrum. In the past, Indian culture, especially Buddhism, inspired Korean society in a big way. However, today things are different. Korea has leapfrogged economically, as well as socially, way ahead of India, while India is struggling. A role reversal has taken place and today it is Korea that can inspire India in many ways.

What Korea has achieved today is not only due to able political leadership in the last few decades, but also because of the hard work and discipline of the Korean populace in general. Koreans have learned the art of discipline after a lot of struggle in the past. The history of the North-South Korea conflict made the Korean government make military service compulsory for all young Korean men. This surely helped inculcate discipline in Korean young blood. India can take inspiration from Korea in how to make its people resourceful by inculcating discipline in them. Even though India doesn’t have the compulsion unlike Korea to make military service compulsory, but it can still introduce compulsory training camps for students on military bases during school vacation which will surely help discipline its younger generation.

Korean industry has made huge progress, mainly due to its emphasis on research and innovation. The best examples are Korea’s shipbuilding, consumer goods, automobile and electronics industries. Korean shipbuilders such as Hyundai, Samsung and Daewoo have made a mark globally, not only by building quality ships but also maintaining delivery schedules. Korean shipbuilders have diversified their portfolio of vessels to include complex vessels such as FPSO, LNG carriers and drilling rigs and adapted rather quickly to building these complex vessels. Indian shipbuilders can take inspiration from Korean counterparts and implement their production techniques in line with Korean ones. Indian shipbuilders can also learn how to be self sufficient in ship design and how to continuously innovate and improve design. Samsung Electronics has also made its mark in the global arena. The extremely robust sales of its Galaxy mobile handsets all over the world are the proof of its commitment toward research and innovation. Samsung is developing its own mobile operating platform even though it can continue easily with the Android mobile platform. This shows the company’s long term policy in becoming self sufficient in technology and also become cost competitive. The Indian mobile industry, which hardly exists, can learn a lesson from Samsung. Research and innovation is the need of the hour and Indian companies need to learn this art from none other than Korea.

Korea has also made tremendous efforts in preserving its culture and heritage in a commendable manner. Most of the Buddhist temples and historical sites have been restored and beautifully preserved to attract tourists. In fact infrastructure around these temples and historical monuments is fantastic. There is a clean and serene environment all around these places. Entry fees are also reasonable for foreign tourists. India, despite being bestowed with several wonderful temples and heritage structures, has been unable to maintain them or create adequate infrastructure to attract foreign tourists. Most of the time there is filth and chaos around these places which makes foreign tourists uncomfortable. To make the matters worse India has the partisan policy of charging exorbitant entry fees to foreigners to allow entry to the historical monuments. India can certainly follow the example of the Korean government in this area to attract more foreign tourists.

In the field of art and culture, while India and Korea could mutually inspire each other, India can be inspired from Korea in the field of modern creative art and music. Korean pop music is extremely popular and appealing. There is lot of creativity in this area and Indian artists and musicians can take a cue from their Korean counterparts.

It is apparent that India can take inspiration from Korea in all areas and pave the path toward progress and make India a global power to reckon with.

By Naveen Kumar

Naveen Kumar is a general manager at Shipping Corporation of India. He is presently based in Ulsan to look after a shipbuilding project. ― Ed.