“Markus Lanz”: Does this country have to become Germany’s new partner?

The news broke early on Wednesday evening: after years of being the country where most people lived, China is now suddenly appearing on the scene to take its place. According to the annual report of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). If will be the most populous country in the world with 1.4286 billion people by the middle of this year.

And that’s not all: India is currently in fifth place among the largest economiesbut in a few years it could displace Germany from fourth place.

“Markus Lanz” – These were the guests:

“What kind of giant is that waking up?” asks Markus Lanz in his late Wednesday night show. “And how does that change the world?” That’s what his two guests: inside the evening, the long-time New Delhi correspondent of the “Financial Times” Britta Petersen and the moderator Ranga Yogeshwar, who spent part of his childhood in India, are talking about , great consensus. Also read: Are Western weapons too late, Professor Masala?

Lanz: India is maturing into a superpower

After 400 years of colonization, India is currently in a “phase of awakening”, says Yogeshwar. Like China, the country is becoming more and more self-confident and recognizes what it is global economy has to offer. In view of this, Yogeshwar finds the rigid position of the Western countries particularly problematic. India and China would soon become the “centres of the economy”, but in Europe people are still chasing the idea of ​​being the navel of the world.

The two see a great supporter and role model in the development of India into a new world power in the current Prime Minister of the country, Narendra Modi. He wants to make the country a global player and “is an example of the desire for advancement among the lower classes,” explains Petersen. Modi is the first prime minister not from the elite but from the working class. He worked his way up, was ambitious and disciplined. “He embodies the promise: You can do it!”

Germany dependent on India as a new superpower?

Lanz considers love to be particularly important for India’s success story scientific topics a. Mathematics has always been one of the country’s great strengths, says Yogeshwar, “because you don’t need to think much.” With the miserable infrastructure, there were only a few ways to get anywhere. “IT was one of them.” After all, all you need for that is a reliable power supply, a computer and a satellite dish. “Building a chemical plant in India is much more difficult,” Yogeshwar adds wryly.

India is a “nation with clever people” on which Germany is also urgently dependent skills shortage balance in their own country, Yogeshwar continues. This is one of the reasons why Germany must court India and its favor. By 2030, 37 percent of all engineers would come from China and 27 percent from India. Only 1.8 percent came from Germany.

Lanz uses the example of the Indian city of Bangalore, Yogeshwar’s childhood city and today’s center of India, to illustrate the growth spurt that India has behind and ahead of it Hightech-Industrie. Yogeshwar reports that around 400,000 people lived in the city when he grew up there. The population has now grown to over 10 million people. “The city has nothing to do with the childhood I spent there,” Yogeshwar sums up.

If you follow the explanations of Lanz experts, you will quickly see a new one superpower are maturing, who should by no means underestimate Germany and Europe, but should see them as equal partners.

Markus Lanz: That’s how the last programs went

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