INDIA: AN ECONOMY IN NEED OF TRANSLATION

India is indeed one of the BRIC giants given its strong and fluid private sector, its mass labor potential, and its intellectual capital. The country has been touted as one of the great threats to US economic hegemony with its years of near double-digit GDP growth for labor and intellectual capital. An economically thriving India presents many opportunities for translators to localize content for the country’s diverse population.

But, the last couple of years have been marked by distinctly low economic performance. The notoriously inefficient government has been accused of closing up the economy while discouraging any rise in living standards, infrastructure improvements, or new investment. Annual GDP growth has declined markedly, the entire agricultural system is grossly inefficient, the rupee as dropped precipitously, and foreign investors are either shut out or unwilling to bring capital into the country. 


The government has refused to initiate real reforms to the retail sector which could have opened up foreign investment. Without foreign capital and real economic growth, the demand for foreign products and services (which require localized documentation) has stalled.

Unlike China, India is a democracy. While India has demonstrated great potential for dynamic economic change, the society is very loosely connected and resistant to unified directives like those seen in China. Until the government can attain an open market reform policy, economic growth in India will remain stagnant and the demand for localized websites and product and service information will falter. 

RUSSIA: BEARING THE BURDEN

Brazil, India, and China have seen huge population increases with a lot of educated workers scrambling for high end jobs. Russia, on the other hand, experienced serious declines in population and industrial activity after the Cold War. While industrialization is on the rise in Brazil, India, and China...is Russia mired in the inefficient industries of the Soviet era? If so, what does this mean for the future of industry, employment, and imports for the country? What does this mean for technical translators who have a professional interest in transforming Phonetic English into Cyrillic Russian?

If petroleum IS king in the former USSR, then what of its infrastructure? While China has dazzled the rest of the World with its miraculous rags-to-riches story (evidenced in large part by improvements in the country's infrastructure), Russia hasn't yet developed an effective logistical plan to realize a real competitive advantage. Or has it?

Russia does have a wide range of invaluable assets. Mining and agriculture have proven to be boons for the nation; along with the intellectual capital associated with nuclear technology, broad university research, and advanced 
space programs. Real gains could be realized in electronics, agricultural commodities, the automotive industry, and telecommunications. The combination of intellectual capital and labor can be harnessed with the right initiatives; leading to solid economic growth and a demand for imported goods and services...and new opportunities for professional technical translators.Continue reading the main story

Until Russia can realize a level of economic growth comparable to that of the other BRIC countries, the variety of opportunities for English-to-Russian technical translators will be limited. Real and sustainable economic gains are needed for the expansion of international trade...and an higher demand for technical translations.