the latest warnings being issued in the us seem to be not over the next terror attack but over goods made in china that label is almost acquiring the image of a skull and crossbones warning with activists blogs and newspapers dispensing advice on avoiding toxic chinese goods from toys clothes diaries to toothpaste pet food baby bibs juices and seafood chinesemade goods are being recalled in different countries for their high levels of chemicals and toxins considering the impact of the made in china brand in our lives just look around your homeoffice and check the origin of batteries toys keyboards electronic items bulbs idols textiles and endless other things the recall assumes significance its even more so in western markets where a huge majority of the commodities stocked in supermarket chains like walmart and tesco are of chinese origin so is this an opportunity for india to fill chinas shoes despite the disadvantage of a rising rupee not at all according to experts indian goods are not competitive they say because except for a few companies like tata indian goods fail on the three key factors of brand cost and quality the figures speak for themselves for example according to us department of commerce data chinese textile exports to us in 2006 were worth about 12 billion indias were about 34 billion similarly a 2006 report by research information system for developing countries ris new delhi said the international market of toys is dominated by china which has a 75 market share whereas indias share is an appalling 04amit chatterjee head new initiatives and business development ficci says this recall of chinese products is more of a correction there is a problem and they are trying to set it right besides chinese commodities have a combination of value and quality thats because china wins hands down over india with its lower wages taxes duties interest rates and input costs about 2030 less than india also china enjoys a stable exchange rate and its products combine low costprice and quality barring a few aberrations indian goods on the other hand are priced higher and rarely adhere to quality standards madeinindia is not a global brand yetadds a senior ficci official after the recall its likely that there would be even greater emphasis in western markets on quality of goods coming from developing countries there will be an added responsibility on india to ensure we are not found wanting in quality but india is slow in learning these lessons unlike china and south korea which have followed the japanese example of integrating quality into manufacturing says chatterjee quality standards have to be driven from the top but here ceos focus less on quality and more on marketing and finance they focus more on pleasing the shareholder than the consumer worse small and medium enterprises dont have quality standards we have to move from compliancebased quality to performancebased quality and keep improving upon it the indian consumer also