China Bazaar Never Left

From "China Bazar" to the bazar slowly being filled with China, we have come a long way.

Growing up, there was always a China Bazar nearby. Plastic containers, fairy lights, and utensils that cost next to nothing. We used to go there not expecting excellence, but rather to save money.

That bazar never left. It actually scaled into something nobody saw coming. Because today, if you look around, like really look around, China is everywhere.

We imported over $113 billion worth of Chinese goods in FY24-25. While the electronics are obvious, the less obvious dependencies sit within some of India's fastest-growing industries.

Take EVs. Lithium-ion battery imports grew roughly 40% in the first half of 2025 alone. Many of the cells, components, and materials trace back to China. The same applies to motors and the rare-earth materials inside them.

In fact, I was just reading that India added 480 new entrants across the EV ecosystem in FY26, spanning 2W, 3W, and 4W. Many of these companies are entering an industry whose most critical building blocks are arriving from outside our borders.

Now excuse me while I digress a bit. With the ethanol push gathering pace, and the only other option being EVs if you want to avoid the blended fuel, the real thing to think about becomes this. Are we reducing crude oil dependence, or are we simply shifting the dependence from crude oil to EV components?

The dependence is not limited to us either. Even Europe's attempts to slow down China's EV dominance collided with the fact that many of its own manufacturers rely on Chinese suppliers somewhere in the value chain. Proving that you really cannot tariff your way out of a dependence you built yourself.

We spent years laughing at "China maal." Only to wake up one day and realise that many industries are being built on the maal coming from China.