Champions of India's hot business sectors struggle to remain sustainable

If costs are twice revenue, the story from the perspective of national accounting is of value destruction, writes T N Ninan

Every decade has seen Indian business throw up new success stories—champion sectors, as it were. Which are the champion sectors now? Three obvious candidates are aviation, telecom and the ecommerce/digital businesses. But here’s the paradox: almost no one is making money in any of these businesses. The aviation sector, for instance, has been growing at a handsome 20 per cent clip for some years, prompting predictions that India will become the third-largest aviation market in less than a decade, from being sixth or seventh today. But here’s the thing: Indigo, the largest airline with a near-40 per cent share of