Shining India!

Marketmind

For once, the current 'India Shining' advertisement campaign by the Government of India does not seem incongruous. India actually seems to be picking up more sheen in recent years, and the momentum is now accelerating almost by the month.

Perhaps the 'tipping point' to solidly shift international attention favourably to India, even as the country itself generates the requisite velocity in its growth to be able to pull away from the gravity like pull of dogmatic policies of yesteryears, is just around the corner.

Last week, I had invited a dear expatriate friend for a send-off evening with us. He represents one of the largest global businesses and has been in India for some months investigating the India opportunity for his company.

In my last meeting with him not so long ago, he mentioned "" disappointingly "" that his company had concluded that India is still not ready for them and hence he would be leaving shortly. At the evening last week, he sprung a pleasant surprise by informing that in view of the momentum gained by India in recent months, his headquarters have decided to give India a fresh look.

Later in the week, I met the head of a large multinational head hunting firm who was leaving ""at short notice "" to meet a major European business that had decided to invest in India and was therefore planning to start recruitments.

Within this week itself, more than one urgent message has come to me from our international offices about some of our global clients needing immediate information on India as a precursor to a more serious look on India in the near future. All these developments are certainly not coincidental and at least I can confidently conclude that India has indeed begun to shine outside India.

The situation at the grass root business level in the country is equally encouraging. In recent months, many Indian companies have responded very admirably to the emerging opportunities in India and overseas "" facilitated by a better overall business environment in India, lowered borrowing costs, and the tremendous (favourable) recognition generated for India by the growing success of our IT, Pharma and now the automobile (and auto component) sectors.

These companies have drawn up ambitious plans for fresh investment and value adding growth even as most of them continue to tone up their management and focus on generating higher productivity and efficiencies in their current business operations.

The results are already being seen not only on the stock markets and these companies' balance sheets but also in the retail marketplace. There is a dramatic improvement in product quality (and design) of almost every consumer product category as compared to what it was even three years ago.

The most heartening part is that these improvements in design and quality are coming at the same or reduced prices to the end consumer "" reflecting that the benefits of a more liberal though more competitive business environment are being shared by consumers and producers alike.

If at all any one needed a proof about the benefits of liberalisation, and about India's intrinsic strengths to be able to compete if the self imposed fetters (of policy and regulation) are done away with, they should now be able to see it almost everywhere.

As Indians, what do we need to do to ensure that this happy state of affairs continues for decades to come, giving India the recognition and place it rightfully deserves in the global economy, while creating more opportunity and a better life for its billion citizens? To start with, we need to reinforce our belief in our capabilities.

For example, the government has very recently taken the bold step of entering into a Free Trade Agreement with Thailand and hopefully this will be extended to other Asean countries.

Regrettably, some are still paranoid about India's ability to compete with Thailand, even though recent years have shown that India can stand up to competition from China very well. Decision taking should be further expedited, and the incentives to make more capital investments should be sustained.

As consumers, we should continue to remain optimistic about our future, and prudently step up consumption that can give a further fillip to production of goods and services. Religion and caste based dogma should be thrown out of the window and instead, we should reinforce our belief in the collective power of the one billion citizens of a Shining India!

Arvind@ksa-technopak.com