Doing business in India has never been easier. The markets have opened, the government has taken serious economic stances to encourage foreign investment and ‘globalization’ isn’t a scary word anymore. Gone are the days when ‘Amul’ butter felt threatened by the attractively packed imported ‘fats’. Screaming ‘Fat Free’ off their labels, but the good old Indian wasn’t easy prey. There was a skewed kind of brand loyalty that had ‘nostalgia’ written all over it and the average Indian needed a bit more than just great packaging in multiple languages.
Thus started the media frenzy. ‘Tang’ came back with a bang, images of young Indian’s lolling about with sweaty glasses of ‘Tang’ made for the picture perfect West. After all in reverse Indian companies had invested over $2 billion in the US in 2006-07 and completed a total of 48 deals with the firms there. Suddenly, everybody knew us and we found retail heaven. Indian companies went on to announce 115 foreign acquisitions worth $7.4 billion, and it wasn’t always done by large business conglomerates but also by several small and medium enterprises of India.
With this kind of attention, India went on to become the hot spot for the $42.7 billion telecom giant Motorola’s production base for coming out with new technologies for emerging markets. The Indian economy was expected to grow at the rate of 8% this year and this would have been the fourth year in a row for 8% GDP growth. Then the other day we have Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram expressing supreme confidence that GDP growth will touch 10% in the current fiscal. It seems to have a lot to do with the age profile in India as compared to the global working population. This has to be a better dividend for the Indian economy. Our core working populace is young Indian’s adding significantly to the country’s growth. They are the big earners and the big spenders. They are the target audience for every sector possible because now they can afford their dreams. Websites like orkut.com have young Indian's congratulating each other over new houses bought in foreign countries, imported cars bought in local cities and European holidays every summer. With pockets this deep, aspirations this huge and limitless possibilities …it is India all the way.
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