Perhaps there could not have been a better setting for the Indian Government and businessmen to present a seminar titled “Advantage India”, as more than 1000 delegates and an army of press corps, had descended on the city of Istanbul, that conjoins two diversely rich continents, for the annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank, which concluded on May 6, 2005.
The almost one and a half hour seminar was a capsule shot of the India economy and its future growth potential, including India’s emerging partnerships for regional cooperation and how Indian companies are spreading their wings across the globe. The seminar evoked the strategic and key advantages that make India a preferred investment destination.
The first presentation was by Mr. Sunil Kant Munjal, President, Confederation of Indian Industry and CEO, Hero Corporate Services Ltd. With the help of a multi media, he highlighted India’s building economic cooperation in South Asia and its growing “look East policy” leading to cooperation with both, South East and North East Asia.
India, with an annual expected GDP of 7-8 per cent in the next decade is expected to be among the top three economies of the world by 2020. Through a serious and well-thought-out policy India is spreading its frontiers to the global market place. Already on the London Stock Exchange and New York Stock Exchange the Indian companies listed so far are 15 and 7 respectively. The Indian business houses are ready to become active “globalizers”. India today is the 8th largest investor in USA and 9th largest in UK.
The Indian quality “manufacturing” is substantiated with robust export performance. The export front runners during 2002-2003 were Bharat Forge (Rs282.2 billion), Mico (Rs256 billion), Brakes India (Rs71.4 billion) and Wheels India (Rs44.1 billion).
The opening of economic borders to overseas investments, started at a much brisk pace in Pakistan, while India was slow but steady. With the political upheavals, we are now sadly way behind. India continues to attract huge FDI into various sectors of the economy.
Some notable examples of investments in India are, the proposed $500 million Siemens expansion over a three year period; Warburg Pincus, a global venture capital and buyout firms investments of $1 billion in Indian companies equities and more than 265 firms from Japan have invested $2 billion in India.
The first presentation was followed by a rather “loud” but most effective video presentation. It was aptly titled, “Brand India”. The speed of the video was quite impressive, not to mention its contents, which were highly inviting. The potential investors were aplenty in the audience. Also present were bankers, economists, industrialists, media, credit rating agencies, government functionaries etc. from the West, Middle East, China, Korea, Taiwan and Japan.
Following the video, Dr Naresh Trehan, a leading cardiologist and currently Chairman, Health Care Committee and Executive Director, Escorts Hospital Group, though being from the medical profession made the most impassioned business plea for India’s cause. He remarked that health care services sector is growing at eight per cent. India spends $22.7 billion on health care, which is 5.2 per cent of GDP; the sector employs more than four million people.
Dr. Trehan spoke about the potential of KPO i.e. “knowledge process outsourcing” of the Indian medical sector and suggested that by 2010, it would earn about $17 billion. India’s medical services sector can be easily proud of the fact that annually about 60,000 cardiac surgeries are performed with a mortality rate of less than one per cent.
About 35 per cent of India’s population is below 15 years and 52 per cent is below 35 years. The average or median age is 24 years and hence there has been a rapid decline in the “dependent age” bracket. In the very near future India will have a robust human resource talent pool, which inevitably would counter the shortage in human resources in the West. Today the middle class of India is booming with a figure that tops 300 million and who enjoy a per capita income of $250.
India undoubtedly presents an attractive investment destination, through its marketing efforts, which is a function very finely shared by the governments and private sector; where they portray the following five fundamentals: Independent regulatory authorities, solid democratic institutions, vibrant financial institutions, buoyant stock markets and an extremely independent and free press/media.
Despite the anticipated 7-8 per cent GDP growth, India painfully suffers from what the Finance Minister, Mr. Chidambaram calls, “infrastructure deficiency”. The country needs about $150 infrastructure investment in the next 10 years to deal with, in his own words: “we have heritage sites, we have no hotels near them; we have got airports which cannot take more than 15-20 aircrafts at the same time..”
India has successfully attracted ADB to host its 2006 annual conference in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh. The city of Hyderabad, after Bangalore is the second silicon city of India. It has in the recent past attracted visits by Bill Clinton and Bill Gates. The last slide which said: “ See you in Hyderabad!” had a picture of a family, where the wife has a huge box next to her and she says, “Fill Good”; the daughter who is clinging to her father says, “ Feed Good” and in reaction the father standing between the two says; “ Feel Good”.
