NEW DELHI, March 14: Pakistani brands are gaining popularity in the upbeat Indian market. There is a huge scope for Pakistani entrepreneurs to cater to the developing interest of Indian consumers in Pakistani products.

The gigantic 250 million strong comparatively prosperous Indian consumers enjoy the power to choose on the strength of better purchasing power. “Indians love Pakistani textile made-ups, curry powders and many other products,” people working on the Saarc desk at the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Delhi told Dawn.

“The exhibitions by the private sector have generated a lot of interest in Pakistani products and Indians are rediscovering the country as a supplier of quality consumer products,” a businessman commented.

“We have people importing surgical material from Pakistan that are better in quality and priced competitively. The quality of Pakistani cement is surprisingly superior and popular brands of masalas, such as Shan and National, are now known to people of Delhi,” said an official in India’s trade ministry.

The appetite for Pakistani products is picking up in India, now it is up to entrepreneurs on the other side of the border to match it with steady supply overcoming hurdles in the way of two-way trade.

“You do not get the quality of fine lawn produced in Pakistan here. Besides, the needle work is different and has huge appeal in India. So days are gone when Indians preferred local products over others and modern consumer wants best value for his money, quite indifferent to where the product is produced,” a lady associated with market research in Delhi told Dawn.

The market in the two countries, it seems, is big enough to provide space to progress to forward-looking competitive entrepreneurs on both sides of the border.

There is goodwill and a right mix of trade and industrial policies in India and Pakistan can work wonders for the business class who could help sustain the growth momentum to the benefit of the teeming millions who have been waiting for the prosperity to arrive for them.