Brand India

As Republic Day is around, I am tempted to post something on India. Yes of course it is the day when India's constitution was implemented, but the country has come a long way in economic growth, social satisfaction etc. 

According to management thinker Gurcharan Das, the national populace will be happy if national governance is streamlined. India's growth story has been on for the last 20-25 years now, reforms and liberalisation. The global financial turmoil (all those fancy words christianed to the crisis emanating from American Sub Prime Mortgage thing), affected India and the adjoining Dragon the least.

The rise in Double Income No Kids segment (DINK) across major metropolitan Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, proliferation of property by youngsters spells enthusiastic for the economy.  Quality consciousness has moved ahead of TQM, six sigma, etc. 

India's growth is driven by domestic forces that is believed to be the key reasons that India achieved more than 5% growth in 2008-2009. The growth in population has come down from sky rocketing figure, which applies only to Metros and Tier 2 cities. Anyways I don't find population a problem, the only issue for me is that the country should be able to manage the population, literate them and provide employment opportunities. However, it is easier said than done. Yes, I know many solutions to many problems exists, but when the planners narrow it down to implementation, a lot of obstacles emerge. 

India's development model is unique. As implies that one cannot redo a development model of a state and rise up the development ladder. Therefore India's growth model envisages the following viz a viz the growth models adopted by East and South-East Asian Nations:

- India's growth is driven by domestic demand, while the latter is primarily dependent on exports.

- India has become a services hub, while the later focused more on manufacturing.

- As demand is driven by domestic factors, India is a consumption economy, viz a viz investment focus by the later one.

- India has risen to a high tech capital intensive market, while the later is low tech labour intensive. 

India's domestically led growth implies that the economy is insulated from global economic shocks, less volatility, faster recovery from global crisis. On contrary, a services led highlights that India's industrial revolution did not flag off, we have to offer platform for the agrarian population to be able to fine employment in the cities. 

How will India, a capitalist economy be able to capitalise on SEZ bandwagon. Do we really need SEZ, establishments of capitalism in a capitalist economy. Chine being a socialist has adopted SEZs as islands of capitalism, but I think India should be able to provide parallel incentives across, without the need to imitate Chinese model. 

Success of India will be market led, while for China it is state induced. The concept of entrepreneurship is centric to India's growth model. Indian companies have risen globally to competitive levels like Reliance, Jet Airways, HDFC, TATA, etc. 

Counting further on India's achievement are:

- 100 Indian companies have market cap of USD 1 billion

- 1,000 Indian companies have received foreign institutional investment 

- 125 of Fortune 500 companies have R&D bases in India

- 390 Fortune 500 companies have outsourced software development to India

- 2% bad loans in Indian Banks

- 80% credit in India goes to private enterprises as against 10% in China

Counting on obstacles for India's development are:

- World's largest dynamic democracy with freedom of speech, with poor governance

- Failing institutions, coming up of judicial activism only in the metropolis

- Government is not taking up actively on social sectors education, employment, infrastructure, agriculture, defence etc

- Private sector active in the sectors which spells boom like banking, telecom, insurance, entertainment etc

- Satyam fraud, issues of corporate governance coming up and are being debated

Reference: India's Future or prosperity will spread in India but happiness will not, until we fix governance - Gurcharan Das 

Author's Note: So a friend suggests that I must expand the horizons, though my blog is meant for inner expression. Well primarily it is, actually I wish to become a spiritual, management consultant. I strive top achieve perfection in whatever possibly I can. Plus I have to share this SMS here, many of you might have received it, "We live in a funny nation, where pizza reaches home faster than police or ambulance, where we get car loan @10% interest, and education loan @ 12%."