Why Work With INDIA? Part I

We all are aware that the Information Technology industry is rapidly growing in INDIA. This brings us to, many questions to be answered. We would like to know the major reasons for why are the western countries interested to invest their capital in India. Well!! We are proud of the very fact that India has a pool of talent within its womb, and many other nations have realized the fact that Indians are amongst the most intelligent humans on the planet. I've tried to figure out a few reasons why any other nation would like to work with us. Hope you agree with me, opinions may vary but the fact remains, Indian Professionals are in demand all over the Globe. I would present to you in a series the various reasons of Why Work With India by the means of this article. To contribute to this article I welcome your suggestions and opinions, which, can be included in the following series of this article. To begin with here are a few reasons listed below:-

Information Technology (IT) - The IT sector in India is amongst the fastest growing in the country and the world. IT professionals work in all major markets around the world. Indian technology products and solutions are accepted globally. The software industry has emerged as one of the fastest growing sectors in the economy with an annual growth rate exceeding 50 per cent over the last five years and with turnover of over US$ 15 billion and exports of about US$ 10 billion. Software exports have registered a CAGR of about 60%. The IT software and services industry accounted for about 2.35% of India's GDP during 2002-03 and over 20% of total exports. It is expected that by the year 2008, IT software and services industry will account for 7 per cent of India's GDP and 35 per cent of total exports. The Indian IT services (ITS) and IT enabled services (ITES) industry is poised to meet its long-term exports potential of US$ 57 billion. India is emerging as a prominent location for ITes and has the potential of becoming one of the biggest global players in this field. According to market estimates, the global volume of ITes is likely to go up to US$ 611.4 billion by 2005. Currently, India has the potential to tap 38 per cent of the market. With increasing investment in the ITes sector, it is expected to employ around 1.1 million people by 2008. A large number of Indian software companies have acquired international quality certification. Out of top 400 companies, more than 250 have already acquired ISO 9000 certification.

Software Industry - The Indian software industry truly symbolizes India's strength in the knowledge based economy. Highly skilled human resources coupled with low wage structure and world class quality have transformed India into a global powerhouse in the Information Technology (IT) software services and solutions sectors. Despite a slowing global economy, Indian Software exports grew by 23 percent in 2001-02. India currently exports software to around 100 countries around the globe and more than 250 Fortune 500 companies have outsourced some part of their software requirements from India. Many global software majors have set-up operations in India. They include Microsoft, Oracle, Adobe among others. India has a large base of English speaking, skilled manpower resource with experience on state-of-the-art hardware and software platforms. This is supported by a flourishing IT education market, producing high quality software professionals across different areas in the field.

High Performance Computing - India has made considerable advance in the field of High Performance Computing (HPC) developments. She has developed a one Teraflop computing system PARAM TF which has been commissioned on 16 December, 2002.

E-Governance - E-governance is another area India is making considerable progress. The Economic Times recently reported that the government in India is emerging as the fourth largest vertical spender on information technology after the telecom, manufacturing and banking and finance industries. According to Gartner estimates, the Indian government has spent around 1 billion USD on information technology in 2002. In fact, the government accounted for 9% of the total IT spent in India for the year 2002, and in five years that is estimated to go up to 15 per cent. Though e-government is still in its infancy, over 20 states/union territories already have an IT policy in place. In terms of basic computerization, police departments, treasury, land records, irrigation and justice are seen as having the maximum potential. NASSCOM estimates that in the next five years, state governments in India will spend close to  Rs.15,000/-crores on computerizing their operations. Microsoft chief Bill Gates during his visit of India in 2000 said that India was emerging as a leader in e-governance and that his trip to the country had been very exciting. Recalling his first visit to India in 1997, he said N Chandrababu Naidu of Andhra Pradesh was the only chief minister to meet him at that time. "He was the first politician whom I ever met who was carrying a computer. Since then, our relationship has come a long way," he added. He said during his visit in 2000, he had interacted with 14 chief ministers and they had briefed him about the e-governance projects taken up in their states. However, it was obvious that Naidu was leading the way in e-governance, Gates said. The revenue now is US$ 13.5 billion and will be US$ 87 billion by 2008 - IT export now US$ 10 billion will be US$ 50 billion by 2008. India has the largest pool of IT manpower. India has a 20% market share in the global. Country customized software development market. Over 36 of the 58 companies in the world who have achieved SEI level maturity are in India. Majority of the well-known multinational IT companies have either software development center or Research Development Center in India. One third of the e-commerce start ups in Silicon Valley continue to be by Indians. Over half of Future 500 companies are outsourcing their software requirements to India. About 0.5 million professionals employed in Software & IT services at present and the demand in 2008 is projected at 2.2 million. IT has already emerged as the No.1 choice for career in India. Indian capital markets have rewarded Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) with attractive valuations and increasing returns. Stock Exchange - the Mumbai Stock Exchange continues to be the premier exchange in the country with an increase in market capitalization from US$ 40 billion in 1990-91 to US$ 203 billion in 1999-2000. The stock exchange has about 6,000 listed companies and an average daily volume of about a billion dollars

Why Work With India? Part II

In the last series we read about why would the western countries invest their capital in India for making themselves economically strong, we learnt about Information Technology (IT), Software Industry, High Performance Computing for an example. In this series we would concentrate further on Special Economic Zones in India and many other topics. Hope you find this interesting and educative.

Special Economic Zones(SEZ) - From April 2000 Special Economic Zones(SEZ) were set up in India with a view to provide an internationally competitive and hassle free environment for exports. Business units may be set up in SEZ for manufacture of goods and rendering of services. All the import/export operations of the SEZ units will be on self-certification basis. The policy provides for setting up of SEZ's in the public, private, joint sector or by State Governments. In simple terms the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) provide virtual offshore operation facilities and advantages of a free trade area. A number of the earlier Export Processing Zones(EPZ) located at Kandla and Surat (Gujarat), Cochin (Kerala), Santa Cruz (Mumbai - Maharashtra), Falta (West Bengal), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Visakhapatnam (Andhra Prad esh) and Noida (Uttar Pradesh) were converted into Special Economic Zones

Trading With India- Trading could be a good business with India. One option could be either export to India to take advantage of a market of more than one billion population. India imports goods and services worth more than US $ 50 billion per year. The second option could be that you may also source products and services of international quality from India. Lastly, you could also set up a trading office in India for exporting from India to other markets. The Indian retailing market size is currently
estimated at US$180 billion. Of this, organized retailing comprises only 1.6 per cent of the total retailing market and is estimated at around US$ 3 billion. The organized retail sector is expected to grow to US$18 billion by 2010 across different segments. Rising income levels, education and a global exposure have contributed to the evolution of the Indian middle class purchasing and shopping habits are maturing as a result. Retailing through formats such as supermarkets, hypermarkets, department stores and other specialty chains are increasing. Leading industrial houses in the country are investing in the sector. Retailing through non-traditional channels such as Fuel Stations, Direct Selling and Home Shopping Television is on the rise. However, FDI in retail trading is so far not encouraged in any form. A few foreign retail names appearing in the market are in the nature of franchisee.

Bioinformatics - IT is being increasingly realized and widely recognized that the 21st century will be the century of Information Technology and life sciences. Bio-Tech or DNA parks are being developed to encourage entrepreneurship, improve the competitiveness of the Bio Tech industry in India. Government has also set- up Bio-Informatics parks with Common wet labs for SMEs, Genome Data Center, Super Computing support in the country.

Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) - The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) has been set up to ensure that India's information assets, such as strategic, commercial, financial and Government are provided the necessary protection, and India's IT infrastructure is appropriately and adequately protected to counter threats to its resources and stable operation.

Entertainment - The last decade has seen the Indian entertainment industry grow exponentially. The industry is expected to grow at 27% annually. Revenues are projected to increase to US$ 10 billion in 2005 from 3 billion in 2002. India is one of the most media-exposed countries when compared to its Asian counterparts due to its size and consequently a large consumer base.

Films - The Indian film industry is largest in the world in terms of number of movies produced. India produces 800-900 movies every year in 52 languages and provides direct and indirect employment to 5 million people. The first commercially successful film was made in 1913. The exports of Indian films in the last few years have seen a dramatic upward swing.

Television - Television accounts for the largest slice of the urban India's media consumption pie (72% of total media consumption). Television software is also expected to grow in India as technology is affordable and manpower cost is low. Film distribution is turning out to be a lucrative business. Television software content development is expected to experience healthy growth in the coming years. The radio industry is witnessing several private FM channels being launched in many Indian cities

Why Work With India? Part III

The earlier series were related to the enhanced technical developments in India, in this part of the series we would like to discuss only a very few diverse reasons to work with India. These reasons are related to the culture that this wonderful nation practices in its vicinity.

More Competitive Advantages Offered by India

Stable democratic governance throughout 55 years of independence.

Large market of a middle class of 300-350 million people with increasing purchasing power as reflected by a sustained growth in sales of consumer durables in recent years.

Access to regional international markets through membership of regional cooperation frameworks such as SAARC, Indian Ocean Rim countries (IOC-ARC), and dialogue partnerships with EU and ASEAN. India also have Memoranda of Understanding/Cooperation partnerships with most African and Latin American regional groupings.

Foreign investment is welcome in almost all sectors barring those of strategic concern like atomic energy, railways and sensitive defense production.

Thrust on technology, innovation and knowledge based industries and services.

Well developed R&D infrastructure and technical and marketing services.

Large resources of untapped natural wealth.

Promising future in the burgeoning information technology and biotechnology industries.

 Developed banking system, commercial banking network of over 63,000 branches, supported by a number of international banks, insurance and financial institutions.

Vibrant capital market comprising 23 stock exchanges with over 9,000 listed companies.

Developing as one of the largest cost-competitive technical workforce nation.

Conducive foreign investment environment that provides freedom of entry and exit, investment, location, choice of technology, import and export. Acceleration of the privatization process and restructuring of public  enterprises.

Current account convertibility, capital account convertibility for foreign investors and progressive implementation for Indian residents.

Established, independent judiciary with a hierarchy of courts and the existence of several arbitration mechanisms outside the courts.

Special investment and tax incentives given for exports and certain sectors such as power, electronics, telecom, software, oil & gas and research and development activities.

Legal protection for Intellectual Property Rights.

Import regime in conformity with WTO commitments - removal of remaining quantitative restrictions on imports of goods into India barring certain items on grounds of national security, defense and health. This brings us to an end of the series. I have tried to capture most of the reasons according to my knowledge, I'm sure you all must have something more to add to this.

What more do you need to think about the fact that the GLOBE NOW DEPENDS ON INDIA? Isn't it amazing that a nation which once suffered immensely by the British Raj, has today made a mark of it's own existence on the World Map. We all would like to be a part of this rapidly developing nation and would always be proud to be an Indian.