Location: carl sagan's universe
Posted on: 17-02-07 09:25:58
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6334305.stm
India's economy 'nears $1 trillion'
By Andrew Walker
Economics correspondent, BBC News
The Tata group has wide-ranging interests in India
If we needed a reminder of India's growing global economic presence, we had it last week in the steel industry when India's Tata won a stock market auction for the European company Corus.
The result of putting the two together will be the fifth-biggest steel producer in the world.
And it is an Indian-born entrepreneur, Lakshmi Mittal, who is the driving force behind the biggest of all in the industry, Arcelor Mittal.
That story is merely a recent news event that highlights India's rise. It is a much wider phenomenon.
Gerard Walsh, Regional Director for Asia at the Economist Intelligence Unit in London, says India is already close to being a $1 trillion economy.
And if you measure it using purchasing-power parities - an alternative to exchange rates which accounts for different price levels between countries - India is already the third-largest economy in the world, behind only the US and China.
Growing impact
Most economists expect India's recent relatively rapid growth - an annual average of about 7% over the last four years - to continue.
That alone would ensure the country would make a growing mark. But it has been a relatively closed economy, with barriers to foreign trade and investment.
Lakshmi Mittal runs the world's largest steel company
Those barriers have been eased, but many remain. The government appears inclined to continue the liberalisation process - and that would make India's international integration proceed even more quickly.
The World Bank has done a recent study, called Dancing with Giants, looking at the implications of the rise of India and China.
Alan Winters, one of the authors, says that for the most part, India's rise is good news for the rest of us.
India's economic growth generates more of the goods it produces and others buy - and that will tend to push prices down.
Competition
But there may be some adverse consequences. Demand for raw materials from growing Indian industry will create upward pressure on those prices.
That's also true for oil, although Mr Winters emphasises that India is a small part of what will determine the global energy prices.
Ranbaxy is an Indian drugs firm with global reach
In addition, the increased competition as India produces more goods and services might hurt other countries in South Asia, especially in the textiles and clothing business.
That is an industry where low costs are one of the keys to success.
The same is true of another sector where India is already a big presence on the world stage - medicines.
India's biggest is Ranbaxy, a name we will probably hear more of in the future.
The company's chief executive, Malvinder Mohan Singh, says that 80% of revenue comes from international markets and just 20% from India.
It divides half and half between developed- and developing-country markets.
More sophisticated
Ranbaxy is a company that makes so-called generic medicines, cheap copies of drugs developed by others. But Mr Singh says they have ambitions to develop their own patented therapies.
It would be a move into an area that requires more high-level expertise, and that is a characteristic of other areas of India business life - notably computer software.
Poverty levels are still high in India
The low-cost, high-volume manufacturing will continue - at Ranbaxy and in other Indian industries - but a more sophisticated side is emerging.
Nonetheless, there is much in India that remains pretty basic. Poverty is deep and widespread. It is a matter of controversy whether India's economic growth has helped or not.
Some, including Indu Prakash Singh of Actionaid in Delhi, say the rich and middle classes have benefited, but the poor have not.
He says there have been many cases of poor people being displaced from urban areas in the name of development to areas where they have no housing and no livelihood.
The World Bank's Mr Winters agrees that the wealthy and middle-class clearly have gained.
But he also says the data suggests that the distribution of income hasn't changed much, so the poor are benefiting from India's economic growth. He says there is no reason why they should not continue to do so.
Canada's economy is also 1 Trillion $ but this money is shared by 30 million people whereas in India it is shared by a
(1000 million ) billion people.
https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2001rank.html
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You know you are a desi when ........ You spew forth the virtues of India, but don't want to live there...............You've never had a tanning salon membership
In the global M&A wars, 'India's time has come'
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20070217.wrcover17/BNStory/Business/home
And in a video Advertisement I saw last week narrated by amitabh Bachhan, scripted by Gulzar, what struck me the most was the statement which went something liuke this: We are not India of the past that shunned foreign goods. If it interests us now, we buy the foreign companies producing these itself"
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Quote:
Originally posted by Rajeev Narula
We are not India of the past that shunned foreign goods. If it interests us now, we buy the foreign companies producing these itself"
Very True!
I am amazed to find that even the Tetley Tea co.(U.K) was bought out by Tata Enterprises 6 years ago. Every Tetley tea sold all over the world, profit share goes to India's Tata.
Quote:
Originally posted by Loser
Canada's economy is also 1 Trillion $ but this money is shared by 30 million people whereas in India it is shared by a
(1000 million ) billion people.
https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/rankorder/2001rank.html
Much of that money is top shared by top 10 ~ 20% people unfortunately but the top 20% ppl in India lead a very good life relatively with services being cheap.
Not to mention the parallel economy which is just as much but is not reflected - ever found a doctor / businessman demonstrating his right income .... I wonder what the economy would be if they did .
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Fido.
It took infosys 24 Yrs to be a billion dollar company and just another 24 months to be 2 billion dollar company
India's greatest leader Mukesh Ambani predicts the same for India. It took almost 50 Yrs to be trillion dollar economy, but it will now take only 8-9+ yrs to double ( with india's GDP growing at 8 percent).
That means india's economy would add a trillion dollar every 8-9 Yrs.
Fido got it right.
Income tax is paid by white and blue collar workers. How many jewellers, doctors, lawyers, hospitals pay up taxes? All these professions are based on cash. They dont accept cheques. Once my dad tried to use his credit card for payment in a hospital. They refused to take, demanding cash, which will be unaccounted for. Note that less than 2% of the Indian population pays income tax whereas 21 million canadians (out of 31 million population) file for taxes. At least they file for taxes. There will be routine audits. That means there is some system here.
Whereas in India, income tax system is far behind. Tax returns filed by celebreties are handled by "special individuals" who are handpicked by the babus. If everyone is paying proper taxes, then India will do even much better.
DIO
