India Inc: A One Stop for Global Start-Up The immense opportunities offered by India, making it a dream destination for international brands and start-ups
By Viral Jani
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The Indian Economy is buzzing and witnessing a growth trajectory which no other global economy is able to compete with. India provides a very good blend of a thriving domestic market opportunity, highly skilled manpower & increasingly open regulatory environment. All these make India a favourite destination for global companies who are looking to expand their footprint and create a lasting business success.
Below are a few reasons which make India the next big target market for global companies:
Domestic Market Opportunity - With a huge population, India is possibly one of the biggest markets for world businesses. India has been amongst the fastest growing economies of the world over the last decade. And it is likely to continue on a high growth path for next decade or two. The government has stated its objective to make India a 5 trillion-dollar economy (double the GDP of India) by 2025. High growth in the economy is having an impact on per capita growth of population and hence increasing the purchasing power of the country. Global companies are investing heavily to build products made for Indian conditions to tap into this opportunity.
Growing Technology Infrastructure - The technology infrastructure is evolving very fast. Present day India is at the level where China was 5-10 years ago, and all indications suggest that India will be where China is today in the next few years. Even though we are a 500 million internet users' country, we still sub 40 per cent in internet penetration. This shows that there are a huge upside and growth opportunity ahead of us. The domestic start-up ecosystem has matured, and a variety of business models are becoming viable as gradually consumers are willing to pay/sample newer products. All these factors make India a very attractive market for global start-ups across sectors like fin-tech, consumer technology, e-commerce, ed-tech & more. A multitude of companies & funds from North America, China & Europe are looking at this as a growth opportunity over the next decade.
Human Capital - India offers a huge pool of trained manpower. Indians across the world have proven to be amongst the finest workforces. Global start-ups can make the most of high-quality workforce with a strong work ethic to set up facilities like manufacturing, R&D, innovation centres and technology support for global operations. India naturally becomes a laboratory of sorts to develop products for rest of the evolving markets as the market environments are similar. We have seen companies like Uber gain immensely from the high-quality workforce at their global innovation centre in Bangalore to develop products for emerging markets.
Open Regulatory Environment - Indian market is far more open than other countries. The accessibility of the Indian market makes it very attractive for foreign start-ups. The Indian government is welcoming investments in the country. This is different from the rest of the world as some of the biggest economies across the world are averse to global companies. The Indian government has several open-door policies like 100-percent FDI. India is climbing up ease of business rankings. The state governments are trying to outdo to attract investments in their states. According to the Ease of Doing Business ranking index, India has jumped 23 positions and ranked 77th position. This improvement in India's ranking will significantly boost confidence among the companies which are looking at India to expand their footprint.
