Byapaar.com – The Indian Business Blog

Happy Diwali Greetings – 2009 to all my readers and visitors and to All of India.

It has been a long time that I published a post on this blog – I am sorry for that. But today, on this auspicious occassion – I feel responsible to my readers again and I’ll be discussing some news as well as business opportunities.

During this time last year, the Indian economy – along with the world economy has been in doldrums and people started to compare it with the great depression of the 30′s. But there have been some good news coming around the world about the economies recovering – slowly and surely and Diwali being the festival of light, the forecast that Indian economy has every possibility to top 6% growth has been a boon for all Indians. The stock market has also recovered very well with the benchmark indice the Sensex topping 17,000 over the last couple of weeks.

There are also good news on the international front – the US un-employment rate has come-down by  good numbers, Chinese economic growth might touch 8% for the current fiscal and other major economies too showing sings of positive economic out-llok.

Under these circumstances, I must say that Indian retailing industry has a long way to go to match the international standard of delivering the products they sell. I am specially referring to small-sized businesses who operate single-handedly and not about big organized retailers like BigBazaar or Future Bazzar or Shoppers Stop  for that matter. But I am talking about those retailers who are the real players in India.

The other day – I was looking to buy online for a SLR digital camera at discount price and FutureBazaar came in the search. When I choose my price range and model – I found that the product was not on their stock. This way I tried for some-time and then got tired.

Being online for 3 years now have gained me lots of experience about online and how small businesses are profitting by using the internet world.

Here is an example of a small retailer dealing in embroidery supplies . It sells lots of tools at discounted price such as embroidery needles , embroidery bobbins and so on which are very much essential for making embroidery products, a renowned Indian industry. One just has to order it online and the goods are delivered at your doorstep. No-one has to go to the market and find them painfully.

So, my confusion or to say the truth – dilemma is why are not Indian businesses not taking the online advantage of increasing their sales and reaching out to more clients through e-commerce? It is a custom to send gifts to relatives, friends during the many festivals held all around the year who live far- away. Suppose, I have some relatives in Mumbai and I want to send some good chocolates to them. I can’t do it from where I live due to the time it would take. But if i find a chocolate shop taking bookings online and offering home-delivery services, I can easily fulfill my wishes.

True, the Internet penetration is still low in India, but the latest data ( 81,000,000 Internet users Nov/08 ) is still very very high and a gold-mine of sorts. Hopefully, the concerned business personalities will read this post and make people aware of the endless opportunities that e-commerce will open to increase their reach and thus sales.

First of all, I would like to beg your pardon for not updating this blog for so long. It has been quite a long story – but in short “Politics” kept me pre-occupied for close to two months.

From declaration of Indian General Election to announcement of results and till the full Central Ministry formation – I got soaked into Indian national politics.

Some of my regular readers might wonder what do I have to do with politics as I work in a school! Well, here is my clarification:

I work in a semi-government school which means – all the expenditures of the school is borne by the government and we enjoy all the benefit of a government employee. But our school administration is run by a Managing Committee whereas that of a fully government school is run by the School Education department of the government. We can also participate into active politics unlike government employees who are forbidden to participate in active politics. For being involved with a particular political party- we don’t have to put in any declaration or resignation papers.

Under the circumstances, I joined Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) just one month before election. Being a teacher does help a great deal in politics as I was immediately given the post of Vice-President in our Mondol Committee (state assembly segment level). So I had to get involved into high-voltage election campaigns. My responsibity was more as the Member of Parliament (MP) candidate from our party comes from same village – barely few hundred meters far from my house.

I am not here to justify BJP policies – but I must say that I had no option but to join them. In our state Congress (I) is in total organizational disarray, and I can never ever join in the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M) – as they are totally non-communist in practice. They are more bourgeoisie than even hardcore Capitalist of USA. To be frank – they are communist just by name – in practice all those big capitalist captains of the west would pale before them.

BJP is still in a nascent stage in my state – so I can join them and try to influence them. That has been my rationale.

Let forget it now – for the time being. My heartiest congratulation goes to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) for the decisive mandate they got. I look forward to them taking the economic reforms forward with more human touch so that all poor of India benefit from the economic boom the county has been witnessing for more than one decade now.

The business communities and investors across boundaries have also been rejoicing for the way Indians have shown a decisive mandate for the UPA and the way they discarded the problematic, out-of-date ideas of the present Left Front. The UPA win taste much sweeter as they got the mandate after literally demolishing the ever opportunistic and negative politics of the Left parties. The election has thrown a big question over survival of the Left politics in India. The sooner they are extinct, the better for Indian poor and deprived people. Because their politics is that of keeping people hungry for want of government help– so that they are forced to join them which tantamount to deception.

The mood of the Indian business and investment community can be seen in the way they stock market has responded. The main market sentiment indicator “Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index (BSE SENSEX) has gained more than 5,000 points since the election result was announced. In between, the Reserve Bank of India also announced that – Indian economy (Gross Domestic Product or GDP) has grown by 5.8 percent during last financial year (2008-2009). It is a big decrease from the previous year – but still very good considering the financial turmoil that has engulfed the world during last year when most big economies saw negative growth of their GDP.

The international business communities have also shown positive responses over the outlook of Indian economy. Recently, renowned international credit rating agency has given Indian economy a “STABLE” status. It seems other agencies will soon bring out their ratings and by all indications they will move in the positive directions instead of negative directions.

That’s for today now. I have serious plans to resume my regular online routine very soon. So “HANG ON” friends –more posts with mix of Indian business and politics will follow on the blog on regular basis.

Before going to main post, let me do some latest update on Indian business and economic scenario -

• Industrial production has contracted by 1.2% in February – the third straight month of decline over last year. But due to some positive initiatives by the government there is good growth rate in capital goods and sales of consumer durables.
• Inflation is down to 0.26% as industry is putting pressure on the government for more cuts in interest rates.
• The stock market is finally moving in the positive direction and now the Bombay Stock Exchange bench mark indicator the Sensex is hovering around 11,000.

Well these are the latest important developments. Now lets talk something about public relations. Public relations or PR as most often referred is the medium through which all organizations keep themselves in touch with the public. Ideally, it is an essential part of all successful organizations – be it a corporate house or political party.

But it seems the concept is an alien one in Indian government departments, specially state departments and those of government run companies like banks. Every time, I visit to any government office of my state for some issues from time to time, I have to move around the building, room to room to get the job done. There is no cohenrence at all.

On the other hand – in true zamindari (feudal) style, the most of the employees of state run banks act as if they are the lords and the valued clients came to them with some problems and need money. This is more prevalent in rural or semi-urban areas that I dwel.

On the other hand successful private firms or banks have very good services through their specially trained personal relations personnel and offer great experience during conduct of business. Government agencies which are there to serve the people and state run agencies must take a cue out of private firms and send their personnel for special PR training. It is really confusing for an outsider to believe how bad an experience can be in dealing with these agencies when India is offering customer care services to million worldwide through its big outsourcing industry. Unless and untill all state governments take initiatives to train government employess in the techniques of handling the public, we will never get good governance. I urge all political parties who are heading into pools within a week to take note of it and make an issue.

As always, before I go into my personal post, lemme update you with some economic and business news from India –

• An Institute of Company Secretaries of India core group has recommended to set up rules for corporate governance which came into poor light when the Satyam scandal broke out. It seems the government has finally woke up to the ground reality of how lack of proper corporate governance rules can be so nakedly exploited by exectuives.
• The second important update is sharp fall in exports of merchandise products. India’s export for the month of March contracted by 14 to 20 percent from that of March, 2009. This was not unexpected though as Indian exporters fought hard for orders as most countries in the west are in recession. But the government and traders are optimistic about exports figure to remain at least static to that of 2008-2009 as G-20 summit have resolved to name and take action against protectionist countries.
• Another important business news is not particularly Indian, rather international but India is very much part of it and has huge bearings on its outcome. The G-20 summit held in London have pledged to raise $1.1 trillion to help countries in need during this tough economic scenario. It has also resolved to “name and shame” countries who are following a protectionist policy. But the US proposal for another round of stimulus package was not accepted by leaders of G-20 countries. There was also call for tighter financial regulations and tax havens are to be blacklisted from now on.
• The G-20 summit and some domestic measures has helped in raising the market as Bombay Stock Exchange sensitive index (sensex) was up by 447 points. All major international markets except FTSE of London also went up.

As we just read about all economic woes with countries hit by recession, business going downhill, is it wise of me to go for an Start-Up? I believe – this is the right kind of time for me to go for it. There are some reasons for my positive thinking.

• Firstly, the nature of my business. Well, you might have guessed it if you are a regular reader! I want to seriously enter the web world with domaining, blogging, SEO service, content writing services. As the global economy is going through a rough time, more and more businesses and companies will llok for greater reach and embrace e-commerce thus more opportunities for web service providers. The market can not go much downhill from present state. Indeed I expect the web to grow faster once global economy shows signs of recovery. Hence, more and more money will be spent for online advertising.
• The second point is – you need loans for your business and this is just the right time to get them. With governments taking step after step to stimulate the economies, interest rates very cheap (in fact I expect it to go down more) – there is now no problem in securing fast small business loans. As my business involves only buying some computers and setting up a small office, I don’t need huge amount o loans.
• With changing business environment, everything is becoming really cheap including real estate.

So, isn’t it the right time for me to mull over a small start-up? What do you say? :p