Byapaar.com – The Indian Business Blog

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