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.

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

Despite the slowdown in the overall world economic scenario, Indian IT companies are undeterred by the bleak business prospect. In fact they are using this as an opportunity to expand their overseas businesses. This became clear when Infosys, India’s second largest provider of IT enabled business services with an annual operating profit of around $1.25 billion announced its bid to acquire Axon Group of UK in an all-cash deal of $814 million.

According to analysts, Infosys is paying a premium of 33.1 percent to the average value during 6 last 6 months of Axon’s 67.85 million shares. The bid price is also 19.4 percent higher to the price the share was last traded on 22^nd August.

There is no surprise in the bid as according to G. Gopalkrishnan, CEO of Infosys, the company is looking to leverage the Systems Application and Products (SAP) expertise that Axon offers.

“This strategic combinations of our groups will accelerate the realization of our common aspirations – that of becoming the most respected provider of business transformational services in the global market place.”

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