Posts from — December 2009

What connection could there be between the Tiger Wood scandal and India, you ask. Well, Indians have a sense of history and while Tiger is married to Elin Nordegren, one of Sweden’s most stunning women of today, there is a India angle about the most famous Swede blonde ever and how she was spurned in India.

I speak of course about actress Ingrid Bergman, known as the star of  Casablanca and many other blockbusters. She was married to Italian director Robert Rosellini when the couple was invited by India’s Prime Minister, JawaharLal Nehru to make a documentary about India.  The trip was going to disappoint Ingrid since her Italian husband met  27 year old starlet Sonali Das Gupta (who was then married to Indian producer Hari Das Gupta and had two children). Rosellini and Das Gupta fell in love as reported in Time magazine in May 1957.  They eloped and married and she became an Italian citizen, leaving superstar Ingrid Bergman scorned.  Here is an interesting snippet from a 1999India  story about what happened to Sonali.   One of her sons by Hari moved with her to Italy and took up the Rosellini name and eventually made movies himself as Gil Rosellini.

And the Indian press still remembers some of this, in fact here is a curious story about the Tiger scandal, that you might chuckle about.

In April 2008, Bharti Retail opened its first “EasyDay Market” retail store in founder Sunil Bharti Mittal’s mid-sized home town of Ludhiana in Punjab. Eschewing the major metro cities that have been the focus of other  Indian retail chains such as Spencers, Reliance and More.  Since then, CEO Vinod Sawhny has led the opening of two more stores, both in North India. With a focus on value retailing, the company has targetted Punjab and Haryana and may expand to neighboring northern states of Uttarakhand, Delhi and Himachal Pradesh. This avoids locations where Pantaloon’s Big Bazaar and Food Bazaar are entrenched and also builds near Mittal’s traditional strongholds. Many FMCG  (CPG) manufacurers have located their factories in states such as Uttarakhand and Himachals for tax reasons, so the supply chains for packaged products won’t be that long.

As a value retailer, it makes sense that Bharti gets about 15 percent of its sales from private labels. Sawny expects to double that percentage to 30% in an interview with the Indian newspaper DNA.

Separately Bharti has a joint venture with the world’s largest retailer Wal-mart. But Indian law requires that stores that are run by this joint venture offer products for sale only to businesses and not to consumers. They are being referred in India as CnC or Cash-and-Carry wholesale stores. The first such wholesale location opened in the border city of Amritsar.

With India’s economy still growing at about 8 percent, air traffic continues to be congested. I am flying from Delhi to Mumbai today and my flight is delayed by over an hour. The new domestic terminal is a lot better than the ancient low-slung building it replaced. But today I found something even better, the first American Express Platinum Lounge in India, tucked away behind the Costa Coffee and the food court (and opposite from the airline lounges).

I am just testing the Amex Platinum card and I think I just found reason to pay for it.  It’s not busy, the staff is courteous and it’s much cleaner than the airline lounges. They have basic food and snacks for free. I was hungry and I  asked if I could buy food from the food court and bring it in. They said no, not surprisingly. But then came the hook. Asha, the woman behind the counter says, “Sir tell me what you want to eat and I will get it from outside and bring it to you. It’s on the house.”

India never ceases to surprise. Even the India expert. (Four days ago, I had to pay for a drink  in Chicago at the American Airlines Admirals Club, even though I was flying business class. Internet Access was another $7.99 and 20 minutes of battling Boingo/Oingo/TMobile nonsense).  At DEL airport, Airtel provided FREE Wi-fi (I think they provide this at BOM as well).

The global slowdown that began last year affected exports from India for a while but the overall mood in the country continued to be upbeat.  Quarterly growth also continued so facts and emotions were lined up. In Q3 2009, facts seem to have gotten ahead of emotions as India reported 7.9 % growth, ahead of most expectations. Those who know Indian stats are aware that the numbers are not burnished by govt statisticians (unlike another large country in the area).  This is good news for anyone wanting to export to India. See the Financial Times report for more specifics or another report here from the venerable US taxpayer funded Voice of America.