India is one of the fastest growing pharmaceutical markets in the world generating almost $8 billion per year. That amount is more than expected to double by 2015 with annual growth from 15 to 20 percent. Following the acquisition of India’s pharma leader Ranbaxy Labs by a Japanese company, the India Expert was not surprised [...]
Posted on September 4th, 2010 by Gunjan
It took 33 years for India to increase its per-capita annual income from $100 to $500, but only five years to double it from $500 to $1,000. It’s not surprising then, that Indian industry reported huge rises in sales in June: cars (34 per cent), refrigerators (32 per cent), air conditioners (50 per cent) and [...]
Posted on August 28th, 2010 by Gunjan
India’s high rate of inflation is expected to reduce with the recent rainfall in what is turning out to be a good monsoon season. India’s Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, made a statement addressing a recent National Development Council (NDC) meeting, citing a bit more optimism about the inflation than projected by his advisory council’s [...]
Posted on August 3rd, 2010 by Gunjan
Berkshire Hathaway, promoted by billionaire Nebraska investor Warren Buffet, will become part of India’s auto insurance market. Berkshire Hathaway will position itself with an existing Indian corporation, Bajaj Allianz General. Entrance through an existing corporation is in response to Indian law which prohibits high level of direct foreign investment in certain industries. Specifically, in the [...]
Posted on June 28th, 2010 by Gunjan
For one hundred years until 1856, the British East India Company ruled over 25% of the world’s population beginning at a time when India controlled almost 20 percent of the world’s GDP (according to economic historian estimates). Its power inspired books such as “The Corporation that Changed the World“ and based on monopoly powers to [...]
Posted on April 8th, 2010 by Gunjan
American automaker Ford Motors reported an over three-fold jump in its March sales at 9,478 units due to its its newly-launched hatchback Figo getting a good response. In addition Figo had over 10,000 advance bookings in the last four weeks, according to Ford India Marketing Sales and Services Executive Director Nigel Wark. Ford’s factory in [...]
Posted on April 5th, 2010 by Gunjan
The results of a survey published by consultancy firm Nielsen indicates that Indians are most optimistic about job prospects and personal finances compared to the rest of the world. The Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence report that 92% of Indians were optimistic about their job prospects over the next year. In addition, the survey Nielsen published [...]
Posted on January 30th, 2010 by Gunjan
Before he got a mobile phone seven years ago, Vijay Navle, a small Mumbai fish trader, spent much of his time and scant income travelling on buses and trains, according to the Financial Times. Every day, he would make the five-hour round trip to visit fishermen living on the Arabian Sea on the north of [...]
Posted on January 28th, 2010 by Gunjan
Tata Chemicals is challenging Unilever’s India unit for the world lowest cost home water purifier, based on a rice husk ash filter. With a starting retail price of $16 for the unit, it costs less than half of Hindustan Unilever‘s breakthrough PureIt unit which has been a runaway success in India with $40 million in [...]
Posted on January 3rd, 2010 by Gunjan
A tablet device named Adam, designed by Notion Ink a startup, located in Hyderabad India, is capturing a tremendous amount of buzz in the lead up to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas next week. Based on Google’s Android operating system. Nvidia’s new Tegra chipset and the Pixel Qi new low-power display, the [...]
Posted on January 2nd, 2010 by Gunjan
The global production of banana is estimated at 48.9 million tonnes out of which 10.4 million tonnes, is contributed by India. India is followed by Brazil (5.5 million tonnes), Indonesia (2.3 million tonnes), Philippines (3.8 million tonnes), China (1.9 million tonnes) and Australia (1.8 million tonnes). This top ranking is new. India was not the [...]
Posted on December 30th, 2009 by Gunjan
My book on Doing Business in India was published over a year ago. Major media and the public at large have been very kind to it and it is now established as the “go-to” primer on the subject, far ahead of other books on similar themes. I’ve been blessed to be mentioned in sources as [...]
Posted on December 18th, 2009 by Gunjan
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 [...]
Posted on December 13th, 2009 by Gunjan
The trajectory of innovation in countries such as India is taking a different path from the Industrial Revolution in the West. Communications technology such as television and cell phones have leaped across to India. Bottom-of-the-pyramid thinking had created huge markets based on $20 cell phones and $0.02 sachets of shampoo. But microfinance and technology are [...]
Posted on November 1st, 2009 by Gunjan
I grew up in the city of Kanpur, in northern India. a city that has seen relative decline in recent decades. During the British Raj it was a thriving textile town. Manufacturers of televisions, tractor parts, motor scooter rose and then declined. Today the city is known for leather and hide exports and for the [...]
Posted on September 3rd, 2009 by Gunjan
My book, Doing Business in 21st Century India, was released as a hardback, audio book and Kindle edition last summer. Today they have released it on Apple ITunes. You can get to it at itunes.com/gunjanbagla or you can try playing the sample MP3 file Doing Business in 21st Century India
Posted on April 11th, 2009 by Gunjan
When a Pantaloons store opened at the Rave mall in native city of Kanpur, I was intrigued. It was the first Western-style retail store, selling clothing in this instance. Upon some research I found that it was run by Kishore Bayani’s Futures Group. Bayani’s company has gone on to launch a series of grocery and [...]
Posted on April 2nd, 2009 by Gunjan
