Category — Market Entry

St Jude Medical Inc (a global medical device company based in the US) will make its latest technologies available to patients in India. It will launch Quadripolar technology which will help treat patient with heart failure.

According to Kaustav Banerjee, country manager of St Jude, India is a focus market and the company is dedicated to improving the care of patients throughout the country. The firm, which has its India headquarters in Hyderabad, is focusing on educating physicians and patients about the symptoms and potential treatment options for cardiac problems such as arrhythmia, heart failure, sudden cardiac arrest, and heart valve repair and replacements.

France’s Alstom SA has recently been awarded a $115 million contract by  BHEL to supply components for three units of 660 MW supercritical boilers of Nabinagar Power Generating Co. Ltd. NPGCL is a joint venture company of NTPC Ltd. and Bihar State Electricity Board located in Nabinagar, Bihar, India.

Alstom will cooperate with BHEL in designing the boilers and will supply identified pressure parts of the supercritical boilers along with pulverisers and airpreheater components. Alstom will also assist BHEL with technical advisors during the erection and commissioning of the units.

The contract follows the supercritical boiler contract won by Alstom for Mouda last year, and is in addition to six contracts signed with BHEL between 2008 to 2012 for supercritical boilers in Barh II, Krishnapatam, Bara, Yeramaras, Bellary and Mouda in India.

In ten years, the Indian economy has more than quadrupled in size from $422 billion in 2001 to $2 trillion in 2012. Moreover, India’s GDP per capita has more than trebled from under $500 in 2002 to now crossing $1,700.

According to LV Krishnan, CEO of TAM Media research, “Contribution of services has grown and manufacturing has dipped in relative terms. That’s the biggest change in the advertising world”.

TV has become the primary advertising  media today at 42% of annual spend compared to 37% in 2005.  Newspapers have a shrinking share of 39% (49% in 2005) and digital media is growing rapidly from 1% in 2005, to 6% of the total ad spend today. According to Tarun Abhichandani, group business director, e-Tech Group, IMRB International, it is important to remember that despite this shift, print is still growing in India at 11-12%.

According to a report by financial services firm Motilal Oswal, the print media in India is expected to grow its earnings at a compound annual rate of 17% during the fiscal years (FY) 2013 to 2015. This number is the result of a comparison to an estimated 3% growth in FY13

What this means

Powered by increasing literacy and compounded by increasing discretionary spending in the lower middle class, India is one of the few economies where print media will see some growth for years to come.

According to the Hindu Businessline, Atul Singh, president and CEO of Coca-Cola India grappled with  a challenge many small town and rural retailers faced when visiting Uttar Pradesh during the summertime: It was difficult to supply ice-cold drinks due to the frequent  power outages.

Upon his return from the trip, he collaborated with his technical team and launched a project of “eKoCool” solar coolers, a product that would not only aid retailers in delivering ice cold confections, but also empowered women.

These coolers are distributed to women retailers, and this multipurpose cooler keeps drinks cooled for two and a half hours after sunset, charges cell phones, lanterns, and ultimately provides a means for women retailers to earn a little extra.

What Singh is particularly excited about is the work the company has done for communities. Asked about the cost the company incurs for its projects, he replies, “My view is this is just good business. Operating in a sustainable manner, building communities is what we have been doing. People call it CSR, we have just done it as good business,” he said.

From small retail shops to mango farmers, the benefits of this  device have truly impacted a variety of communities across UP.  Singh explains that if communities are not sustainable then “our business will not be sustainable.” For example, if a community does not have proper drinking water, Coca-Cola cannot operate a bottling plant.

Another initiative Coca-Cola India was involved with includes a partnership with Jain Irrigation to create “Project Unnati”, a program dedicated to train 50,000 farmers over five years. The program uses buses with in-built classrooms to provide on-the-go training in high density mango farming plantation techniques, which can help farmers double their yields.