India: Land of Billion Opportunities
Land of a Billion Opportunities
GDP (PPP) – $4 tln , 4th largest economy; GDP per capita $3,500 (rank 163)
Labour force: ~0.5bln, 2nd largest after China (~0.8bn)
GDP composition by sector:
Agri: 18.5%
Ind: 26.3%
Services: 55.2%
Labour force composition by sector
Agri: 52%
Ind: 14%
Services: 34%
India has ~850 mn mobile subscribers, second only to China at ~925mn subscribers. However, the rate of growth is north of 20%, just double of China’s. India adds ~15-18mn mobile subscribers every month, equivalent of the population of Netherlands.
It has consistently grown at more than 8% since last 5 years (except in 2009) and is expected to grow at the same rate for the coming 2-3 decades.
The fact that rural India forms 41% of India’s middle class and a mere one percent increase in India’s rural income translates to a mind-boggling Rs 10,000 crore of buying power is evidence enough to know that this market holds promise.
Lot of consumption potential – The proportion of Indian households with refrigerators stands at 18%, compared with 48% in China. The ratio for washing machine ownership is 18% in India versus 66% in China, and for television ownership it is 56% in India compared with 80% in China. The contrast in automobile ownership is more dramatic and perhaps best portrays India‟s growth potential – in the US, there are 765 cars for every 1,000 people, in China there are 128 cars, and in India, the number is only 9.
India‟s cost advantages and growing number of science and technology graduates should make the country attractive for R&D investment – 125 of global Fortune 500 have R&DCentres in India and 400 have outsourced IT related work to Indian companies.
India had 18.69mn internet subscribers in 2010 and close to 100mn internet users (the fourth-highest in the world) However, the penetration rate, at 8.5%, is much lower than those of China (31.6%), Brazil (34.4%), the Philippines (29.7%) and Nigeria (28.9%).
Between FY03 and FY09, the total number of new companies registered rose by 170%. 57% of these companies were in emerging sectors like information technology, finance, insurance, construction and communications.
With a market capitalisation of close to 85% of GDP, the Bombay Stock exchange (BSE) is the eighth-largest stock market in the world and has the largest number of listed companies (5,085) – By contrast, NYSe has ~2800 listed companies.
India, which is expected