If it’s Monday, it must be Romania—or even Finland and Minnesota.
A soaring economy and crumbling trade barriers are making India a “must visit” destination for foreign politicians and executives. The crush of visitors, often first-timers, but also companies seeking to expand their existing operations in the country, lands daily. They all hope to sign deals, find local partners, sell their wares or just soak up the contradictions that characterize the world’s largest democracy—a singular melding of chaos and opportunity.
Bald demographics make India impossible to ignore, and the slowdown in the US economy adds to its appeal.
About half of the country’s 1.1 billion people are under 25, and its rapidly expanding middle class is already estimated to be as large as the entire population of the US. A rocketing stock market and a fast growing class of the super-rich add to its appeal.
Trade experts compare the rising tide of interest to the wave of outsiders who flooded China a few years ago. This year, Felipe Calderon Hinojosa became the first Mexican head of state to visit India in 22 years. Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil, and Henry M. Paulson Jr, the US treasury secretary, have all paid their respects not too long ago.
But official delegations are arriving from unexpected corners of the world, too. On a recent typical Monday in New Delhi, the government played host to Minnesota businessmen led by governor Tim Pawlenty, a Romanian delegation led by the senior counsellor in the ministry of small- and medium-size companies, and the Finns, led by the country’s minister of trade and development. Privatization of major industries, a quickly Westernizing, youthful population and the prevalence of English draw a wildly diverse group of prospectors.
On a recent visit to Mumbai, Donald Trump Jr of Trump Organization pledged to invest in real estate there, Jagermeister held parties in New Delhi to introduce consumers to its herbal liquor, Prudential Financial Inc. partnered with the Indian real estate giant DLF Ltd to create an asset management business, and Fiat Automobiles SpA announced tentative plans to import the Alfa Romeo.
India is like the “proverbial bus in today’s business world,” said Suhel Seth, managing partner with Counselage India, a New Delhi-based branding consultancy. “No one knows where it is going, no one knows whether there is space on it for them, but no one wants to miss that bus,” he said. Given the vast and varied interest, Indian business leaders can sound overwhelmed.
“Iceland is suddenly on our radar screen,” said Supriya Banerji, the deputy director general of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), one of the country’s largest trade groups. “Malta is coming in and Cyprus is clamouring for us.” So are Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, Vietnam, Kazakhstan and Mozambique, all of which have sent delegations.
It is too soon to tell what impact the visits will have economically. They rarely yield immediate results, and sometimes they produce negative reactions. India’s mix of poverty and areas where vast, fetid slums edge newly refurbished international airports and where barefoot children beg outside of $500 (Rs19,700) a night hotels, have left more th-an one Western visitor aghast.
The realities of India often surprise even first time visitors, who have studied the country. Signs of social upheaval—strikes, dangerous roads and electricity that flickers off even in the most luxurious hotels—are common.
One recent morning in a five-star New Delhi hotel, bleary-eyed Minnesota executives puzzled out a scene from the night before. As they had returned from a visit to the Taj Mahal, when thousands of protesters blocked the road and the police conspicuously absent. The Americans did not make it back to New Delhi until after midnight.
“We learnt a lot,” said Jonathan B. Farber, president of global underwriting for the Travelers Companies Inc., the insurance company, picking his words. It was interesting to see “how the logistics worked themselves out,” he said, recalling that as protesters laid down in one lane of the highway, two-way traffic seemed to intuitively share the other lane.
In spite of some concerns, most visitors are optimistic about India’s future and the opportunities it offers their companies. To date, “trade has been rather modest,” acknowledged Asko Numminen, the Finnish ambassador, tall and blue-eyed, in an understated gray suit that complemented his embassy’s clean Nordic lines. In a nod to his host country, his tie depicted a field of elephants.
In Finland, Numminen said, “we are speaking about the ‘India phenomena.’” He said companies, universities and research centres were looking towards India because it had the “biggest pool of human resources in the world”.
Since the beginning of September, Numminen has travelled twice to Chennai to open factories for Finnish companies, and Finnair now has 12 direct flights a week from Helsinki to India.
Members of foreign royalty also are making official visits to India, even royalty whose ancestors were involved in colonization of the subcontinent centuries ago. Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands arrived in October, with eight of her country’s most important chief executives, on her second visit to India.
Warner Rootliep, general manager for the Air France-KLM Group in the region, said the trip allowed the executives a “great opportunity to raise some questions directly to the prime minister and other ministers present.” When governor Jon Huntsman Jr of Utah came in October with a delegation to explore business opportunities, he boasted over lunch with Indian industrialists he celebrated Diwali at the governor’s mansion back home in the US.
©2007/THE NEW YORK TIMES