Indian Market Overview

Comparing India and China, we don’t have censorship of the internet. We go with the flow and accepted facebook and twitter as our own. We use Google for searches. We read from the same news sites that the world reads from and there is no censorship of any sort. In India foreign companies are free to set up 100% owned units in most of the sectors and engage in business and repatriate 100% of the profits they make.

Facebook has a target of having 1 billion users from India. I seriously doubt if this would happen and would be the most happiest if this happens. This means pretty soon Indians will overtake the Americans as the biggest chunk of Fb users from any country. I doubt any country has gone as far in attracting FDI as India has. World bank and other organizations including rating agencies decry Indian moves to protect its industries and always preach more opening up. India has gone overboard in liberalizing esp at a time even the Americans are turning protectionists themselves ditching the free market philosophy that served them well in hardware and came to a naught in software services. American multinationals on their part have been less than helpful, treating India as just another market. To them China is the place to be, a place to locate their factories and India a place to sell their produce. This world order will change pretty soon.

India has been exporting its human resources to USA since ages(ever since independence i mean) and at a great loss. Many US organizations have a high percentage of Indians. Things are changing slowly and lesser number of students have opted for higher studies in the US this year than last. India relinquished its first position in sending the largest number of students for higher studies, to china. 100 thousand Indian students take admission in US varsities every year. I recently read articles on how the American authorities ill treated Indian students and in one barbaric incident even kept them under custody/lockup with leg-braces(seemingly fashionable among the convicts).

India is undergoing a revolution in the Internet and Mobile sphere. Internet penetration which was less than 10 percent in 2010 has risen fast, mostly due to Internet access through smart mobile devices. Now we have more than 240 million users which is expected to rise to 360 million internet users by the end of 2015.

Mobile operators have seen revenues from Data double in the last six months. ARPUs have started rising and this has raised earnings of telecom operators. The bid fiercely in several spectrum auctions recently. There has been a rapid rollout of 3G across the cities. Consumers have turned from being petitioners to being aspirational.
India E-Commerce market has seen tremendous shakeout. Increased affluence and lower prices for online goods(such as mobiles) have created ripples in the market. Startups of all hues are getting launched every day. Region in and around Bangalore called as the Silicon Valley of India has a fresh startup culture. Valuations are rising for the four thousand and odd internet based startups in the country.
The new government lead by Mr. Narendra Modi has also started providing the right direction to the economy and eased the business environment considerably. Our economy reached $1 trillion in 2005 and took another 10 years to scale the $2 trillion mark recently. It is expected that it would reach $10 trillion mark by 2025 taking just ten more years to grow five times.