Doing Business – Page 28

Bengaluru and New Delhi 3rd and 4th fastest growing office markets in world

Bengaluru (Bangalore) is the third fastest growing office market globally in terms of prime rental values for office space, mainly due to continued supply crunch, a recent survey found.

According to a global study by property consultant Knight Frank, the estimated growth in office rental values in Bengaluru by end of 2019 is expected to be 6.6 percent.

Bengaluru is the “Silicon Valley” of India, employing 35% of India’s 2.5 million IT professionals. But it is also big in food (Cafe Coffee Day), pharma and biotechnology, aerospace, cars, and is home to Ola Cabs (competitor to Uber).

The report evaluates 33 global cities and gives insight on office rental growth – it noted that New Delhi, in fourth position, is expected to see a rise of 6.5 percent in prime rental values in 2019. Delhi is more than a government centre – it is big in consumer goods manufacturing, IT, telecoms, banking, construction, retail and tourism.

Delhi’s Connaught Place

Bengaluru is impacted by demand from the IT/ITeS and the start-up sectors, so the lack of quality space in key markets is pushing the rentals up.

Infosys headquarters in Bengaluru

Mumbai is however expected to see stable rentals in 2019 with an outlook of marginal rental growth due to anticipated supply for 2019 in the prime market.

Where would you locate your India headquarters? One challenge is that with so much regulation and the need to deal with government, wherever your HQ is based, your people will have to travel often to New Delhi.

But options exist outside of these three major cities and it is worth evaluating tier two cities.

Please share your thoughts and experiences…

PM Modi an achiever for India – whether he wins or loses this week

Prime Minister Narendra Modi swept into power in 2014 with the first single-party majority government in over three decades – thus holding out the promise that “things would happen”. With results to come in this week for Indian elections, it is time to ask: Have things happened?

PM Modi has been an achiever for India and his legacy will continue whether he wins or loses this week – with higher expectations from governments, more revenue for governments, increasing digitisation and anti-corruption – and an expectation that India is a global player and needs global political leaders like Modi.

There are four achievements of Modi that have changed and are changing India forever – and for the better.

The first was to show he was serious about ending corruption – his Demonetisation move shocked many, hurt the economy short term but sent a clear signal. Indians had been used to governments paying lip service on corruption – Modi took action. Increasing digitisation of government means less opportunity for corruption.

Second, the world’s biggest tax reform was his Goods and Services Tax (GST), long talked about in Indian politics but it took the skills of Modi to make it happen. Modi was outstanding in gaining state government support, essential to the process. Government revenue is now getting to where it should be. As a result, governments in India are awash with money and can now do things.

Third, Modi knew that the key to improving India’s attractiveness to global investors and businesses was reform of the Bankruptcy law. Since Modi, business leaders who had run their businesses into the ground would be called to order and stripped of control. He was also a global sales person for India – vital in the global economy.

Fourth, Modi has also activated the 29 state governments by financing and introducing competition. Indices, which rank states on the ease of doing business, health, education and water, already creating energy and activity in every state capital.

I am not saying each of these were done flawlessly but given the history of India it is amazing that they were done at all. Yes, there is a lot to be done. But against the odds and expectations, Modi has made significant change to India that will last for decades or more. Win or lose, he has earned his place in history.

“We need to build skills, not walls.” – Telstra Boss

The need for Australian companies to source ICT talent from overseas is stronger than ever, with the local pipeline continuing to fall short.

That was the message from Telstra CEO Andy Penn, who delivered a strongly-worded address at the Committee for Economic Development Australia in Melbourne on Wednesday.

“We need to build new skills and capabilities in new areas,” he said.

“We need these capabilities now, but the fact is we cannot find in Australia enough of the skills that we need on the scale that we need them, such as software engineers.

“Why? There simply are not enough of them. The pipeline is too small.”

In anticipation of the impending local ICT talent shortfall – which Penn said he expects to be 60,000 skilled workers short in the next five years – Telstra will this year open a new ‘Innovation and Capability Centre’ in Bangalore, India.

Labelling Bangalore as “India’s ‘Silicon Valley’”, Penn said the move would consolidate Telstra’s presence in India, where it has been operating since 2011.

Immigration negativity

Penn also called for a cease to the “negative commentary around immigration”.

“We need to build skills, not walls.”

He pointed to the associated benefits that come with “a well-targeted skilled migration policy”, arguing this would create – not take away – jobs.

“Skilled migrants also add to Australia’s wealth,” he explained.

“Research by the International Monetary Fund estimated Australia’s migration program would add up to 1% to annual average GDP growth from 2020 to 2050 because it focused on skilled migrants of working age and would limit the economic impact of Australia’s ageing population.”

PM Modi leads India to 6th largest economy in the world with high growth

Things are happening fast under the leadership of the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi – India is having its best phase of macro-economic stability, becoming the sixth largest economy in the world from being the 11th in the World in 2013-14.

Presenting the Interim Budget for the year 2019-20 in Parliament this week, the Union Minister for Finance, Corporate Affairs, Railways & Coal, Shri Piyush Goyal said “India is the fastest growing major economy in the world” with an average GDP growth of 7.3% per annum, the highest ever achieved by any Government since economic reforms began in 1991.

Shri Goyal said under the leadership of Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, a clean, decisive and stable Government reversed the policy paralysis, laid the foundation for sustainable growth and restored the image of the country.

New India by 2022

Shri Goyal said that a New India would celebrate its 75th Independence year in 2022 when every family would have a house with access to water, electricity and toilets; farmers income would have doubled; and the country would be free from terrorism, communalism, corruption and nepotism.

This is clearly an ambitious government, and the track record so far proves that Modi does get things done.

Can you name India’s biggest hotel chain?

This chain started in India, expanded to China and has now invested heavily in Indonesia. It is called OYO (On Your Own) and was started in 2011 by then 18-year old Ritesh Agarwal. It is like the “Uber” of hotels – acquiring and setting standards for previously struggling hotels.

The group now has more hotel rooms in India than Taj Hotels – of course, Taj is at the top end while OYO has been a big provider of budget rooms.

Within three months of its foray into Indonesia, the company has launched the first phase of expansion in 16 cities and witnessed a 5x growth. It aims to expand to 100 cities by the end of the year.

The company is adding on an average 70 hotels in Indonesia every month.

OYO created a uniquely Chinese identity for its local Chinese business and is localising in Indonesia.

OYO is in over 280 cities in China, with about 5,000 hotels, and over 260,000 rooms.

The company has already started operations in Malaysia and will enter Philippines soon.

It plans to have a pan-southeast Asian presence by the end of the year, before it starts making a move towards Europe.

India’s Bajaj Auto to jump into electric vehicles next year

Pune-based Bajaj Auto is planning to make a foray into electric vehicles (EV) next year and is hoping to build market share in India, its Managing Director Rajiv Bajaj said Monday. The new marketing slogan is “The World’s Favourite Indian”.

The company plans to launch electric version of its quadricycle Qute along with electric three-wheelers next year.

He also said the company would bring KTM-owned ‘Husqvarna’ motorcycle brand to the Indian market this year with “half a dozen” products in the pipeline.

Bajaj said the company has leadership positions in over 20 overseas markets such as 70 per cent share in Bangladesh and around 50 per cent in Nepal and Sri Lanka and it would like to replicate this in India.

“We would like to be a little more successful in the domestic market than we have been so far in the motorcycles market,” he said.

In India: “We have only 20-21 per cent share. We think now the time has also come that after having done a good job overseas, after having huge dominant position in India in three-wheelers, it is about time we make the same impact in the domestic motorcycle segment in India as we have done across the world.”

Other big motorcycle makers in India are Yamaha, TVS and Honda.

Bajaj also has a partnership with British niche bikemaker Triumph.

Indian economy to pass the UK in 2019 to become 5th in the world – PwC

India is likely to pass the United Kingdom in the world’s largest economy rankings in 2019, becoming number 5, according to a report by global consultancy firm PwC.

The report said: “While the UK and France have regularly switched places owing to similar levels of development and roughly equal populations, India’s climb up the rankings is likely to be permanent.”

PwC’s report projects real GDP growth of 1.6 per cent for the UK, 1.7 per cent for France and 7.6 per cent for India in 2019.

PwC’s Global Economy Watch is a short publication that looks at the trends and issues affecting the global economy and details its latest projections for the world’s leading economies.

Really engaging with India becomes a smart step for anyone in business, politics or education – but start with the right strategy.

Kerala – great tourism but also good for innovative business

India got its largest startup ecosystem Sunday when Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated a facility housing incubation set-ups across a string of segments in modern technology.

The Integrated Startup Complex under the Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) includes the ultra modern facilities of Maker Village that promotes hardware startups, the BioNest that promotes medical technologies, BRINC which is the country’s first international accelerator for hardware startups; BRIC which aids developing solutions for cancer diagnosis and care, and a Centre of Excellence set up by industry majors such as UNITY.

After the completion of three more projects, Kerala will have startup and incubation space of 5 lakh sq ft, which will be the largest of this type in the world.

No less than 30 applications for patent has gone from startups with the 13.5-acre TIZ, the CM noted, lauding it as a sign of the high-quality work in the zone. Simultaneously, Kerala was sensing increasing optimism in boosting software export from the state.

M Sivasankar, secretary, IT (Kerala), pointed out that the entire space at the TIZ facility has been sold out.

“This has never happened in our country, where it usually takes a couple of years for an incubator to get the whole area occupied,” he said. “The first three floors of the new complex have been furnished, while the rest of the floors have already got allotted to various startups.”

“The campus has another incubator complex coming up and it will be opened early next year,” Sivasankar said.

Besides the Maker Villager with its 30-odd startups, the facility has nascent firms working in fields such as biotechnology, computer-aided design, augmented/virtual reality and advanced communication.

So – Kerala is “gods own country” for tourism but also a magnet for innovative business. Worth a visit.

India the place for investors in 2019

According to India Avenue Investment Management, India is the growth market for investors this year – with a young population and strong economy. The company is based in Sydney and has an office in Mumbai.

India Avenue are very keen on the Indian banking sector and consumption providers.

Here are their thoughts:

“We expect companies in the Banking, Consumption and Industrial companies to outperform in the first half of 2019. Provisioning in Banks have bottomed out and we expect earnings to improve significantly from here, particularly given credit growth.

“Our top picks here are ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Kotak Bank, State Bank of India, IndusInd Bank and Axis Bank.

“Consumption will also remain a dominant theme as interest rate cuts are delivered, retail credit growth increases and the benefit of handouts to rural India (Government initiatives, populist measures and farm loan waivers) lead to a pick-up in spending.

“Our top picks here are Mahindra and Mahindra (autos/tractors), Dabur (consumer health products), Britannia Industries (biscuits, milk and basic foods), Crompton Greaves (consumer products) and Sun TV (media/television).”

More information:

https://indiaavenueinvest.com/

Cricket shows business and politics how Australia and India should get closer

Can Australian business wake up to new realities – for example, if you do not have an India engagement strategy then you are missing out on the growth centre of the world.

Cricket had to wake up too – India is now the epicentre of cricket and the biggest contest in town is Australia and India.

The cricket battle between Australia and India has provided special moments and lots of insights into how our two countries should relate.

First, enjoy the difference – both teams clearly enjoyed their interaction and cultural differences.

Second, go beyond the basic commitment – the Tweet and pic of the series was Indian wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant and Bonnie Paine when he was babysitting the Paine children.

Third, adapt to each other – Australia toned down the sledging and India toned it up, thereby meeting in the middle.

Fourth, sometimes we can all be direct – Indians are known as “indirect” communicators but Captain Kohli and his bat conveyed a direct message when he made a century – “my bat is talking!”

Fifth, conflict can be followed by harmony – both teams crossed the line but quickly resumed the contest as normal, tough but not over the top.

Sixth, crowds can tell you a lot about a country – Australia is an increasingly successful multicultural community and enjoying it.

Now the cricket is done – how about Aussie business and politics – can they learn too, and engage more closely with India?