The
following basic facts are important:
(i) Most Indian businesses can understand English
(ii) To enter India, all Norwegian visitors need valid Indian Visa, which
can be easily obtained from Embassy of India, Oslo.
(iii) Approximate exchange rate of Indian Rupee is US$ 1 = Re 39.50 =
NoK 5.41 = ISK 61.77 (as on 8.10.07)
(iv)For queries and elaborations, please contact Indian Embassy.
India's large and fast-growing economy (GDP: US$ 1000 billion)
offers exciting opportunities for Nordic businessmen across the board.
As economic partner, India has following advantages:
(i) The country has fairly large and open domestic market, buoyed by nearly
300 million middle class consumers. This opens up lucrative possibility
of supplying goods and services to the Indian market.
(ii) India is increasingly visible as a supplier of high quality goods
and services, thanks to its large growing labour force and competitive
cost of production. These features make sourcing of goods and services
from India very attractive.
(iii) The economy which has recorded over 8% annual growth for the 4th
year running, has attractive possibilities for investment and co-production.
Indian infrastructure also offers a swathe of opportunities for investment
and growth.
(iv) Last but not the least India's knowledge-based enterprises, including
R&D, IT & Bio-Tech have their own dynamics that could enhance competitiveness
of Nordic enterprises.
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India's
full potential as trade partner for Nordic countries is yet to emerge.
Indian share of Norwegian markets remains around 0.5%,
which is less than a third of India's share in the global EU market. This
is despite India's growing attractiveness as a low-cost, high-quality
producer of goods and services. Lucrative opportunities exist for sourcing
of textiles and garments, pharmaceuticals, light engineering items, consumer
goods and foodstuff from India.
For
Nordic exporters, India has large but competitive market with its own
specificities. Norwegian companies' providing goods and
services for infrastructure development has had the best success in
India. While the market is highly competitive and price-sensitive, niche
consumers can always be found willing to indulge in high-end items.
Bilateral
Investments:
With a large and open economy growing at over 8% for past
four years, India offers an attractive destination for Norwegian investors. Despite turbulence in financial markets all over the world,
India's Sensex index has recorded 20.7% gain in first eight months of
2006. Moreover, India's stock market is well-regulated, transparent and
is conversant with English. The total market cap of Mumbai Stock Exchange
is nearly US$ 500 billion of which nearly 10% is contributed by foreign
investors. In 2006, India attracted US$ 11.2 billion in FDI equity and
USD 9.2 billion as FII inflow. Norwegian investors are beginning to take
greater interest in India. For instance, Government Pension Fund-Global
began investing in India in July 2005.
Joint
Ventures:
Over 40 Norwegian enterprises have been attracted
to establish joint ventures in India for a variety of motives. Some wish
to leverage lower cost of manufacturing in India to supply to markets
in Norway or India or in third countries. Some others wish to split the
cost of manufacturing with more labour-intensive segments being undertaken
in India. Yet others wish to take advantage of India's core competence
in low-cost research and development and designing capabilities. Some
others are motivated by cost reduction possibilities offered by IT out-sourcing
to India. Yet another set of joint ventures are aimed at India's consumer
market, hydroelectric projects, Some such joint ventures also span areas
such as hydro-electricity, IT, plastics & deep offshore are estimated
to be 40. Iceland has JVs in pharmaceuticals and plastic containers in
India.
Indian
Joint Ventures in Norway are mostly in information technology and Food
sector. Establishment of some other JVs in off-shore and trading are on
cards. There is no information on an Indian JV in Iceland.
Information Technology:
Over the last decade, India’s “Knowledge-Based
Economy” has earned itself a global presence. Over 40% of BPO activity
worldwide is going to India. The trend of Indian dominance on global IT
& BPO scene is likely to continue.
For entrepreneurs in Norway out-sourcing to
India offers a solution out of high wages and overheads as well as critical
shortages in skilled manpower. This option is increasingly being exercised.
Skilled Professionals:
During 2006, India has emerged as the largest source of skilled
professionals for Norway. 324 such highly qualified Indians received their
Norwegian work permits last year; the corresponding number was 100 in
2005. Most of such persons are in sectors such as IT and Hydrocarbons.
Pharmaceuticals:
India is world’s 4th largest manufacturer of pharmaceuticals,
producing 8% of world’s output by volume. Last year, India exported
over US $ 4 billion worth of pharmaceuticals, mostly to developed markets.
Indian companies have strong reputation as suppliers of high quality generics
at very competitive prices. India has also emerged as a global hub for
R&D and clinical trials.
In view of Norway spending over 12% of its GDP on health sector
and annual reimbursing of over NOK 2,000 worth of medicines per capita,
sourcing of Indian medicines, esp. generics, make evident sense. Same
is true of other areas of health care such as outsourcing of diagnostics
and medical transcription, telemedicine, supply of various inputs and
equipments that could also be profitably sources from India. |
