Diversify to Differentiate – Think India, Think Next! - Success Showcase

This webinar covers advantages and key considerations, regulatory reforms, and incentive programs that have affected investing and FDI in India.

Why invest in India?

“Companies not only want to penetrate and invest in the Indian domestic market but also to export to regions like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, etc. India offers various export incentives that make it an attractive destination for companies” Amy Hariani

• Fast-growing economy: 3rd largest economy in the world by 2030
• Young talent: over 600 million skilled and knowledgeable workforce with an innovative business approach
• Stability: stable financial, judicial and political environment
• Financial incentives: tax exemptions, low corporate tax, subsidies, relaxation on import duties, export incentives, etc.
• Online: 2nd largest online market worldwide with 574 million active internet users
• Growing consumption: India will become the 3rd largest consumer market by the year 2025

Trends to spot

“Covid has led to an acceleration in these trends, with new business opportunities in technology and healthcare.” - Vivek Abraham

India provides:

• One of the largest manufacturers of PPE kits and COVID vaccines in the world
• Ideal policies for supply chain diversification
• A strategic corridor across technology, manufacturing, etc.

The India-US relations

• The bilateral trade and commercial relationship is strong and will continue to grow due to the mutual growth of Indian companies in the US/Canada and vice-versa.
• Trump administration was tariffs focused and the Biden administration aims to take a holistic approach to not get caught up negotiating on tariff
• Investments by Facebook, Amazon, etc will continue in the next 4 years

Steps taken by the Indian government to ease businesses

“When we are going to greenfield a certain area in the world, the major issue is a skilled workforce. We found out that the number of talents across disciplines and the professionalism in India is a major advantage. We experienced a lot of help from the state government, local authorities, and banks that were collaborative to help us to penetrate.” - Sachar Rachim

• Re-engineered interface and processes using technology like AI and Blockchain
• Tuning the indirect tax structure to enable manufacturing in India
• Competitive reduction in tax rates
• Labor law and land allocations reforms
• Forming separate committees for quicker decision making for investments

India leading renewables market

“Renewable energy is something that you can transmit without actually transporting the fuel. For a country like India, which is primarily coal-driven and we do not have a lot of gas reserves, we have a huge amount of renewable energy potential here.”
- Pinaki Bhattacharya

• India is running one of the largest renewable energy programs in the world which is almost 175 gigawatts with 2x scalability
• The ability to execute a variety of projects like distributed generation, large-scale utility power plants for commercial, industrial or corporate customers in varied industries
• India offers the lowest cost of renewable power available
• Pandemic auctions, openness to adopting new technologies, and bankable power purchase agreement
• Enabling connectivity with corporate customers
• Availability of project financing on the government side

Key Challenges and Future

“We will see more production linked incentives encouraging selected sectors and companies to plant their roots and then encourage to build ecosystems around them” - Vivek Abraham

India has been identifying sectors where we have an advantage, large market opportunity, and other sectors where we want to encourage investment which otherwise would have been difficult to attract.

• Diversified cultural barriers when interacting with stakeholders and operators
• Complexity in government processes, registrations, and legalities
• Better coordination between the state and the center

This could be resolved with a local firm or a partner that companies can go with and help them overcome these gaps.