First Cut: February 2019

Wednesday, February 06, 2019

India Macro Charts

NO ease of doing business in India

List of issues Indian bureaucracy creates is amazing. Hope we are not creating too many barriers to drastically reduce the long term fund flows to India. This article highlights exactly the points which I am concerned about for India

Issues which irritate foreign players

ArcelorMittal on Essar Steel vs Indian steel players who doesn't want Mittal in India and playing all games that they can to keep him away
Vodafone and Cairn on tax disputes and these are not small change
E-Commerce rules impacting Amazon / Walmart-Flipkart
Phased Manufacturing Programme (PMP) for manufacturing - Actually this was long due

India keeps foreign firms on tenterhooks

https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/opinion/india-keeps-foreign-firms-on-tenterhooks/article26186816.ece

Still, no-one should make the mistake of thinking India is the only investment destination left globally. Look at Japanese investment, for instance. Indian diplomats and others who've dealt with the Japanese testify to the fact executives there are more comfortable and feel greater cultural affinity with South-East Asia and the CMLV (Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam) countries than India. Also, there are estimated to be 30,000 Japanese companies operating in China compared to just 1,400 in India. With the glass still half-full or half-empty for foreign investors, depending on the way they look at India, there's a vital need for the government to tread sensitively and judiciously in implementing rules. This country not only faces competition from other Asian economies, and increasingly east Africa too. And in developed markets, India risks being squeezed in a race with automation. That's shaping up to be a whole other boondoggle for all labour-intensive economies.