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We better be benefiting!
Hot on the heels of Tim Cook’s recent visit, Nadella’s trip is yet another sign of the Indian market’s increasing importance. Since taking over as Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has focused on bringing a sense of optimism in the Indian industry, and reduce red-tapism experienced by businesses thinking of setting up shop here.
New Delhi: Hot on the heels of Tim Cook’s recent visit, Nadella’s trip is yet another sign of the Indian market’s increasing importance. Since taking over as Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has focused on bringing a sense of optimism in the Indian industry, and reduce red-tapism experienced by businesses thinking of setting up shop here.
In September 2015, Modi embarked on a trip to the US with an agenda to woo American businesses to come and set up shop in India. Modi addressed the innovation hub – Stanford, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Tesla, Apple and the business leaders of the US who have an eye on India.
Irrespective of their nationality, business leaders view India as a market of opportunity. The result has been a surge of interest in India.
Luckily, a significant percentage of popular tech companies are led by Indians, or have Indians in senior leadership positions. When Modi met key leaders – Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, Tim Cook, and a host of others – the agenda was clear. To communicate that India is a land of opportunities, growth and ease of doing business.
Irrespective of their nationality, business leaders view India as a market of opportunity. The result has been a surge of interest in India. Over the past couple of years, there has been a lot of activity in India.
February 2015 saw Internet.org, Zuckerberg’s pet project get launched in India. This happened via a partnership between Facebook and Reliance Communications. Back then the plan was to go online pan-India ‘over the next 90 days.’ However, by February, the verdict was out. TRAI had come out with a decision. It was clear – differential pricing simply couldn’t exist. Eventually, Free Basics was shut down in India by Facebook.
On the other hand, when Sundar Pichai visited India, he brought with him the idea of internet infrastructure that offered free Wi-Fi at hundreds of railway stations in India. The idea of a private company helping out to meet the requirements of millions of citizens was welcomed by Indians.
Nonetheless, here was a company that was investing in India – and was solving a problem that is at the core of every Indian’s online experience – low bandwidth, patchy connectivity and last mile hurdles. The availability of internet connectivity at railway stations, similar to airports, helps millions connect with millions more!
Overall the industry has been quite supportive of Indian government projects such as Startup India and Digital India. Many companies announced Make in India plans to woo Indians. But what is needed is far beyond rebranding business as Make in India. What is needed is local employment, local sourcing and local pricing. And the Sri City plant caters to a bunch of popular smartphone manufacturers employing locals.
A surprise visit in the recent weeks was Apple CEO Tim Cook. He took India by surprise. Among the few signals that were given out was the possibility of iPhone prices being at par with international pricing. Currently, India happens to be among the costliest places to buy Apple products.
In addition, the opening up of a mapping centre in Hyderabad and a startup accelerator in Bengaluru were key highlights. However, there’s much more for Apple to gain from these moves.
Apple needs to overhaul its Maps offering, and hence it’s focussing on India. Similarly, the app accelerator in Bengaluru is aimed at giving a push to the developer community to build apps for iOS in a market that is ruled by Android.
The one announcement that many in India would be waiting for would be a fall in prices of devices. These are tangible benefits for India amidst the frequent visits by global tech leaders. After Apple CEO Tim Cook’s visit, Michael Dell of Dell Inc visited India.
Among the prominent business heads who Modi met while in the Silicon Valley was Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Now certainly, there’s time before we see Elon Musk come to India and announce local manufacturing.
A small step towards this direction was the availability of the Tesla Model S pre-booking in India. The pre-booking became as popular as a viral video, garnering billions of dollars for Tesla.
