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Brand India : Introduction

Brand India is term we've heard quite a lot in the last few years. Its been there like a horn constantly reminding us of our reflection on the world. Its been mostly used for attracting business. I did some research on the subject and I'll be analyzing this term of Brand India, its past, current status, taking into account other spheres like agriculture, media, film, tourism,politics,teroorism and its effect on the common Indian in a series of posts.

In this post I'd briefly like to introduce Brand India and the organizations behind it.

Introduction


Brand India is a phrase used to describe the campaign India is using to attract business. Basically the campaign is to project the attractiveness of India as an emerging destination for business in the fields of service sector, manufacturing, information technology, infrastructure, information technology enabled services, etc.

Amongst the leading organizations working on building Brand India is India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), a public-private partnership between the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, and the Confederation of Indian Industry. It aims to effectively present the India business perspective and leverage business partnerships in a globalizing market-place.

The Seven trends of India
  • Rising consumer spending
  • Growth of services
  • Indian manufacturing establishing itself on the global stage
  • Pervasive communications: Satellite and Cable TV, Basic and Mobile Telephony, Fibre/Broadband
  • Infrastructure growth: Highways, Ports, Urban Transport
  • Growth in literacy & higher education
  • Mature political economy with development as its core agenda
These seven trends have facilitated a fundamental transformation that can best be experienced by visiting the shop floors and talking to the young Indians who are at the forefront of this change. Literally, hundreds of businesspeople have been flocking to India for a first-hand understanding of this change.

I'd like to give two examples that would give Brand India a much more broad view than just a few definitions

Soap to Software
Wipro, the Bangalore, India-based IT services company, began its existence nearly six decades ago as a maker of vegetable oils and toilet soaps. It still gets about 3% of its sales from those businesses, but it has traveled light-years beyond its humble origin: With a market cap of $7 billion, Wipro is one of India's most valuable listed companies. Azim Premji, its chief executive, with a net worth of nearly $6 billion, is one of the world's wealthiest men

Susan Kitchens, (04.14.03)
India Inc.: Aiming Higher
This article was published on the Forbes website, which shows the transformation of a famous Indian company, Wipro and its revolutionary step that took it light years ahead, with 57% of its sales coming from the US market. Clearly defining Indian on the world map.

Now lets look at the company who have proved to be a useful Brand for educating Indians and giving them jobs. This article by suveen.k.Sinha was published in rediff.com looks at the "Made in India Brand"

Made in India
The Pune factory of Tata Motors has a training wing where one can observe young apprentices at work. Some of them have studied up to Class X, some up to Class XII. Few of those faces have had contact with a razor.

However, their hands move deftly over basic tools as well as laser and computer numerically controlled machines...This skill set came to the aid of the company when it found itself driving through uncertain terrain in the 1990s, as it embarked on a three-phase programme to rejuvenate itself by increasing productivity, cutting costs and improving quality.

Suveen K Sinha, (18.02.06)
Made-in-India brand gets stronger
Suveen has focused on the cheap effective ways, which can be ingeniously developed through training and utilize our vast talent pool by providing adequate resources. This "Made in India" concept has been one of the pillars of Brand India.

Both these posts date back to 2003 and 2006 respectively. Those were the days of the emergence of the phrase "Brand India". In the next post, I'll be focussing on the strengthening of this trend and the cult that followed.

References:
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brand_India
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_Inc
India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF)
http://www.ibef.org/
Forbes.com
http://www.forbes.com/global/2003/0414/042_2.html
Rediff.com
http://www.rediff.com/money/2006/feb/18spec.htm

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