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Strategies & Market Trends : India Coffee House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mohan Marette who wrote (5335)	7/28/1999 12:29:00 PM
From: Mohan Marette	Respond to of 12475

Reversal of trade surplus: four lessons for India Inc R Gopalakrishnan (former vice-chairman, Hindustan Lever Limited, is executive director, Tata Sons Limited. The article is extracted from his keynote address at the Bombay Graduates' Forum Seminar on July 14, 1999.) 'In the 1920s, our exports were about Rs 3 billion and our world ranking was fifth. In a little over three quarters of a century, we have squandered a strength; today, we rank about 50th in world trade,' =========================== I wish to make two points. First, that India has had an exceptionally long tradition of outward orientation in matters of trade and enterprise. Second, that the future is ours if we become even more outward looking than we have become after 1912, by understanding the true nature of competition. Let me develop these two themes. India's outward orientation Merchants from Harappa and Mohenjodaro were trading with Sumeria as early as 2300 BC. Around 400 BC, King Solomon imported from India, luxury items of relatively little bulk and weight. During the first century of the Christian era, there existed a brisk volume of overseas trade. Roman coins have been found in South India in such volume that it could be hypothesised that the balance of trade favoured India! In 1948, when Vasco da Gama sailed into Calicut, it was already a thriving port familiar to Arab and Chinese merchants. In 1608, an English captain, William Hawkins, dropped anchor at Surat, armed with 25,000 pieces of gold and a letter from King James I to Mughal Emperor Jehangir. He found that Surat was a bustling city -- its indigo and cotton cloth warehouses bulged with merchandise from most of Asia, peddling everything from peacock feathers to elephants. Ironic by the stark realities of today, it is worth mentioning Captain Hawkin's finding as he reported to King James I, "Nothing that England makes at this time is really desired by Indian merchants or officials". Throughout the 60-odd years from 1850 to 1914 up until the War, India's foreign trade flourished. It was a great age of multi-lateral trade, an age of simple international payments and exchange rates. Major advantages came out of the rapid industrialisation of the continental countries and the United States. Japan was getting transformed under the Meiji Restoration of the 1860s after the defeat of the Tokugawa and centuries of isolation. Thus, a new level of demand was created for raw materials and foodstuffs...... 216.32.165.70