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Strategies & Market Trends : Asia Forum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Worswick who wrote (1678)	1/28/1998 12:34:00 PM
From: Cynic 2005	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 9980

In the era of Mrs. Gandhi, in the 1977-79 period, most of the multi-nationals doing business in India were thrown out of India because they were "not acting in India's interest", or some other nonsense like this. The Janata Party was in power during 1977-79. Morarji Desai was incharge when Coca Cola was kicked out for not revealing the formula - not Indira Gandhi. I agree with you on your other points. Dirubhai's arms are far reaching. -The other Mohan.

To: Worswick who wrote (1678)	1/28/1998 3:05:00 PM
From: Mohan Marette	Respond to of 9980

Worswick: I am sorry but you missed the whole point. I was asking about Senator Richard Armey's comment,I don't think he was talking about India,China or Japan. I think the reference was to the S.E.Asian countries' predicament and the role of the IMF. So I believe the 'Crony Capitalism' Sen.Armey was refering to pertains to S.E.Asia and not India or China. Your saga in India is very telling indeed (or if I may quote Rose Perot-it is really sad), but you forget one thing and that is India (for that matter China) never had Capitalism and Free enterprise as we know it in the West. India had a Command & Control economy and China Communism, now both are experimenting with Capitalism and they both by no means have the system fully implemented. But I am very optimistic this experiment of theirs might very well turn into the real thing given a chance and time. Soth East Asia on the other hand pretended they have Capitalism fully mastered and the rest of the world believed them and acted accordingly and you know the rest of the story.So there that is my 'tupenny's' worth. PS: Don't feel bad about your experience in India, I lost a lot of money (relatively speaking )in the Middle East trying to do business with them in 80s and wasted 2 years roaming the desert(from Riyadh,to Qatar to Manama ...).So there you have good company and you should feel better,if you ask me.

To: Worswick who wrote (1678)	1/28/1998 7:59:00 PM
From: Mohan Marette	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9980

In defense of Capitalism. Worswick: Since you are an Indophile and seems interested in the state of affairs of the country,may i take the liberty of posting this link? If you get time read it so that you know how some of the people from there feels about Capitalism. rediff.com The link is to replies received by Rediff in response to an article by one Dr.Ashok Mitra. You will see a response from me there as well. I didn't know Dr.Mitra was an economist and communist from West Bengal when I wrote my response.If you want to read the article you can click on the title shown besides the subject from any of the responses pertaining to his article which is captioned "The Hell With Reforms". The responses start from the 12th one from the top of the page.

To: Worswick who wrote (1678)	1/28/1998 9:25:00 PM
From: k.ramesh	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 9980

You should send this kind of real life example to Manmohan Singh,former Finance Minister or something. Mohan(either),Sankar, or me can't do much about it. I am certainly not for crony capitalism, but like Mohan pointed out, India did not have the Corporate base that the US has, which I am sure you know. Besides, in India atleast Crony capitalism was not official policy, it just so happened that the rich and the powerful were looking out for their own self interest. Pretty much like the tobbacco farmers in the US hang on to their subsidies. And try naming any non european, non american country that has built a trans national company without a wink and a nod from the government, The Japanese zaibatsu's and the Chaebols ... you know. Somehow, I have to admit that the post independence climate in India looked at Parle's Chauhan or Reliance's Ambani as self made successes, which actually they were, corruption notwithstanding. Indians felt that getting exploited by an Indian firm was preferable to a multinational. And that India should choose whether to allow Coke or conserve pitifully small amounts of foreign exchange for power generation and other 'core' sector projects. This was government policy, fully supported by all that cared, so in a sense this was a democratic, will of the people kind of thing. Now this cunningly enough played right into the hands of the Birlas and Modis and other sharks interested only in rate of return on sales. Reliance had to fight these entrenched oligopolists just as any foreign company would have had to. Now between the corrupt Birlas and the corrupt Reliance I would anyday take Reliance,It started from scratch,reinvented and reinvigorated the capital markets in India forever, and made many middle class people rich, in addition to taking care of business, in polyester to textiles from boring companies like Bombay Dyeing. Business in India is not completely dominated by a few companies, there is quite a bit of competition and corruption is like an expense like marketing or employee benefits- more like politician's benefits. I don't think Corruption can be eliminated by a magic wand that the IMF waves, only gradually in incremental opening of the markets, eliminating shortages. Rent seeking behaviour is the most natural thing, if Monopolists do it, it is good capitalism if govt. officials do it it is bad capitalism. I really do enjoy your comments.And Mohan for all those India www's Ramesh.

To: Worswick who wrote (1678)	1/29/1998 7:58:00 AM
From: LKO	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9980

Crony capitalism... a few sage words from the front lines kids. It was interesting to read about your experiences in India. The losers I guess are the people of India while the corrupt rule. There was an interesting article in the January 1998 issue of "Inc" magazine which is targetted towards entrepreneurs and managers. The article "The Antihero's Guide to the New Economy" talks about a persons success at putting together a successful software company in Bahamas after first attempting it in India (Quote: "Took us two damn years just to get incorporated"). Its primary focus is not about India but you may still find it interesting. He gets people from India and other places to a place with good living conditions, infrastructure to do business (i.e no red tape) and customers from US do not have to venture far. Online version without the pretty pictures :-) can be found at: inc.com I also knew a gentlemen of Southeast Asian origin (probably Taiwan) with considerable family wealth who tried to set up a software development in Bangalore along with entrepreneur friends in India. He attempted it for over 2 years but gave up. I do not know the details but it the brief reasons for failure were local politicans and the evil Indian Customs in Bombay which made his life miserable. Last I knew he had relocated his shop successfully to Singapore and employs the same people from India and claims it is cheaper and more efficient to do it from there as he does not have to deal with infinite amounts of nonsense he had to in India.