India Country Analysis

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Product Market

Indian Intellectual Property Right (IRP) law is thorough and generally comparable with European common laws but there are significant concerns over IP enforcement. A major cause for concern in enforcement is bureaucratic delay, with a backlog of cases at both the civil and criminal courts. This means that cases can run for five years or more (Intellectual, 2013). There is also a lack of transparency, particularly at a local level. TNS will need to determine a supply and logistics network to provide necessary cabling and equipment for working in India. Ports and airports are typically under developed. Assuring quality and dependability will require TNS to monitor closely the inventories as well as manage the supply chain to prevent potentially long delays in receiving materials. The consumer industry in India is booming and buys both local and global branded products. In the telecommunications sector most products will come from outside the country due to the lack of established manufacturing and materials providers. Turnkey will provide primarily installation and support services since the Indian government will be supplying the products and equipment purchased through government contracts with companies like Cisco and other cable and equipment manufacturers recommended by TNS.

Labor Market

With approximately 520 million workers, India has the second largest labor force in the world. It has a huge pool of skilled manpower, professional managers and semiskilled and unskilled workers who work for comparatively moderate wages as compared to prevailing rates in developed countries (Source). A large portion of the workforce is English speaking, technically educated people with an average age of 25. Trade unions employ approximately 20 million people or 5% of the overall workforce and typically have strong political connections (Source). One key challenge is the amount and frequency of labor unrest in the country stemming from pay, working conditions and union representation. India’s labor regulations are among the most stringent in the world and over time have limited the growth of the manufacturing sector. One goal of the current government is to increase the number of skilled workers primarily in the IT, telecom and manufacturing sectors, while reforming the labor laws in place prior to the 2014 elections. The education system has long been plagued by inadequate facilities, curriculum issues and lack of accreditation (Source). Schools focus on taking exams as opposed to teaching skills that are usable in the workplace or life in general. Implementing technology and infrastructure in education will go a long way in changing the education system in India and provide Turnkey another viable opportunity in providing their products and infrastructure services. With 12 million new workers entering the market each year, Prime Minister Modi is seeking to increase manufacturing growth but needs the infrastructure in place to do so. Labor laws are probably the single biggest hurdle to unleashing India’s potential (Chakrabarti, April 2014). The goal of Modi’s “Make in India” and plans for reforms to overhaul the labor laws will provide even greater opportunity for entry into India. These are government created and supported initiatives to grow the manufacturing sector and the infrastructure in India. Recent measures include accelerating environment clearances for infrastructure projects, easing the process of land acquisition for infrastructure and industrial expansion and easing the compliance burden labor laws on small and medium industries (ADB, March 2015).

Recommendation

India is one of the most promising (if not the most) emerging markets in the world today. India’s economy is one of the fastest expanding and is becoming a more open place to do business. It is a gold mine of opportunities in many different sectors, especially the telecommunications sector. Economic forecasts predict India to be the fifth largest consumer market by 2025. As with all Global expansion, expanding a business in India means facing different cultures, languages, business etiquettes and practices (Source). Doing the proper research, forming alliances and having local representation will be keys for success.

TNS should move to form joint venture and expand into India. Company strategy should focus on developing the aforementioned Smart Cities, demand for telecommunications infrastructure country-wide and to take advantage of the large pool of educated tech savvy workers. The demand for infrastructure will only lead to more opportunities and growth. The more people, businesses and health and education systems who have access to the internet, the more growth

References

A.A.K (2015, November 23). The Economist. Why India’s Bankruptcy Laws are Such a

Mess. Retreived from www.theeconomist.com

Bhattacharya, S., (2015 July 22). The Wall Street Journal. India’s Labor Force.

Retrieved from www.wallstreetjournal.com

Chakrabarti, R., (2014, April 18). Knowledge@Wharton. Can India’s Modi Govnerment

Navigate the Tough Terrain of Labor Law Reform. Retreived from

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/india-modi government-labor-law- reform

Gillespie, P. (2015, April 14). India is the World’s Fastest Growing Major Economy. Can it

Last?. Retrieved from http://money.cnn.com

India – Infrastructure/Smart Cities. (2016, February 28). Retrieved from

http://www.export.gov

Indian Growth to Rise as Structural Reforms Take Hold. (2015, March 24). Retrieved from

http://www.adb.org/news/indian-growth-rise-structural-reforms-take-hold

Intellectual Property Rights in India. Intellectual Property Office. (2013, April). Retrieved

from http://www.gov.uk.ipo