This is the conventional wisdom often heard in little Red Dot. We have the right Indians with the contacts and know the ways and the ropes, to navigate the Indian power grid with differential access to the who's who in India. Investing in India is a walk in the park. Our contacts go all the way to Modi and everything can be resolved with the public not knowing what is happening behind closed doors. This may be the reason why Singapore's investments in India, hundreds of billions, have been going on so smoothly, without a hitch. Even the small storm in the teacup when DBS was made to acquire a failed Indian bank and being asked to pay for their losses and whatever, nothing else was heard of it. Problems solved, QED when you have good Indian contacts.
The SIA investment in Air India and Air India calling its major shareholders to pay up for its losses will likely go the same way. All settled peacefully behind closed doors. Getting the right contacts is very important when doing business in India.
What is the catch? What is the meaning of contacts? In China, it is called 'guanxi'. I do not know what is it called in India. In the USA it is called lobbying. What is the difference when big businesses are conducted based on guanxi, contacts or lobbying? Don't they need to go by the rule of law, by what is written in the contracts?
There is an underlying assumptions in such business dealings. The contacts will serve the interests of the investing or paying party. And when doing business in India, the contacts are likely to be well connected Indians. The Indian contacts will be the middlemen, the go between, the deal makers. The investing party, likely not Indians, will use his Indian contacts to talk to the Indians. Presumably the Indian contacts will work in favour of whoever hires him to be the contact. So he will be on the side of the investing party when negotiating with the Indians in India, could be the Indian govt. Caveat, hopefully the assumptions and presumptions are correct, and the contacts will negotiate in favour of the investing party.
So, you have a non Indian investor hiring an Indian national to represent him to negotiate with the other Indian party in a business deal in India. The non Indian investor has no choice but to have complete trust in the Indian contact. What are the chances that the two Indians will snook the non Indian investing party for their own interests, making their own deals in the process? Trust them.
What do you think?
3 comments:
Hahaha
Even the Japanese, the most careful and astute businessmen, are now finding it difficult dealing with the Indian Government over the construction of the Indian high-speed-railway. Whatever right contact in India still has to be those close to the Modi Government. So, it inevitably means only those close to Modi, like Adani, TATA and corrupted politicians are the right contacts.
Japan is now snarled in an Indian trap constructing the high-speed-railway for India. Japan wanted to make sure of being the only country to monopolize high-speed-railway construction in India going forward, thus giving India all the incentives like low interest rate for loans of up to 80% that others like China would never want to touch.
Japan got the contract of building India's high-speed-railway, and is now suffering the consequences, not knowing whether that 80% loan is ever going to be repaid. One thing is for sure, with all the bitching going on about delays and added costs, such will definitely be a huge factor when repayment comes around. To add insult to injury, India ditched Japan for European tech in rail-switching equipment. That is going to be a disaster for India, the same as buying fighter jets from many sources and then trying to get them to work together.
Issues will be raised that will give India a reason to hold the Japanese hostage now over the loans. In any case that is what the Japanese were hoping for - to be building railways for India till eternity. But the Japanese did not get what they wished for.
China must be counting its blessing that it did not get to build India's high-speed rail. Otherwise, what happened to Japan is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to ripping China off. Japan is a close ally of India, and both are members of QUAD, a bloc countering China. China is more of an enemy than just a neighbor in the eyes of and the agenda of India.
What are friends of India like Japan for, other than for skinning and being used as proxies when the time comes. It is just a leaf taken from the USA playbook. India, the self-declared rising superpower, is learning early the modus operandi of the USA.
Africa probably will develop faster than India. So, why do business in India. Does the graveyard of companies mean anything or just a joke?
Many stupid people think they are smarter than the Indians. Die die must throw money to the Indians. Got cheated go back for more.
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