Summit Notebook
Exclusive outtakes from industry leaders
Audio – Meltdown Melodrama
Hollywood and Bollywood screenwriters must beware. Their creativity stands no chance against the “cataclysmic” global financial crisis’ talent for script writing if Infosys BPO’s Anantha Radhakrishnan is to be believed.
In these “turbulent and tumultuous” times, the script being crafted by the crisis promises to “differentiate the men from the boys” in the business process outsourcing industry, with deep-pocketed firms expected to brace their way through the storm, according to Radhakrishnan, a vice president at the outsourcing firm.
But not before electric fluctuations in the currency market play their course, and bitter and desperate price battles are fought and won. Multi-stranded epics starring Amitabh Bachchan have to hang their heads in shame.
And all this amid heart-stopping uncertainty of the Hitchcockian variety.
Audio – Still holding out
One would expect a top executive of the world’s largest software services provider to hang out with the latest gadgets. Sandip Patel, Managing Partner for IBM Global Business Services in South Asia, seems to be quite the contrarian.
He is antagonized by even the most common gadget to adorn executive pockets in these times.
“I haven’t yet succumbed to the Blackberry,” Patel confessed when asked what phone he carries. He spoke at the Reuters India Investment Summit.
He proudly pulled out a well-worn Nokia E90 and admitted he wasn’t much of a gadget guy and just liked a good solid phone.
Audio – Bitter-sweet flavors
As the global economic turmoil rages on and shows no sign of abating, Genpact Chief Executive Pramod Bhasin believes “wait and watch” is the flavour of the season for business process outsourcing firms.
The flavour seems bitter for now.
Over the past few years, BPO services firms armed with competitive, English-speaking professionals working for relatively cheap wages have cashed in on an outsourcing boom. But they are now experiencing a lull in growth as the U.S. economy faces one of the worst crises in history.
Amid such grim conditions, CEO Bhasin doesn’t care to track his company’s stock price. “I don’t even know what my own share price was yesterday, for instance, and I don’t normally look,” he said. To hear the comment click here.
Audio – Opportunistic youth and the works
It’s not just the global economic crisis that is weighing on Genpact Chief Executive Pramod Bhasin’s mind, but also several home-grown concerns.
Nothing works in India, Bhasin said, and rattled off a list of public utilities from water and power to security and transportation.
“Indian entrepreneurs are dragging us into the 21st century and our public services are dragging us back into the 18th century,” he said at the Reuters India Investment Summit. To listen to the comment, click here.
Bhasin wasn’t very appreciative of the Indian youth either.
A lot of young people today want to be capitalist when the returns are good and turn immediately socialist when their jobs are threatened, the head of India’s largest business process outsourcing firm said. To hear the comment, click here.
Welcome to the 2008 India Investment Summit
India has seen 9 percent-plus economic growth for the past three years and many thought it would remain relatively immune to the global financial crisis and the subsequent slowdown. But its stock market has tumbled 50 percent this year and all the signs point to a sharper slowdown than most were anticipating. Corporate expansion plans, capital raising and partial privatisations by the government have all had to go on hold as investors, foreign and domestic, have run scared before the storm which has ripped through financial markets worldwide. Politicians too face a tough year, with national elections due in early 2009 and millions of voters for whom a first car, apartment or refrigerator is once again moving out of reach. What does all this mean for India’s transformation into an Asian powerhouse? Will it set the country’s infrastructure and commercial development back several years or is it just a blip? Some of the country’s most influential figures will discuss these topics and their own firms’ plans to ride out the slowdown at the Reuters India Investment Summit, which will generate a package of exclusive stories, online videos, blogs and analysis.
A)Corruption cannot be controlled because of politics.
B)Population cannot be controlled because people not willing.
C)Quality Education- there is long term hope here but the students are only as good as the teachers.
D)Infrastructure cannot be built because of corruption.
given this scenario long term growth will only come from meaningful exports,or large domestic consumption eg tata nano.
No recovery seen for former high-flyer India
By Tony Munroe
When markets boomed, India’s star was shining bright and deals were plentiful, but the hard landing means any recovery will be painfully slow.
Indian stock markets are still down more than 50 percent so far this year, making them the third worst Asian performer after China and Vietnam.
But even when markets look to stabilise, India may have a harder time in deal-making, given its heavy exposure to the global services sector, said Rory Tapner, chairman and chief executive for Asia-Pacific at UBS.
“India may be one of the markets that is going to perhaps find some of this tougher,” Tapner told the Reuters Global Finance Summit, adding that overseas companies look set to cut back on outsourcing as unemployment in their home countries grows.
He said Australia will drive deals as demand for resources grows when conditions improve, while asset management and insurance firms will also do deals.
“If the world gets going again, I think that will be one of the first places that start to recover.”
Exotic trades? No way!
By Jeffrey Hodgson
Increasingly risk-averse hedge fund managers are in no mood to chase exotic trades as they scramble to boost returns.
Given the current environment, Robert Appleby, chief investment officer at ADM Capital, told the Reuters Global Finance Summit there was no need to seek out exotic trades or markets for healthy returns.
“You don’t have to go to weird, wonderful places … you don’t have to take exogenous risks — its right at your doorstep,” he said, referring to his funds’ focus on the main markets of Hong Kong, China, India and Turkey.
ADM began investing in distressed debt in 1998 following the Asian financial crisis. Its funds often buy out existing creditors to initiate financial or corporate restructuring of companies that are delinquent or at risk of bankruptcy.
