Saturday, September 27, 2014

Can Modi's India be world's superpower?

It is evident that by now, Modi has convinced two Asian’s giants to associate with India in their growth pattern. Japan and China accept India as a leading business hub in this continent. Japan has absolutely no problem to strengthen economic, social, financial and cultural ties with India and the same can be escalated years-after-years. China, whose population, economic growth, higher GDP as compared to India, give them a little more advantage and so Modi has rightly wooed their President to augment the relationship both economically and socially. But compared to Japan, China is not that dependable. They are interested more on the economic front rather than deescalate the social and people to people issues. Now, If Modi wants to quickly take India in his stride to make a superpower, he has to increase his clout to augment more investment from various European countries. Further, He has to extend his reach and grabbed the attention of EU members apart from the world’s two most developed countries, namely USA and UK. In this way, perhaps Modi and India under his stewardship will emerge as a superpower in another three to five years of time.
The one country of Europe is Sweden, who is very keen to take advantage of the long overdue and negotiated Free Trade Agreement between India and its largest trading partner European Union.
Sweden is one of the countries whose products are superb. They have technological advancement, qualitative enrichment and pricewise is also  competitive worldwide as many of their companies are now manufacturing their products  locally  and rigorously marketing the same in domestic markets.  In fact, their ambassador Harold Sandberg is very optimistic to enhance the power of economic fronts between the two countries. In a recent symposium held at Bangalore, he emphatically echoes his voice that no sooner some contentious issues of proposed FTA are resolved, the business growth undoubtedly is envisaged at a rapid pace. He also says that more than fifty percent of Sweden’s revenues takes place through trading channel and FTA will be definitely a more lucrative proposition. His perception, of course, is very clear that only to sign a treaty will not make prosperous both the countries  unless there is a win-win situation to flourish the economic situation, in reality.
This FTA is likely to be signed after Modi completes his visit to the USA. The EU is in the process to sign similar types of pacts with the USA and Japan.
Sweden is very keen to establish their third business hub in Bangalore after New Delhi and Pune. They are well equipped in research and development to increase value addition of their products and they will augment their facilities in these places to supplement their business activities. As per the last financial data, Sweden has already invested 1.8 billion US Dollar in India in the year 2013. They are contemplating to increase their figure to double by this year. They are closely monitoring the business friendly environment under Modi’s stewardship, scale of economic boost up, promising future in manufacturing sectors and overall growth prospect in many other business sectors. Considering these facts, Sweden is far more proactive about their proposed investment in India.
Sweden is very strong, technologically in the urban transport sector, renewable energy and solid waste management. The Swedish companies in these sectors are very keen to establish their business ventures here to accrue the benefits for both the countries. This country is the second largest in Europe with respect to GDP per capita and has a huge stake in the Indian market through their very brand image conscious companies, namely ABB, SKF, AstraZeneca, Volvo trucks & Scania.  In all probability, Volvo Cars might set up a state of the art and very modern plant in the Koral district near Bangalore. Another Swedish company Scania is also ready to invest a considerable fund for its bus production facility. IKEA has already obtained an approval from the government for its 10,000 crores and above investment. It is sourcing its merchandise locally and on the spree to add more local suppliers. The state government is also showing interest to woo various other Swedish companies so that that a considerable presence of these companies are seen in India, particularly in Karnataka. In fact, in the mid and small segments, the Swedish companies, namely Autolive, Partex, Envic and Comsol are excellently performing as far as business is concerned with this state.
The business climate study conducted by the Swedish Embassy shows a promising future of economic growth, coherence of business environment,technological upgradation, enhancement of employment and they predict the way the present government under Modi is scaling up its business front, the Swedish companies are ready to stay here. Not only that, many more companies of Sweden are energized to open their ventures in India.
They equally hope for the less red-tapism, good governance, friendly business environment and if that happens quickly, both the countries will be able to increase their business growth considerably.
 If Modi can extend his power of charisma to Japan and  China and the same is bestowed upon some of the prominent European countries like Sweden, Germany, Finland and Denmark, I don’t think he will take much time to emerge as a world hero in all fronts, economically, socially and politically. Let’s wait and see, but I am very hopeful that under his able guidance, India will be a superpower and there is no doubt about the same.



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