India

The enormous drive and steady economic growth make India one of the largest future markets for German companies. Besides China, India is the most populous country in the world and about ten times larger than Germany. Even in times of crisis, India showed a constant growth rate. A key requirement for a stable economic and social development is sustainable energy supply. The Indian government is committed to renewable energy resources as they deliver a contribution for climate and environmental protection - besides economic and social evolution. To set up capacities of renewable energy, India depends on the support of foreign companies. This offers great market opportunities for German enterprises as they are appreciated as worldwide technology leaders.

An engine of Asian development, India holds outstanding potential for investment in its logistics sector, which is experiencing above average rates of growth. However, high transport costs and long delivery times greatly detract from India’s prospects in the logistics sector. Despite these problems, India still offers investors excellent long-range prospects since it is working hard to eliminate the recognized problems.

The technical universities which were founded after India’s independence fulfil the dream of the first prime minister Nehru of an advanced and self-sufficient India. Universities such as the IIT Delhi have the ambition to play in the international top league. Multinationals like IBM are attracted by the large number of talented engineers and scientists and have numerous cooperations with Indian universities. American and European universities are trying to integrate Indian students and graduates in their curriculum and research. This article gives an overview on the diverse Indian university and research landscape and shows which advantages western companies and universities have by working together with Indian top-universities.

Immediately after independence the Congress regime under Prime Minister Nehru embarked upon a program of state controlled industrialisation. Over three decades the agrarian sector and the peasant cases of India were neglected by the Congress High Command and the Indian development planners. This Indian “middle path” to industrial development not only led to the emergence of new and rebellious peasant parties it also resulted in a modest, in a “Hindu rate of growth” of some three percent. In addition this policy of non-alignment and this pursuit of “middle path” between the west and the soviet bloc led to increased political and economic isolation. It was finally at the beginning of the 1970th that the government of India under Indira Gandhi constructed a new political alignment and economic exchange system with the Soviet Union. India gained Soviet industrial and military technology and a market for its products - which could not have been sold on the world market. With the ...

The shift of production capacities from high-cost countries to India offers new business opportunities, but also new challenges. As shown by the example of the leather industry, sourcing from India is often associated with versatile risks. Risks are especially due to transcultural misunderstandings, lacking adherence to delivery dates, low quality standards, residues of harmful substances in products as well as problematic working conditions in Indian factories and high levels of environmental pollution. German companies which are planning to source finished or unfinished goods from India should consider sustainable risk mitigation strategies right from the start in order to avoid unpleasant surprises. Comprehensive coordination of the supply chain and the installation of effective control mechanisms may prove necessary to fully exploit the business opportunities provided by Indian suppliers. However, a thorough coordination of the supply chain will not only reduce individual business ...

As a result of India’s increasing demand of machine tools India is attracting the attention of international machine tool manufacturers. To be competitive against international machine tool manufactures the German manufacturers must adapt their machine tool concepts to the specific requirements of the Indian manufacturing structure and offer machine tools according to the principal of avoidance of waste by offering exactly what the Indian customer needs. For this, the machine tools must be optimized to the parameters investment costs, running costs and cycle time. This article describes the requirements of the Indian machine tool end-users. a methodology is shown to optimize and develop machinetool-concept systematically to the Indian requirements.