Through the book Riding the Indian Tiger, the authors William Nobrega, an emerging markets specialist, and Ashish Sinha, a business researcher, intend to make potential investors understand the intricacies of investing in India while they also provide a ringside comparison with China as a competing avenue for investment.
While the book reveals some interesting facts about the Indian market such as the hot investment sectors like the retail market that is expected to grow from $300 billion today to $637 billion by 2015, the book is not for those who are looking at sector-specific opportunities. The book at best provides guidelines to ‘spot’ an effective investment area, but cannot be used as a reliable roadmap about investing in a specific sector.
At a time when the investors from various geographies are getting attracted toward the Indian market, they also need a sound strategy to get there in time because this tiger runs faster than the jungle’s tiger. The authors of this book write, “The problem with most of market research analysis is that it relies too heavily on the use of third-party data and other public reports. In the emerging markets all data should be considered suspect….”
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Book: Riding the Indian Tiger
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Author: William Nobrega and Ashish Sinha
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Pages: 253
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Price: $20.95
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Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
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Published in: 2008
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The importance of understanding cultural cues is paramount. Citing McDonald’s’ experience of riding the Indian tiger successfully, right from the market-research phase — that took 5 years— to the phase of outsourcing its supply-chain operations, the authors make a very good case about the role of cultural sensitivities in making investments pay off.
The authors’ verdict: The battle between the tiger (India) and the dragon (China) started years back, and the former is set to win because of the power of three Ds — democracy, demography and determination. While the first D, democracy, on its own ensures economic prosperity and social justice, Nobrega and Sinha refrain from glorifying it because India’s image is tarnished by government incompetence and widespread corruption that has only helped to increase poverty. In fact, the authors have dwelt well on the power of democracy in India in comparison to China by explaining the fundamentals of property rights, judicial independence and freedom of press. In India, the power of second D relies on the country’s youth that is expected to reach 550 million in 2015. They write: “China is aging as India is getting younger.” Explaining the third D, determination, the authors seem to agree that each nation is as determined as the other.
Overall, a good primer if you are thinking of investing in India. Riding the Indian tiger is not easy; the book is an effort to make it easy for those who are going to ride it for the first time.
