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The trials and tribulations of doing business in India
- mozumder 10y agoBasically you need to bribe everyone to do anything in India. Not sure if this is something Apple is ready for.
- rajathagasthya 10y agoHow did you conclude based on this article that you need to bribe everyone to do anything in India?
- mordant 10y agoThose of us with on-the-ground experience in India and without a vested interest in trying to whitewash the business and governmental environment there know it to be true.
- RealGeek 10y ago> you need to bribe everyone to do anything in India? Not everything, but almost everything that has to do with Government. I had to pay bribe even to get my Passport, driver's license and police clearance certificate.
- dman 10y agoHow long ago was this (especially the passport)?
- statictype 10y agoNot sure this is true for many parts of India. As a foreigner living in India I wish I could throw money at someone to make the process of securing documents like police clearance easier. That's simply not the case though. I have no doubt that corruption is rampant but your examples don't square with my experience.
- rajathagasthya 10y agoGetting a passport/driver's license is different from companies (Apple) asking to operate in a certain way. They deal with the highest levels in the government (Prime Minister, Finance Minister) and it is absurd to suggest that the government would ask Apple to bribe them. India has a set of rules on how foreign companies should operate and while it might be unpopular, it is still a rule.
- dingo_bat 10y agoI don't know what time period you are talking about, because I got all of those (except police clearance, I didn't need that) in the last 5 years and none of them required any bribes. There were inefficiencies and frustrating bureaucracy, but no bribing was necessary.
- xufi 10y agoAgreed. Considering I've been there a few tiems myself. An example I can give confirming this is that I've had a freinds uncle who had the money to afford a flat in Mumbai but the owner of the flat property didnt want to give permission. Anwyays it took a lot of "negotations" for that to go through.
- kranner 10y agoHow is that bribery? Sounds like negotiation tactics.
- unexpected 10y agohis use of flat owner is confusing, but in this context it does refer to the flat owner directly - it refers to the owner of the flat property, which would be analogous to a one-man co-op board in the USA.
- dingo_bat 10y agoI'm not sure even bribing would help in this case. The government is pretty serious about the manufacturing push. I'm quite happy that Apple is not allowed to dump refurbished crap here. They sell enough phones already. They can continue that or they can start manufacturing here and open their store.
- Manishearth 10y agoWhile there is tons of corruption in India; this isn't an example of it. It's just another example of a policy that doesn't gel well with the western business models. This isn't something that you can brush aside with a bribe, it's a policy created for a reason. Not to extract bribe money.
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- estsauver 10y agoThe article quotes the cheapest smartphones in stores as being ~1000 rupees. That's about ~15 USD at the retail level. How does one go about sourcing that sort of low end phone? If I could order 100 of almost any smartphone at that price I would be very excited.
- blackoil 10y agoCheapest smartphone start around 4000, while popular price point is 6-10000. No one sells it for 1000, one company promised it, but never launched.
- xufi 10y agoAlso, didnt the company Micromax I believe start to gain a big market there? I haven't followed much on it yet but I know them and a bunch of home grown brands have started taking over as well
- manu29d 10y agoUpon googling "micromax market share", the first article that comes up was written on March 16th, 2016 [1]. That shows a dwindling market share. Other articles share same opinion. Although, the company has funded a new campaign[2] and the new Canvas series of smartphones from them look promising while maintaining a low price point. [1]: http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report-how-did-micromax-lose-nearly-half-of-its-market-share-in-one-year-2188696 http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report-how-did-micromax-lose-n... [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c62z2bIZfC0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c62z2bIZfC0 PS: Apart from a handful of friends who own Micromax phones, I have no interest in the company whatsoever.
- back_beyond 10y agoAlthough it might not be to your standards, I've purchased a brand new smart phone for $12 off of Amazon.
- estsauver 10y ago
- sabujp 10y agoBad title, it's just about how Apple can't get a store in India, was expecting a story of setting up business in India.
- xyzzy4 10y agoIndia has a misguided government that is crippled by bureaucracy and incompetent. The country would be in much better shape if it was still controlled by the British.
- droom 10y agoHave you heard of the Bengal famine?
- newyork 10y agoFYI: India went from 27% of world income to 3% under colonial rule
- thaumasiotes 10y agoThis would be a much more compelling point if I thought world income had stayed constant while India was under British colonial rule.
- weeksie 10y agoSource/context? There was no such thing as "India" before colonial rule. The idea of India as a cohesive entity is a colonial and post-colonial innovation. Hinduism was never even a cohesive entity before British rule, it was the orientalist scholars that classified it based on many similar belief systems. http://www.e-ir.info/2012/11/26/the-impact-of-european-colonialism-on-the-indian-caste-system/ http://www.e-ir.info/2012/11/26/the-impact-of-european-colon...
- weeksie 10y agoI seem to have ticked some people off with that statement, but it's factual. The idea of "India" as a nation just didn't exist. To say that the "income" (whatever that means) of India changed under colonization is incoherent without context. That's not the same as saying that the people in what is now India didn't exist or share many of the same traditions and cultures, but it was not a cohesive unit, let alone a nation with a national identity.
- parennoob 10y agoNote that this is limited to Apple's direct sales business model (aka selling phones through its own stores). Apple are free to sell through other retailers like LG, Xiaomi, and several other retailers do. But they like to have total and absolute control over all aspects of their products. Unfortunately, in this case, they have come across someone else who likes to exercise pretty strong control over aspects of the economy itself. I think the best thing for Apple to do would be to sell their products through a partnership with Reliance or another company that has a lot of stores in India. It's not like they don't partner with carriers and such in the US.
- dingo_bat 10y agoExactly. Apple is used to having everyone roll-over and let them steamroll over local laws but that's not gonna happen here. The market is still open, they are selling products in millions.
- anupshinde 10y agoWhile I like Apple products, India is right to deny "dumping" of products that would be considered e-waste in the sourcing country.