Business Research on India
Business Research on India
The Republic of India was considered by the Asia Society (2016) as a former colony under the British Empire along with the East and West portions of Pakistan. But this was further subdivided into the Princely states and the 11 provinces of British India (ClearIAS, 2015) until its independence on August 15, 1947 (Mayor, 2003, p.77). The constitution implemented in the country is based on the legacy systems that were developed during the British India resulting in a Parliamentary form with a Federal government rule (ClearIAS, 2015). The implication of which is that the executive and legislative branch is separate from each other (ClearIAS, 2015). However there is self-governance at the local levels (ClearIAS, 2015) due to the foundation of the Indian National Congress in 1885 (Trueman, 2015). This was further enhanced with the introduction of the Government of India Act in 1919, which created a national parliament and the right to vote for wealthy nationals (Trueman, 2015). This resulted to reforms and riots with the most popular in Punjab where unarmed protesting nationals were shot by British soldiers (Trueman, 2015).
The fight for dominion status was further seen under Gandhi when he privately produced salt resulting to civil arrests (Trueman, 2015). This was countered by the development and succeeding failure of the Government of India Act in 1935 due to religious issues between the Hindus and Muslims (Trueman, 2015). It was only during World War II that India was promised dominion status when they helped the British government fight against Japan (Trueman, 2015). However the Muslim nationals did not waver on having their own government and actually resulted in a “direct action” or civil war against Hindu nationals resulting to the death of over 5000 individuals (Trueman, 2015). In 1947 the Indian Independence Act ceded the northwest and northeast regions to the independent state of Pakistan from the Republic of India (Trueman, 2015). Additional violence erupted in the Punjab province during this separation resulting to the death of more 250,000 due to religious issues (Trueman, 2015).
As of 1995 the country has an estimated population of around 936.54 million with a 1.8% annual growth (Mayor, 2003, p.78). However, most of the population at 74% are scattered in the rural areas with more than 1 million living in urban cities like Mumbai (Mayor, 2003, p.78). Most of the population will live to an average of 58 to 60 years with women living longer despite the high mortality rate of infants at 76.3 per 1000 births (Mayor, 2003, p.78). Despite the longer life expectancy women are considered to be less literate at 39.4% when compared to 63.9% for males (Mayor, 2003, p.78). The reason could be considered to be based on religious practices since 82% are Hindus while only 12.1% are Muslim (Mayor, 2003, p.78). This is further worsened by the continuing prevalence of the caste system despite only 16% being listed as Scheduled Castes (Mayor, 2003, p.78).
Geography
The country’s land mass is composed of 2.9 million square kilometers and 3.28 million square kilometers with its territorial seas (Mayor, 2003, p.77). These are further divided into the geological regions of North India, South India and the Peninsula along with ten physiological regions (Mayor, 2003, p.77). Due to the prevalence of mountains, plains and coasts within the country it has distinctive seasons that includes winter, summer and monsoon rains (Mayor, 2003, p.77). This is seen in the prevalence of agricultural, forestry and fishing industries along with transportation, telecommunications and manufacturing (Mayor, 2003, p.78). But agriculture is still a primary focus of the government as seen in the infusion of modern technology due to aid from developed nations (Mayor, 2003, p.80).
Infrastructure and Industries
Travel between cities and rural areas are enhanced due to the development of roads, railroads and maritime transports (Mayor, 2003, p.80). This is seen in the modernization of the transport system in major cities such as the metro system in Calcutta and the transit system in Madras (Mayor, 2003, p.80). The further development of national infrastructure like highways and maritime transports resulted in the expansion of western companies into the emerging market of India (Scullion and Collings, 2011, p.113). This is especially true with the larger pool of talent in India as well as a lower labor cost (Dibbern, Winkler and Heinzl, 2007, p.2). The reason for this is that India is considered to be an emerging Human Resource market (Scullion and Collings, 2011, p.113) along with Brazil, Russia and China (Peng, 2012, p.97).
But India is considered to be better at completing high-profile deals at 67% when compared to the 47% for China due to China’s lower experience in due diligence and financing (Peng, 2012, p.101). The higher international operating experience of India was seen in the number of Indian MNEs that acquire subsidiaries in other countries (Peng, 2012, p.103). One reason for this was the lower political resistance of India (Peng, 2012, p.101) due to the fact that it was a former British colony (Asia Society, 2016). However, Dibbern, Winkler and Heinzl (2007, p.3) revealed that outsourcing in another country has additional costs when compared to domestic operations such as quality control problems and intellectual property protection (Doh, 2005, p.695). This is especially significant in software production as well as call centre operations (Doh, 2005, p.695) due to globalization and an increasingly competitive market (Dibbern, Winkler and Heinzl, 2007, p.32).
References
Asia Society. (2016). India: A historical overview. Asia Society. Retrieved from http://asiasociety.org/india-historical-overview
ClearIAS. (2015). Historical background of indian constitution. ClearIAS. Retrieved from http://www.clearias.com/historical-background-of-indian-constitution/
Dibbern, J., Winkler, J., and Heinzl, A. (2007). Explaining variations in client extra costs between software projects offshored to India. MIS Quarterly Special Issue on Information Ssystems Offshoring, p.1-40.
Doh, J. P. (2005). Offshore outsourcing: Implications for international business and strategic management theory and practice. Journal of Management Studies, 42(3), p.695-704.
Mayor, J. N. (2003). Issues, historical background and bibliography. New York: Nova Science Publishers Inc.
Peng, M. W. (2012). The global strategy of emerging multinationals from China. Global Strategy Journal, 2, p.97-107.
Scullion, H. and Collings, D. (2011). Global talent management. New York: Routledge.
Trueman, C. N. (2015). India 1900 to 1947. History Learning Site. Retrieved from http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/modern-world-history-1918-to-1980/india-1900-to-1947/
