What country has the largest English speaking in the world? INDIA!!
With all the talk about China in the media I believe there is a lack of appreciation for India's economy, democratic values, common concern over Muslim terrorism, and many of its cultural characteristics.
India has also never wavered in their commitment to democracy. And while suffering with vast poverty, it remains determined to be a knowledge-based society emphasizing learning, science, and technological advancement.
In an area of the world where the USA needs strong geo-political allies, India is an important counter balance and an ally against Islamic terrorism. Like Israel, India achieved independence from British colonial rule in the late 1940s. India recognized Israel in 1950, and since the fall of Russia, has been building strong ties with Israel. Both Israel and India are potential targets for first-use nuclear strikes by their adversaries”— in each case, an Islamic nuclear bomb. A nexus between India, Israel, and the USA creates a powerful economic and defense force. India’s President K. R. Narayanan proclaimed: “We in India hold in admiration the immense progress that the people of Israel have made in various fields….There exists enormous potential for enhancing the depth and content of our interaction…as well as in the sphere of defense cooperation.”
India is a great trading partner of the USA, nearly equal with China in imports from the USA, with unfathomable potential to lift the US economy. As a country with a population just a bit less than China, India's GDP per-capital is ridiculously low and has no where to go but up and with India's GDP growing approx. 9% a year it its compounding impact on world trade and world GDP is sizable to say the least.
Many multinational companies have high expectations for India. As example, Caterpillar made clear statements about their expectations for significant sales growth coming from developing nations and India in particular. Results are coming in with Ford's October 2010 sales in India increasing 161% from October 2009. IBM worldwide expects $35 billion of its $120 billion sales 2010 to come from India. According to IBM releases, IBM in India is not just a global delivery organization with vastly skilled & low cost manpower availability, it is also a big player in the domestic IT market. IBM India's domestic revenues are one of the highest growth areas in the entire IBM portfolio of geographies & businesses. Research and business giant GE's largest research location is in Bangalore India. GE President Immelt has set a 30 per cent growth target for GE India over the next five years - in effect, grow the India business to over $10 billion by 2015. Cisco's CEO John Chambers has predicted it would not surprise him to see India actually challenge China. What's more, Cisco sees a wave of Indian entrepreneurship that, together with tougher laws on intellectual property rights, will make the nation an attractive place to set up R&D and venture operations. Procter & Gamble CEO Bob McDonald has recently stated that a key part of P&G's growth strategy is to expand in parts of the world such as India. Kraft foods is clearly impressed by the India growth story which is part of the reason it recently snapped up Cadbury which has an entrenched brand position and a large distribution in network in emerging markets. Cadbury got 38% of its growth from emerging markets and is a strategically important acquisition for Kraft's plans to expand in India.
Infrastructure is key to growth in India where 70% of its population is rural areas that are difficult to access that lack even basic services. Burger giant McDonalds has less of a problem with sacred cows than it does with roads and bridges. Better infrastructure could more than double McDonald's growth rate in India according Vikram Bakshi, managing director of McDonald's operations in the north and east of India. Scott Price, president and CEO of Wal-Mart Asia said in April, "The government should take care of issues related to FDI, GST and providing infrastructure support. Wal-Mart will keep persisting because its efforts in India is critical to its global growth strategy."
But roads, utilities, and development are spreading in India. And businesses from the USA, and around the world will be there. India, like other emerging and developing nations, are staking a claim in the global economy and as they help themselves they are lifting world GDP.
Here's some interesting facts:
1. Current Population of India in 2010 is around 1,150,000,000 (1.15 billion) people. Currently, India is second largest country in the world after China in terms of population. By 2030, the population of India will be largest in the world estimated to be around 1.53 billion. There has been rapid increase in Indian population in the last 60 years. Population of India at the time of Independence was only 350 million. So Indian Population has increased more than three times.
2. India's workforce is approximately 470 million and the 2nd largest in the world.
3. India's GDP per capital is only about $3200, ranking it about 115th in the world. It has no where's to go but up!!
4. McKinsey & Company call India the 'bird of gold' and wrote this about the rise of India's consumer market. If India continues on its current high growth path, incomes will almost triple over the next two decades, and the country will climb from its position as the twelfth-largest consumer market today to become the world's fifth-largest consumer market by 2025.
5. The Indian economy has emerged from the credit and recession as one of the strongest growth-based economies in the world and is expected to bypass the United States by 2025. Fueling this anticipated 14% annual growth rate is rising public spending, an increased demand for automobiles and infrastructure and overall developing industrial production.
6. In contrast to China, the U.S. exports to India is growing rapidly and the balance of trade with India's fast-growing economy is roughly equal at $17 billion.
India is just one of the reasons the world economic bathtub is rising and India will produce a giant lift to the USA economy in the future!!
Nov. 2010
