Page 87 - DECO303_INDIAN_ECONOMY_ENGLISH

Indian Economy

Notes You must note that the unfortunate thing is that majority of the economic plans failed constantly
to achieve agricultural targets. In fact, agricultural development has always been offered lower
priority at the cost of industries and service sectors.

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
1. ………………… has always been the backbone of the Indian economy and despite concerted
industrialisation in the last six decades; agriculture still occupies a place of pride.

2. Agriculture provides employment to around …………………… of the total work force in
the country.
3. The significance of agriculture in the …………………… can be best explained by
considering the role of agriculture under different heads.
4. Importance of agriculture in the national economy is …………………… by many facts.
5. Any change in the agricultural sector-positive or negative-has a …………………… on the
entire economy.
6. The …………………… acts as a bulwark in maintaining food security and in the process,
national security as well.

Caselet Hello Bangladesh

harti Airtel has been trying to expand its footprint overseas for the past couple of
years. Bharti is planning to pick 70% stake in Warid Telecom, the fourth largest
Btelecom operator of Bangladesh. Abu Dhabi group will hold 30% stake. Bharti will
invest over $ 1 billion in the Bangladeshi Telecom market in the coming years. Warid has
operations in Uganda, Pakistan and Congo. Bharti will be the first Indian operator to enter
the Bangladeshi market. In Bangladesh, it will compete against the state-run Teletalk, the
Bangladesh-Singapore JV Citycell, Grameenphone (Bangladesh - Norway JV) and AKTEL
(Japan Malaysia JV).
Bharti is already operating in overseas market such as Seychelles, Sri Lanka, and Channel
Islands. The Dropping ARPU (Average Revenue per User) forced it to further expand its
footprint in new markets.

Indian Telecom market is very competitive as 13 players are competing for the share in
price and price put is the most common strategy among the players. Telecom companies
are searching opportunity overseas. There are three major geographies that hold
opportunity for ambitious Indian telecom companies – The Middle East, Africa, and South
East Asia. In India, EBIDTA is high but ARPU is as low as ` 200. Compare this with ARPU
of as high as ` 2,000 in some of other markets, and it makes obvious sense for a low cost
player to foray there.

The Subscriber base in Bangladesh is growing rapidly. It has increased from 2 lakh in 2001
to more than 50 million in 2009. The population of Bangladesh is 150 million and telecom
density is very low. The subscriber base is expected to increase to 70 million by 2011. Joint
Venture or Acquisition is the most viable route for overseas investment in Telecom sector.
This move provides an operator with scale to negotiate with infrastructure vendors.
Contd...

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