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Business Business Profile Delhi is the political and administrative capital of India and Bangalore the centre of the important high-tech industry. However, Mumbai’s position as the country’s financial capital remains undisputed. The city is also an important centre for many other industries and for foreign trade. Mumbai’s position as the financial capital of India is based on the dominance of its two stock exchanges – the NSE and the smaller BSE – and the power of its banking sector. Together, the two stock exchanges tower above all the other local Indian exchanges, in terms of market capitalisation and turnover. Meanwhile the city’s commercial and retail banking centre is also the largest in India. The service sector attracts the lion’s share of Mumbai’s incoming foreign investment. Also pre-eminent as a trading centre, pearls and precious and semi-precious stones are by far the largest single category (by value) of both import and export goods handled by Mumbai. Of the other principal industries, the cotton and textile business and machine engineering are probably the most important. Between them, these two sectors employ a third of the workforce of the city and account for a sixth of the export trade. Perhaps the industry that Mumbai is most famous for, however, is Bollywood, which churns out about half of the 800 or so films made each year in India – Hollywood, by comparison, produces about 250 films a year. Reliable statistics are hard to come by, as the industry is notoriously shadowy – the majority of Indian films are financed through the black economy – and is not officially recognised. Best estimates suggest that the Indian film industry turns over the equivalent of £135 million a year. The importance of her corporate and trading activities to Mumbai is illustrated by the fact that excise tax in 1999-2000 brought in Rs6877 million and customs duty another Rs7607 million, whereas income tax raised only Rs4718 million in the same period. The average income per household in Mumbai is higher than in any other great Indian city. In Mumbai, 30% of households enjoy an annual income of between Rs36,000 and Rs60,000 – the equivalent figure for Delhi is 26% and for Calcutta 25%. Unemployment is extremely difficult to calculate. In 1996, there were 710,000 people officially registered as unemployed, which would work out as at least 21%. However, this does not include the many unregistered unemployed people and the figure is very likely to have increased steadily over the last seven years. The unemployment rate in India for 1999-2000 is set at between 2.23% and 7.32%. Most of the important financial institutions are located in the Fort area of the city, near the BSE building and the striking modern tower of the Reserve Bank of India. Well-known multinational industrial companies that are based in Mumbai include Hindustan Lever, Castrol, Glaxo, Proctor & Gamble and Cadbury. Most international banks have at least some form of representation in the city. Business Etiquette For the visiting foreign businessperson, the principal advantage is that English – now well established as the international language of business – is the lingua franca. This is despite, or perhaps because of, the large number of languages that are spoken in India – there are 18 official ones and some 1600 minor ones. Indeed, English is so widely spoken that most meetings will be conducted in this language and any lapse into a local tongue should perhaps raise a visitor’s suspicion that the speaker is not to be trusted. The business card is an important part of business life in India. Some people carry cards that are in effect a compressed CV and many are bilingual. A suit is considered the proper form of business dress in India. Business hours are generally 0930/1000 to 1700/1730. Business entertaining is an integral part of Indian corporate life and potentially fraught with difficulty for the uninitiated. Foreign visitors should remember that Indians only eat with the right hand, although the left may be used to hold a plate or utensil. An invitation to an Indian home for dinner will be for 2030 to 2130, although many of the guests will not arrive until much later and dinner may not be served until after 2300. However, once dinner is over the party is at an end and the guest may depart without giving offence. Drinking, especially at lunchtime, should be avoided until visitors are certain of the host’s opinion on the subject. Even then, alcohol should always be consumed in moderation. |
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