It's finally time to sit up and take notice of India!! Culturally the most diverse country, India is stepping up the tempo for the world stage. Its tremendous market potential can be gauged by the steady annual growth rate of 5-6 percent.
It is emerging as a country of strategic importance in South Asia. As a founder member of GATT and subsequently WTO, India enjoys the MFN status with all the WTO members, especially with US. Relation with US had started to improve under the Clinton administration and is being carried forward by the current President. His recent visit to India was a huge success and it has registered India firmly on the radar of world economists.
India's asset and the determinant of growth is its quick adaptability to the world trends. It readily catches up with every new trend in the world economy. At times though, due to infrastructure and regulatory limitations, the progress may be slow.
An area deserving particular mention is e-commerce, or in simple terms, online transaction. Initially, it did not catch on with the Indian market, but now India boasts of a strong line-up of B2B portals catering to SMEs. These portals have become instrumental in promoting Indian businesses on the global platform and in turn generating foreign revenues.
China's B2B market is flourishing with online transaction amounting to 94pct of total businesses. Japan also does good business over B2B. Recently it has been observed that global marketplaces are showing interest in the Indian market as well. Of some of the major B2B portals, Globalsources.com and Alibaba.com have affiliates and business associates in India to cater to the Indian market.
One such new entrant to the existing league of portals is Allactiontrade.com. The difference between Allactiontrade.com and other global portals is that the former being global has also a well established corporate office in India. It has brought with it international standards suitable for the Indian market. Giving tough competition to Indian portals like IndiaMart and TradeIndia, they have earned a name for their genuine business leads (contacts that lead to real business). They have the right understanding of Indian trade laws and international exposure.
"We have shifted focus to India as a step towards expanding our services to reach potential markets, with a vision of what can be, rather than what it is", says Mr. Deepak Sahni, Head Sales and Marketing Operations (India). He further explained the goal of the company by stating, "There was a lack of trust in the B2B business in India. Our endeavor is to build trust by providing only genuine business leads to our members, a feature which was missing here". They have registered a sizeable number of Indian traders in a very short period of setting foot in India.
China poses a great challenge to India and such companies with a lucid understanding of international market as well as Indian business requirements are poised to take India to greater heights in B2B market as well. It can be predicted that in half a decade, India will surpass China and become the world's second largest economy and B2B would be a major contributor in it.
