A Tale of Two Retailers

"Oh, Miniso?", said the sales-person at Muji, "You could call them our 'poor cousins'. Our prices are higher because we sell high quality products". We have all heard this quality spiel before. Every fruit vendor in Delhi uses that line to sell his wares. At Muji, apart from sounding contrived and utterly unconvincing, it also presumes that the Indian customer is …

SMEs in India and Japan

Small businesses are often called the backbone of economies. Relatively low profile and unseen, they play a major role economic growth and prosperity, innovation and job-creation, in most countries. Governments refer to these small businesses as Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). In most countries, they represent over 95% of all enterprises, and a significant chunk …

GST India: For Better or Worse?

Apple has started manufacturing iPhones in India. According to a WSJ report, the the iPhone SE series is being produced by Wistron, near Bangalore. Since the locally manufactured or assembled products will not attract import duties, it seems the prices are going to about USD 100 lower than imported phones. Import duties and taxes make …

Open Sesame

What is the key to unlocking the potential of India-Japan trade? A clear-eyed view of the existing communication-gap could be a good starting point...