Brand India is a phrase that was coined to describe the campaign that was conceived to project India as an attractive business destination. Basically the campaign tries to showcase the charms of India as an emerging destination for business in the fields of service sector, manufacturing, information technology, infrastructure, and information technology enabled services, etc.
The campaign highlights the strengths of India in terms of being a huge market for products and services and also a terrific destination for parking investment funds. The government of India is spearheading the campaign with substantial cooperation from the apex domestic business body, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the more informal India Inc Abroad.
Many leading organizations are working on building Brand India. They include India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), a public-private partnership between the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India, and the Confederation of Indian Industry.
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It aims to effectively present the India business perspective and leverage business partnerships in a globalizing market-place. Brand India is an idea whose time has come. The astonishing rate at which the economy grew in 2007-2008 was a pointer to which way the wind was blowing.
Thanks to the economic boom, the middle class grew in numbers which in turn enhanced levels of consumption as pockets became heavier with more and more people becoming wage earners. More disposable incomes meant that people were spending more. There were more people buying property, taking vacations and investing surplus funds in the stock market.
Cross-border acquisitions like Tata’s Corns and Jaguar deals and Mittal’s Arcelor takeover and leadership in IT and knowledge – based industries made people sit up and take notice of India. All this made Brand India a force to reckon with. There was increasing interest in everything Indian. Westerners flocked to India to understand what made her tick just as they had flocked to China earlier.
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Suddenly, even NRIs began to find India more attractive. Even when the economic downturn ravaged the US and the UK, India has not been as badly affected as these countries. Thus Brand India has proved to be more resilient in the face of adversity than even developed countries. This is something we can be proud of as Indians.
When ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ swept the Oscars, it worked wonders for India’s soft power. Soft power plays an important role in enhancing brand value. What ‘The Lord of the Rings’ did for brand New Zealand, ‘Slumdog’ will do for India. The former, also a multiple Oscar winner and a box office hit, created a lot of interest in New Zealand and gave a boost to its tourism.
Similarly Slumdog’s excellent showing at the Oscars has made India a buzzword abroad and showcased the immense talent in this country. At the same time, the Satyam scandal and the Mumbai attacks have somewhat tarnished India’s image abroad. Such incidents will only damage India’s brand value.