Business in India

By Jennifer Hopfinger
December 23, 2008 12:46 PM

The city of Mumbai has been attacked by terrorists three times since 2003, and there have been more than 2,400 terrorism-related deaths in India in 2008 alone. What made the most recent attack in November different from all the others? Why was India’s long-standing problem with terrorism suddenly getting so much attention from Western media? It’s because of where the terrorists struck - at places frequented by Westerners in the heart of the country’s financial district, where more than 100 multinational companies have regional offices. And so, the global business community, which has been enamored with India’s promising economy in recent years, is now asking the question on the cover of the December 15th issue of BusinessWeek magazine: “How Risky Is India?”

The cover story’s writers Mehul Srivastava and Nandini Lakshman bleakly report: “[The most recent attack] laid bare the gaps between India's image and reality, sparking a nationwide introspection about the nation's future. The fear is that India's mounting problems could drag the country back to its pitiful past. Its governments, despite a manufactured public image, have always been unwieldy; its economy, despite the plenty of the boom years, is premised mostly on future potential; and its much-flaunted stability is no such thing.” According to the article, the answer to the question is obvious - India is a dangerous place to do business - and that the Indian government is largely to blame.

In an accompanying article, “Outrage - and a plea for business to lead,” BusinessWeek’s Indian bureau chief Manjeet Kripalani writes that she believes the business community, whose “watering holes” at the Taj and the Oberoi were attacked, will be the ones to come up with a solution to India’s terrorism problems. “It's about time. India's businessmen, not its politicians, have long been the agents of positive change in the country, but they have not launched a national dialogue on the reforms so urgently needed in the public sphere,” she writes. “A revolution in attitude is nigh. India's elite—its corporations—may be at the forefront. Indians are yearning for their leadership. So are foreign investors.”

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Copyright © 2008 Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism