“MADE IN INDIA”

CHINA

II recently organised the “Made in India” Show in Beijing, China, from 16th to 19th October, 2003. It was a privilege for this writer who, along with Chandran Chandra of the Appliance Division and Rishi Kapoor of Process Equipment Division (PED), was selected to represent our Company at the show.

China is indeed a unique country. Twenty-five years ago it was considered a country with the largest population in the world and among the most under-developed. But it has made tremendous progress over the last quarter century, and is today well on the way to being a superpower.

The “Made in India” Show was held at the Beijing International Exhibition Centre. This Centre comprises about six buildings, where several large exhibitions can be held simultaneously.

Ours was a very small stall compared to Tata’s, which was a mammoth one. But the Godrej stall was very well designed and impressive in appearance, displaying various types of Security Equipment and Refrigerators, with panels for Storage Solutions, Material Handling Equipment (MHE), Process Equipment, Security Equipment and Appliances.

Unfortunately, the exhibition was not well publicised and the turnout was very poor. There were hardly any trade inquiries.

Landing in Beijing, we were impressed with the city’s infrastructure. Good roads with flyovers, impressive buildings and well-lit stores created a good impression of the city. Unfortunately, we did not have enough time to explore the city but we did the best we could.

A partial view of the Godrej stall at the “Made In India” Exhibition in China.

Beijing is blessed with an underground railway and has an unusual ticketing system. The fare for travelling from one underground station to another, regardless of the distance, is the same and when you walk onto the platform a person collects your ticket and once you walk out, you have to buy another ticket to gain re-entry to the platform.

(L-R): K.M. Vinod Kumar, General Manager, South Zone, Office and Consumer Products, with Mujtaba Khosrow Taj, Iran’s Deputy Minister of Trade and Commerce, and K.C. Singh, India’s Ambassador to Iran, at the “Made in India” Show in Teheran.

Some very interesting facts came to light during discussions about China’s progress.

• The people had a history of suppression and thus acquired tremendous patience to withstand unfavourable situations.

• We faced quite a language problem, as very few people could converse in English. In fact we had an interpreter for our stall as well. We were, however, assured that five years down the line, a substantial portion of the Chinese population would speak English as the language was being taught right from primary school.

• Beijing has been awarded the 2008 Olympics and preparations are already under way for holding the games. English boards are being put up at a lot of places and the process of converting the city to English is on. Surprisingly, in order to ensure low pollution levels for the games, two-wheelers are being banned in Beijing. How the authorities could implement this was quite surprising for all of us.

• It was amazing to hear that the government has passed an ordinance whereby, except for exceptional circumstances, when, say, the first child is deformed, there is a strict ban on having a second child in China. In the villages, agriculturists are allowed two children. On inquiring whether this policy was really implemented, the answer was in the affirmative as punishment for having another child was severe.

So now we know the price of progress!

F.K. Khapoliwalla
West Zone

 

TEHERAN

he “Made in India” Show organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in  Teheran, Iran, was held from 3 December to 6 December, 2003. K.M. Vinod Kumar, General Manager, South Zone, Office and Consumer Products (OCP), represented Godrej along with P.B. Jagtiani and Rajat Jain of MHE Division and PED respectively.

The exhibition was inaugurated by Mujtaba Khosrow Taj, Iran’s Deputy Minister of Trade and Commerce, in the presence of K.C. Singh, India’s Ambassador to Iran, CII officials, CII’s Iranian organisers and representatives.

Two large indoor halls adjacent to each other were used for the exhibition. Godrej and Tata had opted for open space, while other exhibitors, including TVS group companies, Bajaj, Hero Cycles, TI Cycles and a few small companies, had set up stalls. Our display included products of the Furniture and Interiors Group (Institution), Security Equipment Division, Locks Division and Material Handling Equipment Division.

The response to the show was quite good. The crowd included catalogue hunters and serious visitors, some of whom were our competitors in Iran. From the visitors to our pavilion and the many people we talked to, the impression gathered was that there is considerable goodwill for India, a fascination for Hindi movies and music, and some level of awareness of India’s rich heritage, which Iranians compare with their own ancient Persian heritage.

The purpose of our participation was to explore new markets and find prospective dealers in those new markets for our FIG products.

Doreen Rosario
Furniture and Interiors Group