Not for Sale Locally

One of the constant frustrations of living here in India is finding good local companies who will not sell on the domestic market. The reasons usually have to do with avoiding hard and soft forms of corruption together with a desire to maintain high wordclass standards. It is an understandble byproduct of globalisation.

However, it does potentionally produce some detrimental side-effects. By not releasing these world class products onto their local markets, companies fail to create local demand, but also fail to supply local entrepreneurs with access to cheap quality products. In my view this may have a long term impact on small scale entrepreneurship. Certainly when you look at India it is a country where it is very easy to create an export business if you have millions in start up capital and want to export cheap products. In fact it is a license to print money. However, it is next to impossible to start a small export business selling high touch and boutique products. The former is great for those who are already wealthy, but the latter is an potential good of globalisation that is not being realised for those who are less than wealthy. The not for local mentaility will only exaserbate this situation.