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Blog // Travel
March 16, 2005

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 […]

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.

Responses
Toni 20 years ago

A friend of mine who’s been to India regularly wanted to buy a pen during one visit. He found a shop with a large stock, but after trying a dozen or so that completely failed to work, he approached the shop keeper.

“I need a pen that works, and none of these do”

“Ah sir, you need BEST quality”

I think this covers the issue pretty much. There seems to be an expectation that local product is worthless, and I’d suspect that local businesses would prefer to sell overseas only to protect both their good name and ensure that normal standards of quality are maintained. It may also stop a certain amount of graft.

Andi 20 years ago

Reminds me of the difficulty I had buying Tanqeray Sterling vodka. Made in England. I’ve even been to the distillery, but they export every single bottle.

Luckily a few friends who’ve been to the US have been kind enough to fuel my nascent alcoholism by bringing bottles back…

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