As 2007 comes to a close, India Inc wants to close all the chapters that were opened through the year. It, however, doesn’t want to forget the message each chapter held for it. But carry it to the New Year. SundayET commissioned a survey to global research firm, Synovate, to take a peek into the mind of corporate India. And corporate captains impressively turned out to be more global than the Indian themselves.
Infrastructure and education are the two big issues that majority of CEOs are willing to put their wager on. As many as 45% of Indian CEOs reckon infrastructure will be by far the biggest sector to watch out for in 2007 followed by retail (19%). IT & telecom remain the third big sector in the coming year with 14% CEOs voting for it. Much of this is backed by a full-blown debate raging over the inevitability of the sector for a speedier economic and industrial growth and the retail boom resonating all around. There’s an increasing feeling amongst all industry captains in India and abroad that opportunities the country offers within infrastructure and its allied sectors such as energy, software and telecommunications, are tremendous. Education and media & entertainment are others crucial sectors that cross the mind of 8% CEOs each.
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Infrastructure may be an issue more specific to India, but Indian CEOs sound unison with their global counterparts in their concern for global warming and M&A, private equity, e-governance and other such issues. A 33% of CEOs polled cite global warming as the biggest concern in 2007 — in line with the global sentiments. Rest of the CEOs were clearly divided in their assessment of the biggest concern during the coming year with 19% and 18% noting inflation and fall of the UPA government as the biggest concern for 2007, respectively.
Others feel terrorism, talent crunch and natural calamities could also spoil the party for India Inc. Interestingly, most of the 125 corporate chiefs seemed to keep a wary eye on the political saga that might unfold during the year. This could be in the wake of ongoing differences amongst the biggest UPA allies — Congress and CPM — over the Indo-US nuclear deal. As many as 72% CEOs believe General Elections would be ushered in earlier than its scheduled 2009.
While 10% expect the election to be held early 2008, 30% and 32% feel they will happen in mid and late next year, respectively. Little wonder then 36% of the business leaders expect General Elections to be the biggest event to look out for in 2008. There were other 26% who feel that the launch of Tata’s one lakh car would be the big event and another 22% who point at Indo-US deal to be the landmark event for the next year. There’s a good news for the business environment in the country if CEO assessments are anything to go by. A buoyant stockmarket seems to have raised hopes amongst them. An overwhelming majority (55%) of the CEOs polled feel the Sensex will hover within 20,000-30,000 range, though there’s a small overzealous section (11%) that feels it could pierce 30,000 mark. The rest paint a more modest scenario with 29% CEOs saying the Sensex would remain within the 10,000-20,000 range.
Real estate and stocks remain the top choice for a significant sections of respondents. While 48% CEOs voted for the former as the best bet for investment in 2008, 23% said it would be stocks. Mutual fund has reasonable believers with 15% people calling it a good bet in 2008. FDI, joint ventures and M&As will continue to be hot currency in 2008, pretty much as in the current year. Almost 22% of CEOs believe FDI will maintain its momentum, 19% say M&As will remain in the news. Much of this sense may have come from big ticket M&As that have hit the headlines in the current year and the manner in which India Inc has pulled off some high profile acquisitions on the global platform. The trend is far from over for most CEOs polled.
However, amidst this exuberance, there’s a significant section which believes e-governance (17%) and inclusive growth (10%) will be hotly debated currency in 2008. The expectations from the Union Budget 2008 evoked a varied response from the CEOs whose biggest expectations ranged from higher allocations for health and education (30%) to exemption in income tax (29%). There are evenly divided groups that has sops for exports and lower duties as the biggest expectations from the government in 2008. While the bunch of CEOs contacted may have been divided on their expectations from the Budget, there was a clear tilt towards Reliance Industries as the company to watch out for in 2008. While as many as 43% of corporate heads polled Reliance Industries as the company to watch out for, 53% believe that Mukesh Ambani could be the businessman of 2008 followed by 26% for Ratan Tata.
Reliance Communications and Tata Motors followed as the second and third in companies to watch out for list. The skew in the survey begins to stand out as the question moves out of the business domain. An overwhelming majority (58%) of the CEOs polled feel Rahul Gandhi will be the newsmaker of 2008 followed by 29% for M S Dhoni. However, when the query focused on sports alone, Dhoni ruled amongst the CEOs. As many as 66% bet on him as the sportsperson to watch out for in the coming year. And that says a lot about popularity of cricket amongst the CEOs, although it’s golf that is strongly associated with them.
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