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Viewpoint :: Emerging Markets
The rise of India as a global IT-enabled service provider
Is it the large English-speaking workforce, or the lack of any manufacturing legacy, or advances in communications technology? Which of these factors explain the rise of India as an IT service superpower?
Professor Murali Patibandla of IIMB and Professor Rafiq Dossani of Stanford University have studied the factors contributing to the growth of India in the global services economy and present an altogether different explanation.
Viewpoint :: Emerging Markets
Indian MNEs - Does geography determine history?
The last decade has seen the emergence of Indian automotive, infotech and pharmaceutical firms as multinational enterprises. Did these firms face the same challenges of "foreignness" faced by any other national firm going global? Or did they face unique disadvantages stemming from their origins in India?
Professor J Ramachandran and Anirvan Pant of IIMB explored this question and offer insights that would be invaluable to other firms looking to go global.
Insight :: Emerging Markets
Energy (in)security - India's achilles heel?
The Copenhagen summit and the controversy over global warming has brought energy back to centre stage. Global economic growth in general and China and India's growth in particular are dependent on the availability of energy.
Understanding the current energy consumption, available sources and geo-political challenges in building energy-security is critical for India, argues, Professor Rajeev S of IIMB. From his study of present energy consumption he presents options for India to improve its energy security.
Insight :: Emerging Markets
Challenges in pricing corporate bonds in India
As emerging markets and economies try to integrate with the global economies, only the most lucrative economies get access to global capital flows. For the rest, the bond market serves as an alternate, and important source of finance. However, in most emerging markets, the corporate bond market remains underdeveloped. The resultant illiquidity leads to pricing inefficiencies; corporates find it difficult to price their credit instruments reliably and commercial banks are unable to value bond portfolios.
Professor Jayadev M of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore and Professor Joshy Jacob of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad study the factors driving credit risk characteristics of these credit spreads and propose a way to estimate credit spreads.
Insight :: Emerging Markets
Are MFIs delivering on their social objectives?
Microfinance is defined as provision of financial services to low-income clients who lack access to traditional banking and related services. Microfinance Institutions (MFI) claim to alleviate poverty by aiding financial inclusion of the poor. In recent years there has been a lot of growth in the MFI sector with significant investments coming in. The MFIs have been announcing consistent growth in outreach and quantum of money that has been lent.
Amidst this boom in the MFIs, the important questions to be asked are, what is the impact of these MFIs on the lives of the borrowers? Are micro-credits used to generate sustainable income growth? Are the needs of the borrowers diverse and if so are the institutions catering to such needs? Does the outreach figure reported by the MFIs reflect true financial inclusion numbers?
Professor Rajalaxmi Kamath of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore and her colleagues set out to answer these questions by monitoring and studying the daily cash flow pattern across a set of families in Ramanagaram, Karnataka. Their study provides key insights into how the borrowers are managing micro-credits and whether the current practices of the MFIs can achieve their stated objectives.