Here are some counter examples to the cynical uproar, I have specifically chosen examples of entrepreneurship born in India (against ones re-imported from the US and elsewhere)
Successful companies that created products for the local market. All examples are from TamilNadu a southern Indian state. More such examples exist all over India. Such examples are not possible without having consumer interest at heart, Indian companies not respecting consumer interest is a myth in my opinion.
Yes, the Unilevers and the P&Gs of the world did a great job at understanding India and customizing their products. (And then Baba Ramdev came along with Patanjali!)
Incidentally was on a call with the CEO of Scripbox today who mentioned that he had to innovate his KYC/documentation process for the Indian market as people wanted the convenience of having it picked up vs. couriering it themselves.
However, getting back to the point - very few companies other than the FMCG space cater to non-English speaking/ local language users in India. Localization is key to India, but for some reason largely overlooked as of now.
Great picks. But notice how these are specifically in the FMCG domain. ParleG- an 8 cent biscuit out of India is the world's highest selling biscuit.
The article IMHO talks more of the mainstream digital Internet businesses which largely ignore the 200M non-english speaking people on the "Indian Internet".
Can't agree with you more! One Dr. Kalbag, a man I respected a lot but couldn't meet, created a curriculum for school dropouts. His school in the Pabal Village in Maharashtra showed what the genius in school drops could produce. The local manufacturing in India is massive. I do not agree with those who say India is a service economy only. However, the last of literature and knowledge in local languages limits many such genius.
Incidentally was on a call with the CEO of Scripbox today who mentioned that he had to innovate his KYC/documentation process for the Indian market as people wanted the convenience of having it picked up vs. couriering it themselves.
However, getting back to the point - very few companies other than the FMCG space cater to non-English speaking/ local language users in India. Localization is key to India, but for some reason largely overlooked as of now.