Growth on a totally new scale
By David Smith, Operations Director, Scottish Development International
As the current economic downturn continues, there are few places across the globe which haven’t felt its impact. However, although India hasn’t been immune to the downturn, unlike much of the world it is still experiencing significant growth – predicted to be around 6% this year.
This coupled with a real demand for products, services and expertise in some of our leading sectors, means that India offers some significant opportunities for Scottish companies.
Areas such as insurance and pensions for example, are experiencing massive growth in India. The Indian life insurance market is currently the fifth largest in the world and the recently launched voluntary national pension scheme means that this market also looks set to expand rapidly. In Scotland we have real expertise in these areas that it’s vital we exploit.
As the Indian economy continues to grow, so too does its demand for energy. The Indian government is also determined to reduce India’s dependence on energy imports. There is a real opportunity for us here, both with our long established capabilities within the oil and gas sector, but also with our growing prominence as a global leader in renewable energy – particularly in offshore wind and marine.
Likewise in life sciences, our strengths in areas such as diabetes, heart disease and oncology are highly relevant in India, where rates of these diseases have grown at an alarming rate.
Finally we must not overlook our growing education sector – already highly respected in India. Here there is the potential for us to exploit our strengths to undertake research in partnership with Indian organisations. In fact, SDI has identified India as a priority market for the work it’s doing to internationalise the Scottish education sector.
SDI has a strong presence in India with a long-established base in New Dehli and a recently opened office in Mumbai, working effectively to ensure that Scotland is able to effectively tap into India’s full potential.
For further information visit www.sdi.co.uk or call 0141 228 2828.
Published in The Herald Business, 17/07/09