This week will be a cherished one for Indian telecom major, Bharti Airtel as its subscriber base crossed the 100 m mark. In fact, with this milestone, it has now become the world's third-largest single-country mobile operator and sixth-largest integrated telecom operator. As for the top spot, China Mobile and China Unicom are the world's largest and second-largest in-country mobile operators with 414 m and 170 mm subscribers respectively. Expecting India's teledensity to double within the next three years from the current level of 37%, Mr. Sunil Mittal, the company's chairman has given very optimistic views about the future. He believes that the company will be able to double its subscriber base within that period. Given the fact that the telecom players in India are adding mobile subscribers at a very robust pace and also that Bharti Airtel is the market leader (marketshare of about 25%), the task does not look very daunting. However, keeping in mind the intense competition within the industry and that it is bound to get more intense in the future, one may want to refrain from blindly going by the management's views
It is important to look at the holistic picture and have an individual opinion rather than get swayed away by the public consensus. This is the view of the man who pioneered the retailing boom in India - Mr. Kishore Biyani, the founder of India’s largest retailing company - Pantaloon. In an article in the Wall street Journal, Mr. Biyani wrote, "Almost daily doses of bad news on television screens and newspapers have possibly done as much damage to the economy as the events on either side of the Atlantic." I completely agree with him. Mr. Biyani’s predicament is based on the fact that an overwhelming majority of Indian consumers are self-employed, who can neither get laid off nor can have pay cuts. Consider some statistics he has provided. The share of the national income represented by proprietor-run concerns and partnerships is 35%. The share of companies is around 15%, government around 25%, and agriculture around 25%. Combine agriculture and the self-employed in industry a...
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