I attended the Eighth Annual Columbia India Business Conference on April 14 titled “India: Maintaining Momentum”.  It was a very interesting if sober review of the business climate in India.  The Low Library was a historic and beautiful venue in Manhattan for the discussions hosted by a variety of experts from diverse fields. There were specific discussions on climbing the Value Chain and about whether big challenges equal big opportunity. The star speaker judging from the audience reaction was Kiran Bedi the anti corruption activist. Other key speakers were:

1. Prof Jagdish Bhagwati, the Intellectual Father of Indian Economic Reforms  
2.  Ron Somers, President US-India Business Council  
3. Manoj Singh , Global COO, Deloitte 
4. Nirupama Rao, Hon. Indian Ambassador to the US

Although the discussion concerned the flagging Indian economy after a few years of growth we are seeing huge potential in the Indian market and are continuing are expansion in 2012-13.  We have just installed another Swiss CNC  Router to increase capacity, a new photo plotter to reduce delivery times and are in the process of installing an Electroless Nickel Immersion Gold (ENIG) line to better serve our Multi-layer customers and an RO plant to reduce our environmental footprint. 

The Conference discussions on the lack of political will, structural constraints and other difficulties of doing business in India were well founded.  We believe the growth rates and enormous potential of India make overcoming these difficulties worthwhile. 

–  C. Krishna “Kris”  Rao