Despite the appeal of the Indian market, well-known international businesses nevertheless encounter commercial challenges, according to Nagpur Today. Companies including Motorola, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Nokia, Parimatch, Vodafone, and Walmart have all faced operational challenges, brand counterfeiting, and falsification of their products.
Unfortunately, the Indian market had to accept the departure of certain foreign enterprises due to bureaucracy and excessive regulation. According to the article, India has lost many businesses in recent years, including the German retailer Metro, the American carmaker Ford, the Swiss cement company Holcim, and Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank. In November of last year, the Indian business was also abandoned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, which sold its remaining 2.5 % in Paytm, which is an Indian digital payment service provider. The estimated value of Berkshire Hathaway’s assets is USD 780 billion.
Nearly a third of the businesses that entered the Indian market between 2014 and 2021, according to Indian state registers, have already finished doing business here. There are 2783 such international businesses.
For example, the international betting company Parimatch experienced product counterfeiting and felt that its intellectual property was not protected in India. Despite having great expectations for investing in India, the company was never able to establish a firm there. Rather, the business was subject to pressure from regional authorities who supported only local monopolies like Dream11, Nazara Technologies, Paytm, First Games Moonfrog Labs, 99Games, Octro, JetSynthesys, and HashCube. Such actions hurt consumers of gambling, raise the price of these services, reduce taxes, and restrict the pool of potential participants.
Corruption, bribery, and fraud continue to pose the primary risk to conducting business in India. According to Nagpur Today, these issues have led to a multitude of corporate scandals and deceitful schemes, impacting not only the general public but also astute entrepreneurs.
Aside from bribery and corruption, the primary risks faced when conducting business in India include theft of tangible assets, internal financial fraud, and information theft. Western corporations, which are used to a strong corporate environment, safeguarding intellectual property rights, and fair competition, frequently struggle to address these issues.
In the past few years, the Indian government has intensified its efforts to target international companies with unfounded accusations. Google, Amazon, Nokia, and Samsung have faced substantial fines amounting to billions of dollars. Additionally, Xiaomi, OPPO, Vivo, Intel, and Wistron find themselves in a precarious position. Consequently, despite the immense opportunities offered by the Indian market, the experiences of Google, Amazon, Nokia, and Parimatch highlight the necessity for companies to exhibit patience and adaptability in order to navigate the challenging business environment in India.
