Panalpina Annual Report 2006

Marketplace India
Soon to be the world’s
third­largest economy
India is seen as a challenging market for logistics companies,
as it requires a high degree of innovation and flexibility – especially
given the phenomenal year­on­year growth posted by the Indian
market. Panalpina has been running an operational organization
on the subcontinent for over nine years now, and is excellently
prepared for the forthcoming challenges.
2 Panalpina Annual Report 2006
India has always exerted a particular fascination
on the West. This started long before Hermann
Hesse’s books became popular, or famous musicians
undertook spiritual quests in the 1960s.
For centuries before that, the richness and variety
of this vast country drew people from all over the
world, so that the population is now a mixture
of countless ethnic, cultural and religious groups.
India has over one billion inhabitants who between
them speak about 20 regional languages and
over 1,000 dialects in addition to Hindi and English.
Hinduism is the most widespread religion, but
there are also significant Buddhist, Jain, Moslem,
Sikh, Christian and Jewish minorities. Religion
and State are now separate, and great emphasis
is placed on protecting the rights of religious
minorities. Given this immensely varied ethnic,
linguistic and religious backdrop, it is hardly surprising
that Indians are so open to the rest of
the world. That is one reason why the country has
been going through an unparalleled economic
boom in recent years.
India is one of the fastest­growing economies in
the world, having generated an annual growth of
8% for some years now. Political reforms, investment
in infrastructure and education, tax incentives
for foreign companies and the creation of special
economic zones (SEZs) should ensure that the
boom will continue for a long time to come. According
to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers,
Mumbai
Pune
Bangalore
Tirupur
Cochin
Delhi
Ahmedabad Kolkata
Hyderabad
Chennai
Coimbatore
a total of EUR 18.7 billion will have been invested
in SEZs by 2009, creating up to 500,000 new jobs.
The biggest flows of investment funding are ex­
pected to go to the IT, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology,
textiles, petrochemicals and automotive
sectors, although service industries will also have
access to SEZs and the tax breaks they offer.
Sixty of these zones are currently being created
or are at an advanced stage of planning.