View from Delhi: Gates makes headlines, Chinese steal the show

He came, he saw and he drummed up business worth a billion dollars for his company in four days. Microsoft chief Bill Gates was all over the place last week, from Bangalore to Delhi and Mumbai to Hyderabad, chatting up businessmen and government officials, and handing out millions in grants for cash-starved anti-AIDS programmes.

Microsoft plans to invest up to Rs20 billion ($400 million) in India over the next three years, the company's largest investment outside the U.S., barring countries where it has manufacturing operations. To start with, it is tying up with Wipro, a software company, for launching business process outsourcing (BPO), a new business for Wipro.

In Bangalore, Microsoft is setting up a portal where utility services like electricity and water bills can be paid with ease.

Gates also told reporters that his company would shortly roll out Hindi-enabled services of its major new products and train thousands of school teachers and students every year in computers, for which Microsoft will open a new centre.

Computers are now big business in India, employing more people than any other industry, and also growing faster than most businesses. It is also a highly profitable business, with companies like Infosys, Wipro and TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) making more money than older businesses like steel and cement.

There is hardly a business group that does not have its fingers in computers and allied businesses like telecom. Reliance Industries will be spending Rs250 billion on its telecom business, and Tatas have three companies which, between them, make more money than all their other businesses.

Bill Gates is a regular visitor to India where he is treated more like a rock star than a businessman. This time, apart from his usual business deals, he announced a grant of $100 million to help health programmes in southern states mainly to battle AIDS. His foundation will also help the states to start new health projects in villages.

Although Bill Gates made headlines, it is the Chinese who are quietly stealing the show at the international trade fair in Delhi where they have nearly half the stalls and have almost taken over the fair.

Their companies, about 150 or so, are exhibiting everything from textiles to footwear and motorbikes to furniture, all at giveaway prices that consumers can only dream of.

Chinese goods first made their appearance in India about four years ago with cheap ceiling fans and dry battery cells, costing around half similar Indian products. Ceiling fans with built-in inverters cost about Rs400, and cameras as little as Rs100.

However, they soon disappeared from the market as most of the items were smuggled into India via Nepal, and there were loud complaints from Indian companies.

Now that China is a member of WTO, just like India, the goods can come in freely and openly, though at the moment they are sold only in cities.

Some Indian agents have opened special China shops where business is brisk. You can buy a T-shirt for as little as Rs50 and a crockery set for about twice that. But quality-wise, the stuff is inferior to Indian goods, which are much sturdier and last longer.

Indians have a passion for foreign stuff, but foreign used to mean British or American, not Chinese. But western goods are very expensive, though, of course, much better in quality and looks. Will China also catch up with the West as Japan did and improve the quality of its products? It's a $64,000 question!