Aug 2 2023
The Benefits Of Business Consulting Services

“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein

Running a business is tough and taxing. It throws a lot of challenges; more than one can tackle. Startup owners have a hard time getting their businesses off the ground, whereas small business owners and entrepreneurs who play multiple roles in their business often feel burdened, lonely, anxious, and exhausted struggling to solve their business problems on their own. The fear of making a wrong move and losses can be very petrifying and cause sleepless nights. Even well-established corporate companies need professional assistance because no one can be an expert at everything.

Nothing Helps A Business Like A Business Consulting Service!

What Is A Business Consulting Service And Why Does Your Business Need It?

Business consulting service involves offering professional advice, support, information, ideas, insights, solutions, and recommendations to business people to help them solve their business problems while running the business optimally.

The people who provide such services are called business consultants and they are experienced, and expert professionals in a specific area such as sales and marketing, finances, IT, human resources, etc.

Business consultants have the education, expertise, and skills to provide massive value to your business. Because they have worked with numerous businesses solving myriad challenges and problems, they have robust experience as well as thorough and profound knowledge of the industry, the latest business practices, trends, and advanced technology.

Time and again, business owners can feel emotionally overwhelmed and lost. But professional consultants are not emotionally invested like them. Due to their objectivity or detachment, they can bring clarity, help in developing an optimistic mindset to overcome struggles as well as give confidence for making the best decision possible for the circumstance.

They not only help in identifying the business hurdles and the root cause but also provide the business owners right advice, suggestions, recommendations, and guidance to solve them. They strategically develop plans for business transformation and assist with implementing them.

They enhance businesses by coaching business leaders as well as training the staff. They join hands in executing business and market research. They scrutinize and identify areas for business improvement, find ways to make the most of the available resources, and also offer strategies, tactics, tools, methods, and systems to optimize business processes and financial management efficiently while staying competitive. They present profitable business opportunities and ideas. Also, they guide in building business resilience so that it is well-prepared to face future challenges and uncertainties competently.

Thus, they help the business boost its performance, revenue, and profits as well as customer satisfaction while cutting down the costs and saving time. They, overall endeavor to make the client company reach its goals and achieve growth and success.

 

The Key Benefits Of Using Business Consulting Services

Effective Business Problem Solving And Crisis Management

Business consultants have refined problem-solving skills because of their experience. Business leaders have the tendency to solve a problem right away as soon as it comes up. On the other hand, expert professionals meticulously analyze and get to the bottom of the problem, figuring out what triggered the problem, to begin with.

They define the problem and ensure that they are tackling the right problems, critical to their strategies. Then they offer insights and multiple solutions and often devise plans to turn the adversity into opportunity.

Moreover, they help the business in getting prepared for the possible crisis by a thorough evaluation of the shortcomings and vulnerabilities along with creating a suitable contingency plan.

 

Cost-efficiency Improvement

Professional business consultants can detect where a business is spending more than necessary. They can come up with approaches for cutting costs while boosting the pace, efficiency, and output of business processes, leveraging fewer resources. They help in averting costly mistakes. Thus, on the whole, they improve the profitability and cost-efficiency of the business.

 

Concrete Goal Setting

Sometimes, business people set their goals unrealistically when they do it on their own and fail due to their impracticability.

Business consultants assist business people in having a clear view and assurance that business is headed in the right direction towards growth and success. They do it by establishing SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) goals together with the business owners based on their vision.

They also ensure that the business achieves its goals without failing by creating business plans, strategically.

 

Successful Business Networking

Many business people do not have the right skills to establish an effective business network. Then again, business networking is undeniably crucial for running a successful business. Business consultants mostly have greater exposure and a strong professional network. They can acquaint their clients with the right contacts that can be immensely valuable for their business.

 

Business Growth And Expansion

Business consultants comprehend the roadblocks to business growth much better than the business people themselves. So, they can point out the obstacles clearly and also devise a practical plan to grow the business exponentially.

Business expansion can be intimidating without proper channels. Professional consultants have better knowledge of the markets that may be new to the business. So, they can provide assistance in making informed decisions regarding business expansion.

However, choosing the right consulting service provider is imperative, only then a business can get all these aforementioned benefits.

Arti Mudaliar 0 Comments
Sep 15 2022
The Importance of Building a Learning Organization

Any organization that is proficient in generating, gathering, attaining, and passing on knowledge and applying it practically as well as transforming itself accordingly to build its future can be called a learning organization.

A learning organization always takes up learning as a dynamic and continuous process. So, it encourages its employees to conceive creative and innovative ideas, and learn from whatever they do, from their own and outsiders’ experiences, from proficient experts, etc.

It sets its workforce free to think outside the box and express their ideas and is readily open to new ideas. Apart from that, such an organization incorporates specific learning methods and systems as well as training.

Here, the organizational leaders reward those employees who take an effort in learning constantly, with appreciation and recognition, job promotions, and remunerations to inspire them.

Why it is important to build a Learning Organization?

The business world is cruel. Here, to survive and win, it is important to be highly competitive.

In the present day, information is the most highly valued asset. To dominate in the business world, an organization has to be cognizant of the latest trends and newest updates of the industry and impart them to the staff. This is crucial for today’s rapidly evolving business world where companies want to be alert at all times and be aware of the next big thing.

Being a learning organization offers a competitive advantage because its employees learn better and keep updated as well as apply it to produce the desired outcome. It helps in getting ahead of the competition and enduring the tough and challenging business environment, by being outstanding and superior to others out there.

What are the benefits of a Learning Organization?

  • It improves your workforce

By encouraging the employees to learn unceasingly and be updated with the cutting-edge knowledge of the industry, they become more competent in their jobs. They become more productive both quantitatively and qualitatively.

Also, they feel more enthusiastic about their jobs because they are not passive players in the organization, their opinion matters, and their ideas are welcomed. They feel confident and interested in their job. They also see their growth possibility in the organization and strive to perform better.

This ultimately increases the profitability of the business.

  • It reduces the employee turnover rates

Employees who learn better and qualify themselves further can do their tasks efficiently. Hence, they feel satisfied and happy with their jobs and never find them boring. 

Because they get to learn and improve themselves in the organization and see the opportunity for their growth within the organization. When employees are appreciated and rewarded for their efforts, it increases their morale and they develop a feeling of loyalty to their company and their job.

This can dramatically cut down the employees’ turnover rates. This increases the reputation of the company and benefits it more by attracting top talent. It also cuts down the cost of re-hiring and training new employees.

  • It helps in enhancing customer satisfaction

Learning organizations become capable of providing the latest to the customers, whether it is the newest features or state-of-the-art technology incorporated in their products or services. This attracts more customers and thus more sales and profits.

It also makes the relationship with the customers healthier because it enables the company in delivering better information to the customers and discovering ways to offer improved customer support.

  • It offers more flexibility

In this ever-changing world and unpredictable world. Any crisis may come up challenging the business at any time.

Developing a learning organization makes the employees well-informed. It also makes them collaborate well and share information with each other in the organization.

So, the workforces are well-prepared for the unexpected and readily get acclimatized to new circumstances much better and quicker than those in the organizations that have neither adopted a learning culture nor developed cooperation among the staff.

Consequently, the company is capable of handling external challenges smoothly.

  • It stimulates innovations

Technology is advancing exponentially like never before.

So, organizations that want to get ahead of the competition must innovate inimitably. But it is feasible only if the organization supports its employees in inculcating new knowledge and information, and creating new ideas through practice and experimentation. After all, it is the employees who innovate and create solutions that help in generating successful business.

Only those organizations that foster a learning culture can cause innovation.


Do you now realize, how advantageous it is to be a Learning Organization?

Do you want to develop a learning culture in your organization?


To survive and thrive in this highly competitive business world, learning organizations become capable of facing external threats, harsh competition, and any uncertainty of the business world. It is immensely important for companies to build a powerful learning organization that strives to better the organization’s performance, gain competitive advantages, and continue success.

 

Arti Mudaliar 0 Comments
Sep 14 2022
Soaring Drone Business Opportunities

“Drones overall will be more impactful than I think people recognize, in positive ways to help society.” – Bill Gates

Drones also known as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are remotely operated and controlled robotic aircraft that can be used to do different tasks varying from everyday errands to extremely dangerous responsibilities. They come in different sizes and have different technological features provided for specific functions or purposes.

In recent years, there is a rapid advancement in Industrial Drone Applications owing to their unmatched abilities and aspects. Therefore, the drone business has a huge scope across various sectors. Let us go through a few of them.

Agriculture Industry

Drones, with their versatile and significant applications, are causing a huge revolution in the agricultural industry. If you’re living in a farm-dense area, imagine the effect you can make on the farming community who can fine-tune elements like fertilization and irrigation with the help of the photographs and readings taken by drones.

Drones with high-resolution cameras, digital imaging systems, different sensors, and lasers are useful for real-time crop monitoring, determining crop health, analyzing deficiencies, inspecting soil hydration, pest, bacterial or fungal infestations, blight, and weed identification, detecting pooling or leaks in the irrigation, etc.

Drones fly swiftly as well as flexibly and can be controlled to go to the destined locations. Hence, they are immensely useful in agricultural tasks such as spraying fertilizers and insecticides, seeding and planting, etc.

Unlike manual labor, they accomplish the task rapidly, effortlessly, and efficiently with scientific precision, and that too at comparatively a lower cost.

Because Agriculture drones enhance crop yield and bring in more profitability, their demand is increasing in recent years. It is projected that the Agriculture Drones Market will soar at a CAGR of 22.4% from 2021 to 2030. By the year 2030, it may escalate up to 5.89 Billion USD.

Hence, Agriculture Drones Business has a very lucrative opportunity.

Construction Industry

Drones are transforming the construction industry dramatically.

Because drones are capable of capturing aerial footage and recording real-time data, they are useful in accessing construction projects such as high bridges, overhead power lines, wind turbines, skyscrapers, cell sites, TV towers, etc.

Drones are applied in the construction sector for asset tracking, preliminary mapping , remote site surveying to volumetric measurements for cut and fill jobs, planning as well as monitoring construction sites, observing the real-time progress of construction, carrying out structure inspection and quality examination, executing safety inspections, surveillance and site security.

They collect required data such as topographic information, and site measurements, for 3D mapping, building 3D models, and incorporating them into their Computer-Aided Design thus valuable in optimizing plans.

The demand for drones is increasing in this industry because they cut down costs, streamline workflow, enhance productivity, efficiency, and precision, improve safety, deliver the finest record of entire activities, and save time and effort. It also helps in delivering a safer way when it comes to unstable building inspections and surveying areas of construction site that are quite challenging to access by land.

It is anticipated that the global construction drone market may reach up to 14,123.3 million USD by the year 2028.

As a result, the drone business has a great possibility in the construction sector.

Security And Surveillance Industry

Drones with their superior features outperform traditional surveillance methods and are thus creating a huge demand in the Security And Surveillance Industry.

Unlike ground-based surveillance, drones with their aerial surveillance cover vast and hard-to-reach spaces. Moreover, they can pass through narrow and confined areas. Drones for surveillance purposes have night-vision cameras and thermal sensors with which they can detect and capture images with minute details that human eyes cannot.

They can efficiently detect intruders, follow them from a safe distance as well as promptly respond to the alarms stimulated by the external sensors.

They can offer live streaming and collect comprehensive data effortlessly, rapidly, and cost-effectively. They are immensely valuable in cutting down risks & increasing the competence of security personnel.

They are particularly in great demand for event surveillance, perimeter guarding, anti-poaching, traffic management, border patrolling, etc, and present high profit-yielding business opportunities in this sector.

To conclude, drones are highly beneficial for security surveillance in terms of saving cost, able to access distant and inaccessible locations, reduced noise levels which provides clear monitoring advantage and a prompt response for evidence gathering or possible arrest.

Advertising And Marketing Industry

Drones are the future of the advertising and marketing industry.

Drones have myriad applications in the advertising and marketing sector.  Specifically, drone light shows are getting increasingly popular. They can display and highlight a company’s brand by lighting up high in the sky, fascinating the audience, and capturing their attention to the brand’s message. Whether it’s a thousand takes or unconventional or distinctive angles, drone makes everything possible especially when shooting commercials and other marketing tactics.

They serve as cinematographer tools. They are also very valuable in capturing high-quality, stunning aerial video footage that can be used in advertisements specifically for property management companies, sporting events, resorts, hotels, restaurants, tourism and travel companies, etc.

These kinds of shots not only impress the audience in tv commercials but also grab their attention on the websites, banners, and print ads.

Because drones can be integrated with state-of-the-art technologies like Cloud technology, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, and IoT, they can be highly functional in this industry for data collection, innovative content creation, and advanced branding. And thus, the drone business has an enormous possibility in the advertising and marketing industry.

Drones are already able to integrate with all these new technologies giving birth to innovative ways to create content, customize it and deliver the brand’s message to its audience.

Oil And Gas Industry

The oil and gas industry must function as per their strict standards as well as conduct methodical inspection and maintenance to ascertain safety and prevent failures. However, the traditional process of implementing them is very costly. It also carries the risk of dangerous heights and electrocution. And so, drones are extremely valuable in performing these tasks without human intervention. Drone usage also minimizes inspection time and helps increase company savings. Companies are able to perform precise inspections with the use of little time thus, expensive inspection activities and platform shutdowns are being avoided, making companies able to save millions of dollars per inspection.

The pipelines that are employed in this industry extend for a large distance and some of them can be underground and thus tough to access. Drones come in handy here as they can fly and cover vast as well as hard-to-reach areas rapidly, detecting pipeline cracks, corrosion, gas leakages, emissions, spills, if any, and alarming the workers about it. Thus, they can prevent disasters and losses.

Drones are applied specifically for inspections, 360-degree view monitoring and observing proactive maintenance, and improving workplace safety. They can detect those particulars that human eyes cannot and provide better on-site safety, with high accuracy and cost efficiency.

Thus, the oil & gas industry, one of the chief contributors to the global economy, has growing demand for drones and consequently creates a profitable future for the drone business.

Telecommunication Industry

Drone technology has instigated huge disruption in Telecommunication Industry providing a cost-effective, safe and smoothly deployable alternative for traditional telecommunication methods.

Drones are applied in this industry for preventing cell tower faults. The structure of cell towers is inspected by employing drones to detect corrosions, cracks, electrical malfunctions, and unwanted growth of vegetation that obstructs the powerlines, defects caused by wear and tear.

Drones can fly high, reach dangerous areas and so can be used instead of making the workers do the risky tasks of tower climbing. They detect faults with high accuracy. This, help in maintaining and upgrading the cell towers efficiently.

Several parts of the world lack internet or cellular connection. Drones help resolve this issue by acting as temporary cell towers in those areas.

The usage of drones in this industry is transforming and improving its operations while saving time and cutting down costs. It can also operate in bad weather conditions like rain and high winds.

It is predicted that the global telecom drone technology market can grow from the year 2021 to 2026, at a CAGR of 17.8%.

The drone business has a fruitful opportunity in the telecommunication industry too.

The global commercial drone market is expected to rise from 8.15 billion USD in the year 2022 to 47.38 billion USD by the year 2029, estimated to grow at a CAGR of 28.58%.

For businesspeople who expect to make incredible profits and success, the drone business that presents a promising future is waiting to be explored.

 

To get further information & to know how Dhunicorn can help you in discovering new business opportunities,

Contact us at info@dhunicorn.com

Arti Mudaliar 0 Comments
May 16 2022
“Finding the Right Strategic Partnerships for Your Business”

Strategic partnerships help businesses grow and succeed by letting them pool resources, skills, expertise, knowledge, innovation, latest technology, etc. Partnering strategically is a great way to grow the customer base, access new markets, expand geographic reach, diversify product lines, cross-promote, utilize each other’s strengths, gain competitive advantage, boost sales and revenue, and support business resilience.

Strategic business partnerships can be very advantageous for businesses of all sizes. However, the partners must be competent to build, develop and make the best of the partnership.

Finding the right strategic partners for your business to function jointly and co-operatively to create mutual benefits and success is the most crucial task in strategic business partnering.

To identify the right strategic partners for your business:

Set Clear Goals And Build A Business Partnership Profile
One of the major reasons why strategic partnerships fail is the lack of clear goals. When partners team up without any definite purpose, just for the sake of partnering then the partnership is likely to head towards failure.

So, set concrete goals and objectives that you are wanting to achieve through this strategic partnering. Also, ensure that your intentions are impartial and mutually favorable. Being only self-focused and not reciprocal cannot work in the long run.

While defining the goals, ask questions like:

  • What are your business goals?
  • How to accomplish them?
  • What is the time frame for attaining them?
  • What goals would be achieved by partnering with other businesses?
  • What type of company/business partnering can help you in achieving the goals?
  • Which industry your business partner must be involved in?
  • What are the weaknesses of your company? What kind of company can help fix these problems?
  • What support/help could your company offer in return?
  • What other benefits can you gain from this kind of partnering?
  • How can you make the best of this strategic partnership?
  • What according to you should be the ideal time frame for the partnership?
  • Are you looking forward to having a long-term or short-term partnership?

These questions can help you in listing your business goals and create a precise profile of the type of businesses you need to team up with.

 

Do Intensive Research
Before you actually approach the potential partner, carry out intensive research about them. Understand their business thoroughly. Determine the favorable aspects and strengths they have to fulfill the business goals that you specifically want to achieve through this partnership.

Pursue the company you can gain the most by partnering with. Your partner must be potent in the areas you are struggling in so that they can support you to enhance your growth.

Also find out how you can benefit them, unlike others by this partnership so that you can interest them to team up with you. It is important to ensure that both your and your partner’s goals will be met by doing business jointly.

Pitch To A Potential Strategic Partner
When approaching a potential partner, be direct and to the point. They must get the idea of why you want to team up with them and what are you anticipating through this business partnership. Also, present them with a short bio of your company so that they can understand your business and business goals.

Identify the chief decision-makers and pitch directly to them. If they are interested in the partnership idea, present a comprehensive partnership proposal.

Be Honest And Transparent
Be upfront with your potential partners if you want to gain their trust and make the partnership work. Being candid with them makes certain that you both have a clear idea of what to anticipate in this possible partnering. Let them know about your business strengths and weaknesses and bring up the areas where you would want to leverage their support.

Similarly, talk about your offerings and how your strengths can help with the weaker aspects of their business. Give details on how can you support them as well.

Thus, you build confidence in your potential partner and get rid of their hesitations to make them proceed further partnering with you.

Dhunicorn, the Best Place To Look For Strategic Business Partners For Your Company
Finding the potential partner for strategic business partnering can often be overwhelming and taxing, even if you know how to find them. It is also time-consuming to find someone you can really trust and who shares the same values as yours.

At Dhunicorn, our business experts know what it takes to form the right strategic business model. We meticulously analyze and bring those companies together that perfectly match with their goals, intentions, values, insights and are ready to team up for the long-term.

Dhunicorn has a network of 40,000 public listed companies and many private companies around the world. We can carry out confidential exploration of potential strategic partners specifically for your company from our vast network of companies.

Apart from supporting your company in getting apt and stable partners, we can also assist you with the business model design, strategic planning till the execution and implementation stage.

Talk to us

Book Your Appointment Now

Join our videoconference now to gather further information & to know how Dhunicorn can help you in finding the right strategic partnerships for your business.

Arti Mudaliar 0 Comments
May 16 2022
Strategic Business Partnership & Joint Venture Development

What is Strategic Partnership?
A strategic partnership involves creating a business partnership between two or more business persons or companies to share resources, innovative ideas, and technology, knowledge, expertise, capabilities, skills, trustworthy vendors, distribution channels, customer base as well as facilitate access to new markets, for mutual growth and success.

Although the strategic partners are independent, they mutually generate value for each other and endure risks together.

Why Create Strategic Partnerships?
If done right, strategic business partnerships can prove to be your business asset. Let’s see how strategic partnering can enhance your business growth:

1. Brings In More Business
If you want to grow your business, boost your profits and revenue then creating strategic business partnerships is the rapid way to achieve your goals with ease. It helps to bring in more business, apart from offering significant benefits and cost savings.

2. Gets New Customers
Growing a customer base is one of the main goals of any business, and a functional strategic partnership agreement helps to achieve it. Partnering with another business provides you a reach to their customers as well. This being mutual, businesses go for new partnerships to increase their market share.

For example:
Uber, the ride-hailing company formed a strategic partnership with Spotify, the music streaming company, for their mutual benefits.
Uber lets its customers stream Spotify and enjoy personalized music whenever they take their ride. This also makes Uber riders want to subscribe to Spotify Premium. The personalized music experience with its ride offers Uber a competitive advantage over its competitors.
Thus, both the companies attract and acquire new customers.
Strategic partnering is the right solution for your company to acquire new customers without investing in extra capital.

3. Adds Value for Loyal Customers
Customer retention is as important as getting new customers. Satisfied customers promote the products through word-of-mouth marketing. Partnering with companies that offer products related to yours cuts down the risk of some competitor company reaching and acquiring your customers. The strategic partnership adds value for your existing customers and thus helps you in retaining them.

4. Gives Access To New Markets
If the strategic partners have customers from a different market than yours then new-market penetration becomes easier than trying to enter the new market on your own. Sometimes, partner companies get to access the new market without any extra capital, additional routes, infrastructure, and distribution network expansion, which is not feasible to do on their own. Besides, building trust is very crucial when entering a new market and the trust your partner company has already built in the market benefits your company as well. This can help you get ahead of your competitors.

5. Expands Geographic Reach
Expanding into a new geographical market can positively help in the growth of your business. Partnering with companies in different geographic locations offers an opportunity for geographic expansion. Also, leveraging your business partner’s expertise and resources can help you reach your business goals without bearing the expenses and overheads on your own.

6. Helps in Extending Product Lines
If product diversification is your main objective, then a strategic partnership is advantageous in getting access to the resources, knowledge, innovative ideas, and market that are needed to broaden your product lines with minimal investment. Bonding strategically is mutually rewarding so you can also partner with a company that offers complementary products, services to enhance the quality of the existing products or develop the latest products, affordably.

7. Enhances Brand awareness
When you strategically team up with business partners with a huge customer base, you escalate the chance of enhancing your brand awareness as your logo, design and other branding aspects is now viewed by a greater number of people.

8. Builds Brand Trust
Customer’s trust in your brand will certainly grow if you create good business partnerships. If you have entered a new market and do not have a strong local presence then customers tend to doubt whether you really offer what you claim to offer. On the other hand, if you team up with well-established companies that have already proven themselves and won the trust of the customers, then it becomes easier for you to build your brand trust in the new market.

9. Helps in Overcoming Business Fears
At times, all business owners feel uncertain and worried when they face changes that can impact their business. Teaming up with great business partners ensures that you are not dealing with those challenges alone. It brings in solutions, innovative ideas, abilities, expertise, and strengths of several people to work out complex challenges and manage difficult times. This ensures your business’s longevity.

10. Helps In Boosting Sales And Revenue
You can create more than one strategic business partnership to form multiple revenue streams and improve your capacity to sell to a bigger market. The more companies you strategically join to enter a target market, the more probability you have for boosting your sales and revenue.
Strategic Partnering is the right approach for your business if:

  • You are looking for ways to sustain as well as thrive post-pandemic.
  • You are seeking to expand your business through new market development.
  • You want to cut down the cost and risk of your R&D.
  • You need new skills, expertise, and proficiency to grow and develop.
  • You desire to improve your competitiveness and beat your business competitors to win the market.
  • You are trying to set new standards in the industry.
  • You are striving to find new customers and increase sales.

How To Create Strategic Partnerships for Strong Business Growth?
If you are looking for strategic partners to build the most advantageous and stable strategic business partnership then you definitely need guidance from the experts in the field.

Our company, Dhunicorn has a global network of more than 40,000 public listed companies and private companies. We offer the best strategic business partnership opportunity to meet your needs. Our business experts can support your company to develop a successful strategic business partnership starting from the most important step of getting the right partner, model design, strategic planning till the execution and implementation stage.

Find out more from us today!

Talk to us

Book Your Appointment Now
Arti Mudaliar 0 Comments
May 13 2022
Using Chatbots To Grow Your Business

Recently, Chatbots are becoming more and more popular and important because of their efficiency and convenience. They are transforming the way businesses interact with their customers. Consumers also like them. A recent study states that nearly 74% of customers prefer chatbots for their prompt response. About 87.2% of customers say that they had neutral or positive experiences with chatbots.

Chatbots have the capacity to boost and grow a business. Let us see how they can be implemented to grow any business.

 

24/7/365 Real-time Customers Service

Good customer service is one of the most important aspects of a business. It helps in increasing revenue, improving reputation, retaining customers, decreasing customer churn, and enhancing brand awareness.

AI-based chatbots carry on real-time conversations with customers, help them with their inquiries, and resolve product/service-related issues. Humans have limitations but chatbots provide service round the clock and attend to multiple inquiries simultaneously in an engaging and personalized way.

Today, generally people prefer chatting online over calling customer support because they want fast service. Also, they do not have the patience to fill up a form and wait for someone to get back to them. They demand quick reach and immediate reply. If a business does not keep up with such demands, then it may lose its customers.

Catering to the customers 24/7, with instant replies can dramatically boost sales. Chatbots being very responsive are immensely helpful in satisfying customers, boosting sales, and growth of the business.

Example:

Amtrak, the American national passenger rail company was losing its potential customers because it could not keep up with the massive number of inquiries. So, it employed an AI-based chatbot that competently responds to five million inquiries on average a year.

It provides relevant information to inquiries of the website visitors just as human customer support would do. Apart from that, it promptly books tickets for them by asking them the place, date, and time they would like to travel and also offers them a route map for their destination.

It offers other information such as what items the passengers are allowed to take with them. It is capable of making hotel, and rental car reservations as well.

Consequently, the company could boost its booking rate by 25% as well as it experienced a 50% upsurge in user engagement and customer service.

 

Sales and Marketing

Contrary to common belief, the usage of chatbots is not limited to customer support. They can be used to promote and sell products/services as well. They also increase brand visibility and optimize the sales funnel with message applications in a sophisticated and handy manner.

Marketing is a complex part of business and has several tasks to take care of to convey the message to the end customers. Chatbots come in handy as they can be used to automate some marketing processes. Because they handle large volumes of conversations at a time, there are more possibilities of closing more sales calls. 

Using chatbots for sales and marketing is not just time-saving but also very cost-effective. They provide data for analysis which can be used to formulate effective marketing strategies and expand the reach.

They can deliver a personalized experience to the customers and create a great impression with the customers. This results in a better relationship with the customers and improved sales and conversion rates. 

Potential customers who inquire online or on social media are most often on the verge of making a purchase decision at that instant. Human customer support is not feasible round the clock. On the other hand, Chatbots are and they engage well with the customers and prevent potential customers from leaving the website with disinterest. A chatbot is capable of generating an 80-90% response rate.  They also reduce cart abandonment rates.

Chatbot automation can be used to schedule meetings with customers. They make scheduling, modifying, and canceling meetings easy-breezy and quick. Thus, they increase the chances of gaining leads and closing sales than the manual effort.

 

Lead Generation

Adopting AI-based lead generation chatbots is extremely valuable in growing a business. Such chatbots assist in knowing the prospects better by asking the visitors questions and identifying their preferences and interests, likes and dislikes. It not only grows the lead database but also segments the potential customers, which helps the marketers present the relevant and useful content at the right time so as to move the leads into the sales funnel. It also helps in lead nurturing which consequently enhances brand image and trustworthiness.

When conventional forms are replaced with lead generation chatbots, they collect the information about the leads by asking qualifying questions as well as carrying out further questioning formed on the answers to the previous questions. Also, such chatbots get more qualified leads too, so there are more possibilities for making new sales. As they are mostly found on social media messaging platforms, it is very convenient to reach wider audiences.

These chatbots are valuable in providing complete and convincing information about the products/services to the visitors who show an interest. This ensures an effective conversational lead generation.

 

Up-Selling And Cross-Selling

Chatbots can be used to gather customer data such as their previous searches, preferences, and purchase history and they can be leveraged to offer personalized product recommendations, by tracking the user behavior. They allow any business to promote to its clients through an interface as they are designed to provide answers towards a purchase and can be programmed with a flow chart to assist the users in their purchase with the information they desire.

When a visitor is unable to decide which product/service to choose, the chatbot can recommend suitable options for them to select in a non-salesy way. When a chatbot assists in shopping and retrieving the products, the shoppers need not waste their time browsing the website.

When customers navigate through the chatbot to look for a product, it recommends similar products based on what they were initially looking for, and for the undecided customers, the chatbot provides the most applicable option that suits them. Thus, a chatbot can help businesses to up-sell and cross-sell.

By incorporating up-selling and cross-selling techniques (to sell higher-end versions and complimentary items of any product, respectively) into the chatbot’s configuration, sales and profits can be boosted incredibly.

 

Cutting Down The Operational Costs

When a business grows, it needs to hire more employees for executing the business operations efficiently. This means the cost also increases as they have to be paid with remunerations and need to be trained too.

However, chatbots have no such drawbacks as they have the ability to scale with the business growth without added expenses. Yes, they need initial investment which may seem pricey in the beginning but as the business grows, the investment is worth it.

Because chatbots are designed to replace humans for certain tasks, the companies can save their substantial employee costs with the advantage of carrying out their operations 24/7.

 

Chatbot technology is evolving rapidly day by day. It is absolutely possible that in the very near future, new integrations would be incorporated into the chatbot technology which can bring more value to business growth.

Businesses must understand their shortcomings and needs and figure out which hitches can be resolved by utilizing chatbot so that they can apply its features innovatively and make the most of it for boosting profits and accelerating business growth.

Arti Mudaliar 0 Comments
Apr 8 2022
Artificial Intelligence – An Avalanche of Business Opportunities

“Artificial intelligence is the future and the future is here.”
~ Dave Waters

AI or Artificial intelligence, today’s most innovative technology, is all about creating intelligent machines that do tasks usually done only by human intelligence. In simple words, it is the brainpower validated by machines and computers that are automated through codes to impersonate the natural intelligence demonstrated by human beings.

Not many of us know that Artificial intelligence is impacting our day-to-day life immensely. Yes! Have you ever wondered how your smartphone unlocks with your face ID or how social media feeds are personalized & how google gives recommendations when you search for a term on google search? You guessed it right. It’s AI!

AI is creating an avalanche of business possibilities today. It has different categories such as Mundane to Formal and also Expert tasks! Let’s look at some domains where Artificial Intelligence proves to be highly lucrative.

Travel, Tourism & Hospitality Industry

Personalization guarantees guest satisfaction. The travel & tourism industry and sectors like the hotel industry, airline industry, restaurant industry, and travel agents within it have adopted AI for several assistances, some of them are: 

  • Chatbots and Online Customer Service

AI chatbots offer a relevant response to the customers by understanding their queries & give them related information, just like a human does. But unlike humans, it is very prompt & can function 24/7 without breaks or pays yet it provides a pleasant experience to the guests.

  • Data Processing and Data Analysis

Apart from customer service AI is used in this sector to gather and interpret data about their customers. AI can also sort this data more rapidly and precisely than a human can, and that too without errors. 

  • Personalized Recommendations

AI is applied to offer personalized travel recommendations & options by using the data like the interests, budgets, and past search history of the customers. This helps the customers to effortlessly make their travel choices which in turn improves the profits of the company. 

  • Tracking and booking trips

AI-based booking apps track prices & recommend the customers the best times to book flights as well as make hotel reservations, by accurate prediction of prices, well in advance.

Fitness Industry

Yes, AI is revolutionizing the Fitness Industry in several ways and transforming home workouts into a smarter, better, and less expensive method to keep people’s health on track.

  • AI-Based Personal Trainers

People desire fitness but with their hectic schedules & time shortage, do not go to the gym. Also, hiring a personal trainer is not affordable at all. AI comes as a huge rescue for such people. AI-based fitness app provides the luxury of personalized trainers to guide & monitor the accuracy and the pace of the exercise, at any time and any place. 

  • Smart Wearables and Exercise Equipment

Wearables assist their users in tracking their fitness

activities, counting the calories burnt, detecting irregular heartbeats and signs of diabetes, etc. AI fortified exercise equipment when fed with some personal details, and offers recommendations to their users to exercise competently. 

  • Sales promotion

AI integrated fitness apps help fitness companies to find their prospective customers and collect & sort their data. Companies use this data to boost their sales and improve profits.

Healthcare Industry

AI plays a significant role in the Healthcare Industry by accomplishing tasks that are usually done by humans only, and that too faster, more precisely & cost-effectively than humans. 

  • Medical Diagnosis

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been synonymous with competence in the medical field. It has grown to become the second pair of eyes that never need to rest. AI-based medical diagnoses are automated & and can detect diseases like cancer even if the symptoms are not explicitly evident. Such diagnoses are mostly accurate.

  • Symptoms examination 

When patients mention their symptoms & health complaints in symptoms examining AI Chatbots, it uses its algorithm to precisely diagnose the disease. It also guides the patients toward appropriate health care.

  • Drug discovery and Development

This use of AI has been amassed in various sectors of humanity, especially in the pharmaceutical industry. AI help in discovering & designing new drugs and enhances R&D while speeding up the time and cutting off the extensive process involved in it. 

Logistics & Supply Chain Management 

AI has positively transformed the logistics and supply chain industry. It contributes a lot to reducing operating costs and is more efficient to use when it comes to responding to clients.

  • Accurate Inventory Management 

AI helps to prevent understocking and overstocking of inventory with its smart algorithms that can predict and determine consumer habits & seasonal demands.

  • Timely Delivery 

AI speeds up the warehouse processes by eliminating manual work, & operational shortcomings in the value chain. Thus, timely delivery goals can be smoothly accomplished. 

  • Warehouse Management 

AI manages warehouse security by tracking individuals who are entering and exiting the warehouse. Not just that it also tracks the goods in the warehouse with their barcodes and thus helps in keeping the inventory data updated. 

Marketing sector

  • Product recommendations 

AI recommends products & services to prospective customers based on their online search. AI understands & speculates people’s choices based on their behavior on the internet and recommends to them the products/services they are likely to purchase. More importantly, AI is effective in the Marketing Sector as speed is necessary. It empowers scalable growth, pushes profit, and customizes customer experience.

  • Dynamic pricing

AI automatically prices a product based on its demand & availability in an online market. This process needs no human intervention at all.

  • Targeting Ads

AI can be used to display ads to potential customers based on their relevant search on a search engine or social media. 

Cybersecurity Industry 

With increasing cyber-attacks & complications associated with them, the cybersecurity industry is applying AI in its operations to keep cyber threats at bay.

  • Threat exposure

AI-empowered security systems reveal the new trends hackers follow, worldwide as well as in a specific sector. This information can be used to make crucial decisions to protect against cyber danger. 

  • Phishing Detection

AI-based cybersecurity systems are capable of recognizing spam emails, determining if a website is genuine or fake and thus preventing phishing threats, breaches as well as data loss caused by malicious emails. 

  • Biometric Authentication

Biometric systems with AI make very precise and fail-proof verification with Face Recognition, Voice Recognition, Fingerprint Recognition, etc. 

Retail Industry

Just like the online marketplace, the retail industry also prefers the usage of AI for boosting sales and enhancing customer experience. AI supports retail systems to work together and enhance customer experiences, managing inventory, forecasting, and more.  

  • Smart Product Searches

Artificial intelligence simplifies product search for customers by allowing them to click a picture of any product online or offline and letting them search for the retailer who sells over the internet.

  • Personalization and Customer Insights 

Consumers can enjoy a personalized shopping experience with AI-based technology. It makes use of face recognition to spot a customer who is revisiting a shop and recommends products based on their preferences. 

  • Better In-Store Experience

AI-built system can cut down the operational cost of any retail store by taking away the need for a salesperson & a cashier, thus eliminating queues too. It also helps to monitor stocks & restock them instantly. 

In conclusion, AI has the power to improve the output and profits of any business. And so, companies are dynamically searching for new ventures to make the best of AI. Companies must create AI usage ideas for any specific sector to generate promising AI business opportunities. 

Arti Mudaliar 0 Comments
Apr 6 2022
Why is India Emerging as “The Land of Agritech Business Opportunity?”

“Agriculture is the most healthful, most useful and most noble employment of man.” – George Washington

AgriTech is the abbreviation of Agricultural technology. It means the application of technology in Agriculture to enhance the yield, efficiency, and profits.

Why India is the best place for the AgriTech business?

Nearly 58% of India’s population is dependent on agriculture as their main source of livelihood. India is a substantially agrarian economy and so there is huge potential for growth of the AgriTech industry in India.

At an earlier time, agriculture was a powerful economic sector of India. However, with the rise in industrialization, service & manufacturing-based economy, and rural to urban migration of labors, agriculture failed to get the attention it deserves from entrepreneurs & policy-makers.

The decrease in land holdings, shrinking agricultural land but increasing population, depletion of groundwater, poor seed quality, and lack of agricultural mechanization are the major problems that hinder the growth of agriculture here. Further, a disorganized supply chain & produce marketing system, malpractices within that system, farmer exploitation, lack of proper transport & storage facilities, lack of access to credit as well as the latest technology has pathetically lowered the incomes of farmers.

Consequently, there is a huge demand & enormous opportunity for AgriTech start-ups in India. There is immense scope in improving crop yield & farming efficiency, enriching the nutritional value of crops, cutting down input costs, improving the supply chain & creating minimal wastage distribution. There is also a brilliant possibility in the segment of market linkages like retail, B2C as well as B2B market. Banks have also been cooperative in developing new platforms that can provide solutions that may contribute to AgriTech start-ups’ transformation.

The future of the AgriTech market in India

India will witness AgriTech as a rapidly booming industry with no signs of slowing down in the coming times. The AgriTech segment in India is preparing itself for growth in the next two decades and so will surely attract investors and create excellent infrastructures as well as make way for sustainable market connections.  Food production is always a huge concern here due to the increasing population.

In 2013, India had only 43 start-ups in this sector, but it progressively increased to 1000 start-ups in 2020. The numbers are expected to grow further with the rising interest of the investors. The catalysts factor responsible for the growth of this number includes a rise in digital infrastructure & increasing internet penetration in rural parts of the country.

The turnover of the AgriTech market in India in the year 2020 is 204 million USD & is still under 1% of its market potential.

India’s AgriTech market is estimated to grow up to 24.1 billion USD by 2025.

The five chief AgriTech market segments that seize the largest share of the AgriTech market value include:

  1. Supply chain tech & output market linkages
    • It is the largest segment with an estimated value of 12 billion USD by 2025.
  2. Financial services
    • It is the second-largest segment with an estimated worth of 4.1 billion USD by 2025.
  3. Precision Agriculture & farm management
    • It is estimated to reach up to 3.4 billion USD by 2025.
  4. Quality management and traceability
    • It is estimated to grow up to 3 billion USD by 2025
  5. Supplying farm inputs
    • This segment is estimated to value up to 1.7 billion USD by 2025

AgriTech Trends in India

Farming-as-a-Service (FaaS)

It involves offering pay-per-use-based technology solutions, farm services & agricultural equipment leasing at a reasonable price for efficient farming. EM3 Agri Services is the company that introduced FaaS to India.

Big Data

Utilizing Big Data Technology to offer farm management solutions, input channel solutions, and enhance sustainability. It also includes combining technology & advanced analytics for risk mitigation, forecasting solution, Traceability & compliance. CropIn, AgNext, and Airwood are some of the companies working on this idea.

Robotic Technologies

Robotic technology is applied in agriculture to boost productivity in processes like spraying, weeding, crop-harvesting, fruit-picking, etc., and nowadays often in doing more intricate and precise tasks. Its demand is rising due to its immense help in solving problems like labor shortage, high labor cost, and the shortcomings of traditional methods. TartanSense, and Grobomac are examples of companies that apply robotics for farming.

Crop Monitoring Technologies

It is about monitoring crops utilizing advanced drones technology and satellites all through their growth, harvesting, and storage phase to eliminate any possible risks of losses. Examples include Equinox’s Drones and SGS India.

Supply Chain and Logistics

It utilizes technology to improve crop storage, packaging & shelf life, food security & traceability. Examples include the Farm to business companies like Crofarm & Ninjacart. These companies source produce from farmers and supply it to businesses. These companies offer digitized Agri-supply chains thus offering efficient, zero wastage distribution.

IoT sensory system

Advanced IoT based software is used to track & give precise information related to

  • Soil parameters like moisture, pH level, temperature, etc.
  • Environmental parameters like humidity, temperature, light intensity
  • Realtime Geographical parameters

to improve productivity, maximize yields, curtail waste, and conserve resources like water & fertilizer. Companies that execute this technology include AIGROEDGE & Infosys.

Vertical farming

It is a smart farming system in which the crops are grown stacked in vertical layers to solve the space shortage problems. The most popular method of several vertical farming techniques includes:

Hydroponics

This technique needs no soil to grow crops by adding mineral nutrients of the correct amount in the water they are grown.

UGF (URBAN GREEN FATE) farms, Homecrop, and Pindfresh are a few examples of vertical & hydroponics farming solutions offering companies in India.  

Drones in Farming

Drones in Farming contribute to lower down the cost. Drones help farmers to overcome challenges by consolidating raw data, which decodes very useful information for farm nursing.

What support does the Indian government provide to the AgriTech Start-ups?

The Indian government provides multiple incentive schemes to encourage AgriTech Start-ups in India. Here are the various steps taken to provide a major boost to India’s Agricultural Industry:

  • The government of India has launched ASPIRE to create a network of tech technology centers and incubation centers to promote AgriTech Start-ups.
  • The Government’s NSTEDB start-up scheme offers limited, one-time, non-recurring financial aid, up to INR 25 Lakhs.
  • The quantum of SFAC Venture Capital Assistance will be subject to the project cost and can be the minimum of the following:
    • > 26% of the promoter’s equity
    • > INR 50 Lakhs.
  • SERB has no maximum-minimum limit for a project grant. The budget depends on the need for its successful implementation.
  • Soil Health Cards have been launched to improve the productivity of certain crops reasonably and shall be issued to all 14 crore holdings in India. About 248 lakh samples are to be analyzed in 3 years cycle.

In 2020, The ministry of agriculture planned to invest INR 36.71 Cr to support 346 AgriTech & allied sector Startups.

Arti Mudaliar 0 Comments
Apr 6 2022
Skyrocket Your Sales And Profits With The Global Sales Network

What is “Global Sales Network”?
Global Sales Network, abbreviated as GSN is a powerful strategic sales platform for companies all over the world to successfully market their products and services in the global marketplace quickly, smoothly, and cost-effectively.

WTO has predicted global merchandise trade volume growth of 10.8% in 2021—up from 8.0% forecasted in March and followed by a 4.7% rise in 2022. Global market penetration opens the door of opportunity for conglomerates and companies to achieve global economic growth, reach new audiences, and create more demand for products and services.

However, there are many intimidating challenges for companies going global.

Let’s see how GSN helps companies to overcome those challenges and supports them in skyrocketing their sales and profits.

GSN Facilitates Global Selling Without Heavy Investment
Global expansion is not feasible for every company as it requires huge investment.

GSN offers the best strategic sales partnership program to help companies to find the right strategic partners. Strategic business partners team up and operate together to create mutual benefits and success.

This means that companies can leverage their strategic partner’s business expertise, skills, resources, infrastructure, and distribution network. Thus, they can sell their products all around the world without heavy investment.

In return, they can support and facilitate their strategic partners in realizing their business goals.

GSN Helps With Low Budget Marketing
GSN allows companies to spend less to promote their products to penetrate into global markets.

​Businesses, particularly in these pandemic times have limited budgets. This means promoting their business can become a tough challenge for them.

Experts in the field can offer low-budget marketing ideas, strategies, resources to promote the company’s products and services effectively in the international market.

GSN provides partnerships with the largest companies
Companies can sell their products or services along with the largest companies such as Amazon, McDonalds, eBay, Walmart, KFC, and so on. Some of the companies can easily make a large number of sales since they are not just selling along with a big company, but with several big companies at the same time.

For companies to skyrocket their sales, it is the best option since they can collaborate with a wide range of companies at the same time. Some of them may be digital while some of them are physical. They can also join hundreds of affiliation networks that have thousands of products and services available to choose from.

GSN Minimizes and Mitigates Complex Challenges
When companies go global, they face tough challenges related to fluctuating currency rates, foreign laws and regulations, global pricing strategy, payment methods, competing with local brands, supply chain complexity, acquiring and retaining talent, tax and compliance issues, language barriers, and cultural differences, etc.

GSN offers solutions to these daunting international business challenges while reducing costs, mitigating risks, and boosting profits.

GSN Cuts Down Lengthy Business and Marketing Processes
Business processes are crucial for any company to effectively execute its business strategies. Any business that grows and develops progressively gets more and more complex. More people engage in its day-to-day business operations, its data gets divided among diverse systems, and its customers expect more options. Eventually, its business processes become highly complex, lengthy, inconsistent as well as hard to manage.

GSN helps client companies in cutting down lengthy business and marketing processes by evaluating and enhancing them. So, the client companies save huge labor costs as well as reduce operational expenses while increasing their revenues.

GSN Assists Distribution Channels Expanding
Product distribution can be very troublesome for any company expanding globally. If sales decline by a considerable margin, then it can result in business stagnation.

And so, any company that wants to grow its business and improve sales, must constantly explore new distribution channels. It can help the company sort out inconsistent buying by its customer base and boost sales.

Not just that, discovering new distribution channels can build a strong brand internationally, and make the business less susceptible to the fluctuations of the current distribution channels. GSN also helps its clients’ companies in maintaining the quality of their product distribution so they can increase their sales and profits.

GSN Helps to Discover New Opportunities
There are countless new ways to boost global sales. However, just putting effort to find ways to improve sales cannot assure successful business growth. Any business that seeks success in the global markets must incessantly try to discover new techniques for improving the quality of its product or service, understand the changing demands of its customers, and seek innovation. Any business leader aspiring expansion of international sales must explore new opportunities.

GSN helps client companies to identify and understand the nature and trends of the markets they want to penetrate in. It creates an ultimate global business network for its client companies so that they discover innovative business opportunities and investment opportunities internationally.

If you aim to make the world your target market, then you definitely need the support of the Global Sales Network, to grow your business globally.

Dhunicorn’s GSN offers immense value & incredible results to any company that wants to expand globally, with the support of its substantial business resources, extensive business networks, professional guidance, and other services and platforms of Dhunicorn.

Dhunicorn’s GSN assists our client companies to grow their sales by providing them with a business network of 40,000 public listed companies from over 200 countries and territories around the world. They can get sales leads and referrals, global sales partners, resources, diverse channels through this valuable business networking.

Applying their local business strategies for international sales expansion is the worst idea for any company. GSN is a platform of Dhunicorn which has clients and members in more than 40 countries. It operates in a network of over 1000 internal and associated consultants, advisors, experts, and professors worldwide.

The client companies thus get the advantage of the international business networking as well as professional consultative support of GSN which can tremendously help them in boosting their sales and profits.

To get further information & to know how Global Sales Network can help your company with international sales expansion. Contact us at info@dhunicorn.com.

Arti Mudaliar 0 Comments
Apr 20 2021
Recent Trends in Foreign Direct Investments in India

India is the second-most populous country in the world with a population estimation of 1,380,004,385 people in the year 2020, which is about 17.7% of the total population in the world. When the pandemic hit the country, being very densely populated, it had no other option but to go through a strict lockdown to control the spread of the virus. It was the world’s largest lockdown & withstood several phases. The consequence was that it brutally affected the economy of the nation.

To recover its economy the country took several bold steps & came up with “Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhyaan” which literally translates to the Self-Reliant India movement. This campaign targets to convert the crisis caused by the deadly pandemic into an opportunity. If the country becomes self-reliant, by boosting the local business & local production of the goods & services while lessening the dependency on other countries, it would ultimately improve its economy. It is high time that India stops depending too much on other countries for its goods & services necessities. The goal behind this ‘pursuit of self-reliance’ is to develop the nation to be a significant part of the global economy.

According to the Indian government making India self-reliant does not involve restricting the FDI, at all. On the contrary, by enhancing the domestic manufacturing capacity, the country would be not only self-sufficient but also build its export capacity & stable position in the global economic map. So, India appreciates & welcomes foreign investors in many sectors with open arms.

To explore the business opportunities in India, JOIN OUR VIDEOCONFERENCE NOW.

Book Appointment

Currently for India, improved FDI inflow is highly indispensable as it needs huge investments to revamp & boost the growth of its numerous sectors. FDI being very crucial for the growth of the Indian economy, the government of India came up with several reforms in its FDI policy to attract foreign investors.

The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Ministry of Commerce, Industry, Government of India presented ‘Consolidated FDI Policy’ which is effective from October 15, 2020. As per this policy, any non-resident entity is eligible for investing in any of the FDI permitted sectors in India if in acquiescence to the FDI policy. However, any investor or beneficial owner or entity belonging to the land bordering countries of India can invest in India only by the government route. In other words, they need permission from RBI or the Government of India before investing in India. The list of these countries includes China, Pakistan, Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan, Afghanistan & Bangladesh. Out of these nations, mainly any citizen or entity of Pakistan cannot invest in defence, space, atomic energy in addition to the FDI prohibited sectors of India. This regulation is to check any opportunistic takeovers/acquisitions of Indian companies by its neighbouring nations.

The ‘Consolidated FDI Policy’ also lists out the prohibited sectors for FDI, which means no foreign investors can invest in the below-listed sectors of India.

  • Lottery sector (includes both government & private lottery and also online lotteries, etc)
  • Gambling & Betting Sector
    (Every type of Foreign technology collaboration in the Lottery Business, Gambling & Betting sector such as licensing for franchise, trademark, brand name, management contract is as well prohibited in India)
  • Chit Funds
  • Trading in Transferable Development Rights (TDR)
  • Manufacturing Cigars, cheroots, cigarillos, cigarettes, Tobacco, or tobacco substitute goods
  • Nidhi Company (A kind of Non-Banking Financial Company)
  • Activities/sectors that not open to private sector investment such as Atomic Energy, Railway operations, etc.
  • Real Estate Business or Construction of Farm Houses
    (Real Estate Business does not involve the development of townships, construction of residential /commercial premises, roads or bridges, and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) registered & regulated under the SEBI (REITs) Regulations 2014.)

The policy further lists out the permitted sectors.

(Note: FDI in India is allowed through two routes:

  1. The Automatic Route – No need to take approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) or the government of India for investing in India
  2. The Government Route – Necessitates taking approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) or the government of India before investing in India.)

As the Government of India opens up its diverse sectors for FDI & eases regulations to attract foreign investors, it is obviously creating huge promising opportunities for the foreign investors. Apart from that, India has a potent market size & its consumer market is anticipated to grow four times by the year 2025. Cheap human resource availability, abundant resources & suitable geographical settings are also a few reasons that grab the interest of foreign investors in India.

Do you aspire to explore the world’s fastest-growing market? SIGN UP & JOIN OUR FREE PUBLIC COMPANIES PROSPERITY BOOST (“PCPB”) VIDEOCONFERENCE, to discover the benefits of our powerful component “MarketSuccess India” as well as our other PCPB components in detail.

Sign up now!

For further information & to know how Dhunicorn can help your company achieve all-round success, Contact us at inquiries@dhunicorn.com

Arti Mudaliar 0 Comments
Apr 20 2021
IoT (Internet of Things) business opportunities

“The Internet of Things has the potential to change the world, just as the internet did. Maybe even more so.” – Kevin Ashton

If any device can be connected to the internet & interconnected with other things or gadgets wirelessly, then the entire system is termed as IoT or Internet of Things. The things in this system can transmit and receive data with each other.

IoT enables smart work and smooth management of life. It aids in improved business process insights. It also helps in cutting down operational costs & downtime as well as enhances overall efficiency and productivity.

IoT is a profit promising arena for start-ups as well as existing companies.

 

Smart Home 

The smart home also known as home automation or domotics is the most popular application of IoT. It is all about controlling the electrical & electronic devices of the home either automatically or with a centralized device that has an easy-to-use interface or with a smartphone, tablet, or computer. It has a huge array of products such as:

  • Smart Lighting Solutions
  • Smart Home Security
  • Smart Sprinklers
  • Smart Pet Care
  • Smart Entertainment Devices
  • Smart Home Appliances

Smart homes are popularizing these days as they make life smooth, convenient, comfortable, and safe. It also helps in making efficient use of resources like energy & water.

 

Remote Work 

Ever since the coronavirus pandemic hit the world, companies could no longer carry their office work in their traditional office settings. Many companies have proposed to execute ‘work-from-home’ post-pandemic too, to cut down their overhead costs. Applying IoT for a smooth remote work process helps the employees to do their work without being physically present in the office. It also allows the management to monitor the performance of employees no matter where they are. With the revolution of remote work, there is a huge scope of IoT business in this arena.

 

Remote Healthcare

There is a huge demand for remote healthcare, especially at the times of pandemic, when there is a problem of shortages of beds in the hospitals, almost in every country around the world. With IoT, remote patient monitoring is feasible. With the aid of cloud-connected IoT devices, healthcare professionals can track the real-time data of the patients, based on which they can diagnose them precisely & give them the right healthcare in a virtual way.

 

Elderly care

IoT solution is a blessing for senior citizens, as it helps them to be safe & independent. IoT-based wearables have an accelerometer in them to automatically detect falls, with a provision to contact emergency help. These wearables are waterproof that can be worn to the bathroom where the majority of accidental falls tend to happen. IoT devices help the caretakers of the senior citizens to remotely monitor blood pressure, blood sugar levels & pulse rates & ensure that they take their medications as prescribed without fail. IoT-based devices help the elderly who can not move around the house to control switches, A.C., thermostat, door locks, etc. just at the place where they are. With an increasing number of senior citizens living on their own, there is an enormous opportunity for IoT business for elderly care.

 

Manufacturing Industries 

IoT is applied in the manufacturing industries to enhance the speed of the workflow while maintaining its quality thus productivity of the workers is improved. It helps in cost-cutting as well. IoT is also applied to keep track of the quality of the products produced. This supports appropriate modification of the manufacturing process for optimal output & eliminates any chances of failure. This is particularly helpful for the industries that can not take any chance in their product quality such as food industries & pharmaceutical industries.

IoT assists in predictive maintenance or determining machinery will break-down before it does. This helps in cutting down the operational expenses significantly.

 

Agriculture

IoT solutions in the Agricultural industry is specifically helpful to get high yields and profits. IoT-based smart farming solutions have sensors that keep track of the factors that impact the crop yield such as light, humidity, temperature, soil moisture, etc. Thus farmers can monitor the condition of the growing crops remotely. Also, these IoT based devices employ an automatic irrigation system.

Ground-based and aerial-based drones help in-field analysis, plantation of crops, evaluation of crop health, irrigation, spraying process of fertilizer & pesticides, etc. IoT in Agriculture is massively evolving & has an excellent prospect for business.

 

Hospitality Industry

IoT solution in the hospitality industry cuts down costs & enhances the guest experience. Hotel rooms that have smart lights, smart thermostats, smart A.C. just as smart homes do, make a very convenient & comfortable stay for the guests, particularly when these features can be controlled by their mobile phones. With the use of IoT, hotels can send guests, digital key cards to their mobile phones. Apart from that hotels can offer their guests, IoT-enabled voice-controlled room assistant, for requesting room service, booking a table at the hotel’s restaurant, simply by speaking to the device.

 

Energy Industry

In the energy industry, IoT is applied to keep an eye on the energy generating equipment, to improve its functioning, competence as well as to maintain it smoothly. Applying IoT for these applications make it easier than the manual method apart from reducing the downtime & enhancing the operation efficiency. IoT solutions in the energy generation unit, prevent possible operational risks by sensing & notifying any damage or leakage in the plant. Thus, helps to keep both the powerplant and the people safe.

IoT business is all about delivering innovative value to its customers by offering round the clock connectivity to the customers with IoT solutions. IoT, by revolutionizing all the sectors of life today, brings in numerous profitable business opportunities in the coming times.

 

Arti Mudaliar 0 Comments
Apr 20 2021
New Materials – The Open Door to Lucrative Business

“To raise new questions, new possibilities, to regard old problems from a new angle, requires creative imagination and marks real advance in science.” – Albert Einstein

New materials, innovated and developed by researchers, exhibit distinctive properties and so can be used in many leading-edge applications. Thus, the innovation of new materials positively impacts the development of many industries and businesses.

Let’s discuss some interesting new materials and the huge opportunities they create for making a profitable business.

 

Graphene 

This nanomaterial is an allotrope of carbon and is the strongest & thinnest material in the world. Some distinctive properties of graphene make it ideal for versatile applications in diverse industries.

Biomedical Industry

Advanced developments in the biomedical industry by using graphene creates a room for profitable business possibilities.

  • Drug Delivery

Graphene, due to its structural features like a high surface-to-volume ratio and solubility, serves as an excellent drug carrier, specifically ideal for the treatment of cancer.

  • Biosensor

Graphene has high sensitivity and exceptional electrochemical & optical properties due to which it can precisely detect biomolecules. Graphene-based electrochemical biosensors have a huge scope in the biomedical industry.

Tissue Engineering Owing to its mechanical strength & stiffness, biocompatibility, and extraordinary electrical conductivity, graphene is highly suitable for tissue engineering applications

  • Medical Devices

Graphene is used to create an antibacterial surface on medical devices and thus prevent infections that are caused at the time of healthcare procedures.

Electronics Industry

The electronics industry anticipates a huge scope for development and profit using graphene.

  • Wearable technology

Graphene has more flexibility & stretchability than rubber. Also, it is the thinnest material possessing high conductivity property. Hence this material has an excellent prospect in the production of thin & flexible, high-performing wearables.

  • Transistors

The unique physical properties of graphene can aid in making the smaller size transistors with enhanced performance in the circuits. This also gives a scope for the production of next-generation miniaturized devices.

  • Semiconductors

Graphene being the thinnest material with excellent electrical conductivity can be used to produce semiconductors to miniaturize the size of the electronic gadgets and create super-fast chips than the existing ones.

Sports Good Industry

  • Sports Gear

Graphene can endure high impact at high speed while being very lightweight, flexible as well as durable. Hence sports gear manufacturing industries apply this material for the production of sports goods like tennis racquets, skis, etc.

  • Sportswear

Graphene being super thin & ultra-lightweight is preferred in making sportswear, as it helps with easy body movement & keeping the right body posture for the sportsperson. Apart from that graphene being the strongest material can well-endure the physical wear during sports activity.

 

Self-Healing Materials 

Self-Healing Materials are synthesized such that they can repair & restore any physical damages in them on their own with no need for human interference. 

Textile Industry

Fabrics with self-healing coating react to heat & friction and self-repair any damages on them. They are also highly stretchable and extremely durable. Self-healing fabrics can create a huge demand in the military, medical & industrial sectors.

Construction Industry

Self-healing materials have a massive demand in the construction business.

  • Road Construction

Self-healing Asphalt if used in road constructions can self-repair the potholes, cracks on the roads. It can prevent accidents, cut down road repair & maintenance expenses, and reduce traffic problems during road maintenance work.

  • Building construction

Self-healing concrete when used in construction, can repair cracks without the need for construction workers, for years and years and thus improve the life span of the building.

Electronics Industry

  • Self-healing circuits

A circuit with self-healing components in a smartphone, computer, laptop, tablet, etc, due to its self-healing property, continues to function fully even when it breaks. This improves the functionality & durability of the devices.

  • Self-healing smartphones

Self-healing smartphones can fix any scratches and cracks on them by themselves. They would generate a huge demand in the market creating scope for a highly profitable business.

Automotive & Aircraft Industry 

There is a growing demand for self-healing-based products in the automotive and aircraft industries.

  • Self-healing paints

Self-healing paints if used to coat automobiles, can fix the scratches & scuff marks by their self-healing characteristics utilizing the natural heat source of sunlight. This keeps the vehicle’s body well-maintained like new, for a very long time.

  • Self-healing composites

Certain defects like cracks can occur on the structures of aircraft that are hard to detect & repair, failing its different parts. By using self-healing composites while manufacturing an aircraft, not only its lifespan improves but also its maintenance cost can be cut down considerably.

 

Liquid Glass

Liquid glass, a nanotechnology innovation, which when sprayed on a surface makes it moisture, heat, acid, UV, dirt, and bacteria resistant. Different companies see this material as highly profitable due to their practical applications in their respective industries.

Textile Industry

Liquid glass coating on fabric makes it greaseproof, waterproof as well as stains, dirt, abrasion & UV proof without changing the color, feel, and breathability of the material. It has wide applications like coating bags, apparel, footwear, etc. to make them easy to maintain & last durably.

Electronics Industry

Liquid glass coating on the screens & surface of devices like mobile phones, computers, laptops, tablets, camera lenses, drones, etc. makes them waterproof, scratch & abrasion proof without affecting the screen resolution or clarity. It is easy to use and can protect the device for a very good amount of time.

Healthcare Industry

Creating antimicrobial surface is the need of the healthcare industry today. Liquid glass coating on a surface makes it self-disinfecting because of its antimicrobial property. It prevents mold & dust mites and also facilitates easy cleaning of the surface. It can be used to coat medical devices & instruments, walls & floors of the hospital rooms and clothing, etc.

 

Aerogel

Aerogel is an artificially made new material, obtained from a gel by substituting its liquid part with gas while retaining its gel structure. It is ultralight, porous, and has very low density.

Petrochemical Industries

This new material has exceptional insulation for very high temperatures. And so, it is applied in the industries like refineries, petrochemical, and gas processing plants for insulation purposes.

Paint Manufacturing Industries

Paint manufacturers use aerogel as additives in their formulation to fortify their paint with the thermal insulating property. This serves as an energy-saving solution in the buildings of very hot climatic regions. It also makes the paint water repellant preventing any weather damage to the building while retaining its pleasant appearance.

 

Silicon X

Silicon X is a new material created by mixing silicone and graphite in a certain ratio.

Batteries made with silicon X have almost 500% more capacity than the regular ones. Such batteries eliminate the discomfort of frequent dying of batteries in electronic devices. There is an enormous possibility of transforming the electronic device and gadgets industry by making use of this new material.

Arti Mudaliar 0 Comments
Apr 19 2021
The Post-Pandemic World: Silver Linings for Business

“Out of Adversity Comes Opportunity.” – Benjamin Franklin

At the beginning of the year 2020, no one had the faintest idea of the paradigm shift it would bring in the business world. On one end the pandemic crashed in-person businesses but on the other end, it opened a world of opportunities. One of the most dramatic changes caused by the pandemic is the acceleration of digital transformation across all sectors. As consumers massively adapt to the pandemic life by adopting the online platforms for their entertainment, shopping, education, health & fitness, there unravelled a gamut of business opportunities.

The year 2020 started without any warnings of what will take effect in the Business World. It had a massive impact wherein a lot of business closed, retrenched and has been struggling up until today but on a slightly brighter note, it opened a world of new opportunities and possibilities amidst all of the challenges the humanity has faced. One of the most dramatic changes caused by the pandemic is the acceleration of digital transformation across all sectors. As the consumers massively adapt to the “New Normal”, several online platforms dominated to consistently sustain our lifestyle such as entertainment, shopping, education, health & fitness and an unravelled a gamut of business opportunities.

 

OTT

OTT is an acronym for ‘Over-the-top’. It means television or film content is delivered over the internet bypassing the necessity of traditional cable tv or satellite tv subscription services. Here the term ‘Over-the-top’ signifies the delivery of the content as per the choice of the customer over the top of the currently used internet services.

In recent years OTT gained huge popularity due to its wide variety of content, that can be personalized. It offers a video-on-demand service. Above all, it can be accessed from any device at any place & at any time.

The Pandemic accelerated the already booming OTT industry across the world. Lockdown, social distancing, and home quarantine caused by the pandemic left people no choice but to get stuck indoors with a limited options of entertainment. Also, transitioning from traditional TV to OTT did a very smooth process.

The catalyst factors that led to this shift include:

  • Increase in broadband penetration and 5G network during the pandemic due to necessities created by remote work, online education & online shopping, etc.
  • Increasing smartphone users around the world. 62 % of the global population, which means around 4.78 billion people are mobile users, out of which 3.8 billion are smartphone users.

As per a global market research report, the value of the OTT market was 101.42 billion in 2020 and may reach up 223.07 billion by 2026. This market is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 13.87% from 2021 to 2026.

This means that OTT will prove to be a highly profit-generating business opportunity.

 

E-LEARNING

E-Learning or electronic learning is a form of training via electronic devices connected to the internet. 

E-learning is chosen over traditional brick-and-mortar learning for its aspects like the convenience of studying at anyplace & anytime at one’s own pace, access to extensive & updated resources, affordability, scalability and, a wide range of specialization, etc. These benefits are the reason why e-learning is gaining huge popularity not only among academic students but also with the employees who want to enhance their occupational skills, update their know-how in their work field, and advance in their career.

E-Learning has been way advance over the traditional and conventional brick-and-mortar learning for the advantages it offers such as the convenience of studying anytime and anywhere at everyone’s comfort, affordability, scalability and a wide range of specialization. These benefits are the reason why e-learning has gained huge popularity not only among academic students but also with the employees who want to enhance their occupational skills, update their know-how in their work field, and advance in their career.

Pandemic fastened the growth of the E-learning industry due to its safety and less risk factor. Schools, offices, shops took advantage of the E-learning industry for the sustainability of its customers and business owners. The global e-learning market is anticipated to grow up to $336.98 billion by the year 2026 with a CAGR of 9.1% from the year 2018 to 2026.

The e-learning industry has gained huge momentum because of the pandemic which secures its profitable future.

 

AI

AI or Artificial intelligence is the most recent form of technology that makes these man-made genius machines do those tasks that can be carried out only by human intelligence.

AI played an enormous role in the medical field all through the pandemic by offering an early warning, precise prediction of the infection rate, global real-time disease monitoring, quick decision-making in identifying the right treatment, drug discovery, etc. The covid-19 pandemic accelerated the implementation of workplace automation. AI helped several businesses function when there was high workforce absenteeism & social distancing due to the fear of contracting coronavirus.

With more & more industries and businesses embracing AI for their work, the AI industry is likely to flourish in the coming times.

The world-wide AI software market is expected to go through rapid growth, about 126 billion USD by the year 2025.

AI has wide applications in diverse fields like healthcare, fitness, travel & tourism, entertainment, education, manufacturing, e-commerce & retail, etc, thus offers a gamut of business opportunities.

 

FITNESS APP

Fitness apps or mobile applications are designed and developed for helping the user achieve their fitness goals. These apps help with setting fitness goals, keeping track of calorie intake, workout ideas & guidance, tracking progress, etc.

Pandemic affected the fitness industry immensely. Due to fear of coronavirus disease and social distancing gyms, sports, and fitness centers were closed. This resulted in more and more people seeking an indoor alternative to their fitness routine with mobile fitness apps. During the first quarter of 2020, there was a 42.88 % increase in health and fitness app installation.

AI-based fitness apps offer personalized training & guidance while monitoring the accuracy & pace of the exercise. These apps are effective, and also offer the convenience of doing workouts from any place at any time. During the post-pandemic times, fitness app will rescue people who want to be fit but have hectic schedules & time shortages.

This market valued about USD 4.4 billion in the year 2020 and is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 21.6% from 2021 to 2028.

 

E-COMMERCE

E-commerce or Electronic commerce involves buying or selling goods & services via the internet.

The shutdowns and travel ban in most parts of the world made people seek and make use online media for their shopping. As per IBM’s U.S. Retail Index, the pandemic fast-tracked the shift from retail to e-commerce by about 5 years. The other factor for this huge growth is the increase in internet penetration during the pandemic.

The worldwide e-commerce market is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 14.7% from the year 2020 to 2027.

E-commerce offers a wide variety of scope to do business such as home products, online foods, and groceries, clothing and apparel, healthcare products, educational products, etc. Although E-commerce is a profitable business in the coming times, it demands the implementation of innovative ideas to be successful. E-commerce has sustained everyone’s lifestyle amidst the pandemic thus making businesses even more profitable since people slowly get used to not going out.

 

BLOCKCHAIN

It is a system of keeping digital records of data secured, transparent, and decentralized so that it cannot be changed, falsified, or hacked.

By the use of Blockchain, information is collected and grouped in blocks.

Here information is collected and grouped in blocks. (By the use of Blockchain, information is collected and grouped in blocks.) When the storage capacities of these blocks are full, they are chained on the earlier filled block, thus a chain of blocks is formed which is identified as a blockchain.

It offers limitless possibilities & solutions to diverse industries thus has generated a lot of interest over the past years. Due to the pandemic, companies are operating from home while being accessible to their customers. But they are facing many challenges with their digital operations. Blockchain technology is immensely helpful in easing the difficulties of operational method changes caused by the pandemic. Thus, the pandemic has surged Blockchain technology applications.

The worldwide market size of this industry is anticipated to grow from US dollars 3.0 billion in 2020 to US dollars 39.7 billion by the year 2025 at a CAGR of 67.3%.

Blockchain technology offers immensely profitable business opportunities in a wide variety of fields like Banking, Healthcare, IoT, Insurance, Electoral Voting, Online Advertising, Cloud Storage, Stock Trading, Real Estate, etc.

 

CHATBOTS

The chatbot is the latest trend of any Industry that needs interaction with customers for its operations and marketing.  Chatbots are virtual assistants that simulate real customer interaction via apps and websites. This is most importantly cost-cutting and profit-generating opportunity for wide sectors of Industry like retail, e-commerce, banks, healthcare, hospitality and tourism, online groceries, at-home services, food delivery service, and many more. Unlike a real human, a chatbot offers 24/7 customer support, creates lead generation, helps with marketing and selling of products, etc. Near 47% of Consumers across the world prefer chatbots for purchasing products.

The value of the global chatbot market can grow up to USD 1.25 billion by the year 2025 at a CAGR of  24.3 % which proves that this business has high profitability in the future.

 

DIGITAL MARKETING

Digital marketing has everything to do with marketing products or services on the electronic platform – which includes both online and offline media. The 9 major forms of digital marketing include:

  1. TV, Radio, Telephone & E-billboard
  2. Content Marketing
  3. Social Media Marketing
  4. Mobile Marketing
  5. Pay Per Click
  6. Affiliate Marketing
  7. Search Engine Marketing
  8. Viral Marketing
  9. Email Marketing

The pandemic has positively surged this industry. The worldwide digital marketing market is worth about US dollars 305 billion this year. (Upon my research, amid the COVID-19 crisis, the global market for Digital Advertising & Marketing estimated US$322.5 Billion in the year 2020 source : prnewswire.com)

This industry is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 17.6% in the duration of 2021-2026.

This year, the digital advertising segment is anticipated to have a market value of 398,762 million USD. The largest segment of digital marketing is search advertising which is expected to have a market value of USD 171,641m in the current year. Digital marketing is undoubtedly the most profit promising industry in the coming years.

 

IoT

IoT or the Internet of Things has a wireless system of a device that has an internet connection as well as interconnection with other devices to transmit & receive data with each other.

The pandemic played a huge role in speeding up the application of IoT in business operations. As pandemic led to self-isolation globally, the companies had to look for ingenious solutions to keep their business running in the life-threatening times. As a result, companies took the support of IoT for their remote working operations.

Due to the pandemic, the international market of IoT is anticipated to grow from the current value of US dollars 150 billion to 243 billion at a CAGR of 13.7%.

The key benefits of IoT include cost reduction, business transparency, remote operations, automation of processes and is particularly getting popular in the Healthcare, Manufacturing Industries, and Retail industries.

 

WEB DESIGNING & DEVELOPMENT

Web designing involves the creation of the layout and visual features of a website whereas Web development is about developing the functionality of a website.

With the growth of different technology web designing and development has gone through the metamorphosis from the everyday website to a website with highly interactive features, responsive web elements, voice user interface, etc.

As the world becomes more dependent on Digital, a website plays a big part and says a lot in terms of the business’ element.  Without a website, any business will face challenges in terms of visibility, brand awareness and profitabilityThis was the scenario long before the pandemic. With the restrictions caused by the pandemic, the brick-and-mortar business is left with no other option than to move online. With this being said the scope for the web designing & development industry is growing at a faster rate.

The latest research mentions that this industry will grow from US dollars 131 billion to 295 billion from the year 2020 to 2025.

Surely the pandemic won’t be there for a lifetime but the ‘New Normal’ it has created during and even on the post-COVID19 era could be permanent. There is “no going back.”  Companies that understand and who are well-adapted to this fact are sure to find opportunities for high profitability, sustainability and growth. Thus there is such thing as Post-Pandemic : Silver Linings for Business.

Arti Mudaliar 0 Comments
Apr 19 2021
Strategies to Discover Hot Investment Opportunities in Future Unicorns

“If you are going to be in business, you must learn about money: how it works, how it flows, and how to put it to work for you.” ― Idowu Koyenikan

Investment is the best course of action if you wish to make your money work for you. Investments allow an investor not only to grow wealth but also generate an additional income. Hunting for right investment opportunities is an ever-growing phenomenon all over the world. For investors, identifying a successful investment is just like an enigma.

Recently, unicorns have emerged as a potential means for investors. To discover future unicorns for investing is no cakewalk since it needs an effort with lots of foresights. According to CB INSIGHTS, there are more than 400 unicorns in the world. Every unicorn is somehow revolutionary as novelty in business is a proven method to create a dynamic result. The next unicorn may not be a splashy consumer brand but it should be a product or a service which will help others get things done.

Why are Unicorns Successful?

  • It provides a simple solution to complicated problems.
  • A product or service from a unicorn makes consumers more engaging.
  • Tech unicorns become a digital place where users can easily interact.
  • Unicorns have a strong and more viable value proposition.
  • It has a long vision with high-tech services and products.
  • Unicorns make the world more productive.
  • Future unicorns may become a solution for economical recession.
  • Investors keep looking for future unicorns.
  • With a unicorn app, users can get multiple services in one platform.
  • It may later become a decacorn or even a hectocorn.

Future-centric components

Successful start-ups spread their wings with three future-centric components; the first in the industry, world-shattering innovation and customer-friendly. Investors should keep an eye on investing their time to find out start-ups that emerge with these three elements.

The First in the Industry

Most of the start-ups are technology visionaries and trendsetters. They emerge as the first service provider or product introducer in their industry to change the way people do things. Gradually, these start-ups become a unicorn that is a must for the society.

World-shattering Innovation

Innovative elements convert start-ups into unicorns to bring a disruption in the domain they belong to. For example, some online delivery services changed the way consumers commuted. To stay ahead of competitors, they prepare to keep innovating their services and products.

Customer-friendly

Since unicorns are B2C companies, their simple goal is to provide user-friendly products or services.  They focus on day to day life with the support of innovative disruption. Moreover, providing affordable service or product is another key highlight of unicorns.

Sectors of Future Unicorns

Unicorns keep evolving in various sectors. Investors should adopt result-driven strategies to discover thriving start-ups that will become successful unicorns in future. Let’s find out some of the most important sectors that will present more unicorns in the future.

Financial Services

Fintech service companies provide timely and fast financial services that range a wide-ranging impact individually and commercially.

Consumer-friendly technology

As more and more customers interact on digital devices, Fintech services are based on consumer-friendly that develops consumer engagement and building trust.

Digital payments

Digital payments create a convenient and speedy service for those who depend on reliable and quicker payment services.

One-stop services

Many Fintech brands offer multiple services across one-stop app. Users from all walks of lives can immediately use these services for various reasons.

Region-based services

As Fintech service providers offer region-based flexible options for consumers, Fintech services occupy every region all over the world.

Hardware

Evidently, hardware unicorns dominate in future. The new wave comes from various sectors. Some of them are:

  • Artificial Intelligence companies that use hardware like  Mobvoi and Anki
  • Production companies that manufacture 3D printers with high resolution and advanced materials
  • Advanced robotics start-ups such as  UBTech, Rethink Robotics, and Roobo

Many of these start-ups would achieve unicorn status sooner or later.

Healthcare

The upcoming healthcare unicorn will definitely be one of the companies that are related to seven healthcare sections.

Seven Healthcare Unicorns

  • Big Data & Analytics
  • Genomics
  • Imaging & Diagnostics
  • Insurance & Drug Pricing
  • Telehealth
  • Therapeutics
  • Wearables & Devices

Software

Software start-ups mushroom here and there. Discovering the potential start-ups that is capable to turn to unicorns is a really challenging. Here are some of the important elements to identify promising future software unicorns.

  • Adaptable to face new challenges in underlying market
  • Highly innovative infrastructure
  • Rapidly emerging and growing
  • A clear long vision
  • Providing services on multiple domains

Cloud computing

Based on cloud computing, unicorns will mushroom all over the world since cloud-centric companies can handle future challenges with integrated infrastructure. Here are some of the services that rely on cloud computing.

  • Cloud infrastructure supports variable workloads.
  • There are three types of storage options – public, private and hybrid.
  • Cloud-based applications and data can be accessible from anywhere in the world.
  • Hardware failures do not affect data storage on account of networked backups.
  • Users can collaborate from widespread locations.

Sustainable products

Keep in mind that sustainable products will protect our posterity. With recycled products, cleaning materials, solar panels, cloth napkins, cotton shopping bags, eco-friendly chair, biodegradable pots, reusable bulk food bags, eco-friendly-computer accessories and clothes made from recycled fabric, future unicorns will evolve to save the planet.

Industrial robotics

Industrial robotics-centric companies are emerging start-ups and have the capacity to join the club of unicorn. Delivery robots, surgery robots, service robots, multipurpose robotic platforms and material handling robots can change the world completely with multi-dimensional digital platforms. Investors can focus on these start-ups based on industrial robotics to be part of robots-centred world and digital platform-friendly lifestyle.

Blockchain

Blockchain technology has established a new dimension of digital world. Start-ups that rely on this technology bring a new world of possibilities with disruptive opportunities. If investors are ready to be one of the best players in the sectors related to block technology, unicorns based on this technology will evolve to hit the future market.

Space technology

After the era of Elon Musk, space-related start-ups have become one of the best options of investors today. In the future, there will be huge business opportunities in space technology as it is a niche industry which can create potential products and services for forthcoming centuries. Space-centric unicorns will be the choices of investors since people from all over the world are interested to enjoy space-related lifestyle.

Compelling data to monitor

With the team of creative employees and the pool of tools, sources and data, companies do some innovative things to make our life magical. During this pandemic, these companies are redesigning consumer trends, reshaping company infrastructure and redefining business models. Hence, an investor comes across several inevitable factors to keep in mind.

Understanding the infrastructure of company, identifying competitive advantages, and monitoring financial performance are crucial factors that investors, especially those who wish to invest in future unicorns, should focus on before investment.

To get projected revenue and growth, investors should observe these elements for finding out the best start-up to fund. And also, investors need to refer statistics for forecasting growth for the next five years or a decade. When it comes to monitoring data, some of the statistics and general data to examine are: Year established, founders, total funding, current valuation, headquarters, branches, revenues, board of directors, the latest company news and domination in digital world.

Understanding the infrastructure of company

Analyzing and understanding the infrastructure of a company is paramount since many start-ups lack of good infrastructure. The infrastructure of a company includes every fixed asset such as the building, machinery, equipment and tools, and all the employees and a management team. Investors should ensure whether the start-ups are with all fixed assets, skilled employees and an efficient management team.

Identifying competitive advantages

Savvy investors should meticulously analyse a start-up’s key competitive advantages to conclude whether it is a future unicorn.

Key competitive advantages

  • Future-based business concept
  • Financial and technological wealth to face any new competitor
  • Customer retention techniques

Monitoring financial performance

Investors should be more careful and in monitoring the financial performance of a company since this is the time of pandemic. The financial performance of any company is based on four key features such as:

  • Financial ratios compared to competitors
  • Financial statements
  • Industry benchmarks
  • Market value

Conclusion

Before investing in future unicorns, three major aspects – Recognizing future-centric components, discovering successful sectors of future unicorns and monitoring data on particular start-ups – should be a must-have action for investors. Focusing on these factors helps investors understand the most active start-ups that will turn into unicorns in future. As start-ups sprout everywhere, investors keep puzzled to identify future unicorns that will make the world technologically enriched Utopia. In this case, deep understanding with meticulous statistics is the best way of identifying and adopting future unicorns for investing.

Arti Mudaliar 0 Comments
Apr 19 2021
Opportunities in India’s Electric Vehicle Drive

“Electric vehicles are an essential strategy in the immediate term to reduce local emissions and help improve local air quality.” –  Kevin Emerson

An electric vehicle is a vehicle that is propelled by an electric motor instead of an internal combustion engine. As these vehicles use electricity rather than combustible fuel, they do not cause pollution, global warming, and depletion of natural resources.

 

The Scope for The Growth of EV Industry in India

The electric vehicle industry of any country can grow only by the factors like the high demand for energy-efficient commutation, the Government’s support with the electric charging infrastructure, favorable subsidies, tax reductions, etc.

India ranks as the world’s 4th largest automobile market & the 2nd largest two-wheeler market. And so, it is enormously dependent on oil imports. The rising price of petroleum products to run these vehicles has affected the consumers. EVs that need electricity to run will decrease the operating cost significantly.

The country is also experiencing an alarming level of pollution. It is high time to reduce Carbon emissions. It is estimated that EVs can cut down carbon emissions by 37%. Hence there is an incredible demand for environment-friendly Electric vehicles in India. These reasons are pushing the Indian Government to promote the adoption of Electric Vehicles.

The biggest hindrance to the adoption of EVs in India is its high cost. To resolve this issue, the government came up with the Fame policy (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of Hybrid and EV) which focuses on giving monetary incentives to the EV consumers to balance the price difference between the EVs and ICE vehicles.

In 2019, the government of India promoted EV adoption, by announcing a custom duty exemption as well as a 12 to 5% Goods & service tax reduction for Electric vehicles. Further an additional income tax deduction of INR 1.5 lakhs was offered on the interest paid for the EV loan. This led to a 20 % increase in the sales of electric vehicles (excluding sales of e-rickshaws) in 2019-20 as compared to the previous year, as per the report of SMEV (Society of Manufacturers of Electric Vehicles).

The Government also brought in FAME II which offers a total incentive of INR 10,000 crores from 2020 to 2022.  The Other incentives include exemption from road tax & registration fees.

To further improve the adoption of EVs all over the nation, the MORTH – Ministry of Road Transport and Highway declared that all the states & union territories of the country can register as well as sell EVs devoid of pre-fitted batteries.

The Indian Government has set a target of 30% electric vehicles by the end of this decade. Not just that, the Indian Government also aims to be the next EV manufacturing hub for the world. This goal can be itemized as sales of 70% of commercial cars, 30% privately owned cars, 40% of public transport buses and 80% of two-wheelers & three-wheelers must be in the EV segment by 2030.

India, with the progression of these goals, could have an EV market of 206 billion USD & have a total sale of 102 million vehicles by the end of this decade. Also, with the realizing of this goal India must own a network of over 2.9 million public charging stations by 2030.

A report by ISEA (India Energy Storage Alliance) mentions that this market is anticipated to reach over 6.34 million units per annum by the year 2027. This report covers the market spectrum of Electric Vehicles, EV batteries as well as the electric charging infrastructure and is anticipated to grow with a CAGR of 44% in the period of 2020-2027. Hence, this is a profit-promising industry in India.

India’s Challenges & Plan related to its ‘Electric vehicle Industry’

There is a limitation of the availability of lithium in India. Lithium is an indispensable element for the production of lithium-ion batteries used in Electric Vehicles. Importing this element from other countries escalates the manufacturing cost of EVs, as the battery is the most important component of EVs and its cost covers 40% of the total vehicle cost.

To combat this issue India has set up its first-ever lithium refinery in its Gujarat State. The leading companies in India such as the TATA Group, the Adani Group have planned to establish their lithium battery manufacturing plant here. The effort to be self-reliant for lithium element has led to the discovery of 1600 tonnes reserves of lithium by The Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India, in its Karnataka state.

India is also putting a research effort to find lithium-ion battery alternative technology like sodium-ion batteries to ensure its aims related to its EV industry are achieved smoothly.

The other important aspect that must be addressed to develop this industry is the electric charging infrastructure. So, the Indian government has planned to set up one EV charging Station every 25 Km with its FAME II program. The country’s Department of Heavy Industries (DHI) summoned companies with EoI (expression of interest) to put up around 1500 EV charging stations on the expressways & highways all across the country. This effort was taken to resolve the EV consumer’s concern that EVs are not appropriate for long-distance traveling. The DHI also permitted 2,636 EV charging stations in 62 major cities of all the states & the union territories under the FAME II program to make sure that there is at least one EV charging station in every 3 square km area.

This year, A company named Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited along with Magenta initiated a new idea of “Charge Grid flare EV charger” for the first time in India. It is an energy-saving efficient LED street lamp integrated EV charger. It is built to suit Indian weather conditions with online & remote monitoring feature. The company sets a target of more than 1000 units of installation of these Charge Grid flares by the end of this year.

 

The Effect of Pandemic on The Indian EV Industry

According to SMEV, the EV industry was on track of progress despite the covid-19 pandemic. In the fiscal year 2020 electric vehicle sales included 97.43% which equals 1,52,000 Electric two-wheelers, 2.17% (3,400) electric cars and 0.38 % (600) buses

This will continue to improve further in the fiscal year 2021, due to the right move by the government as well as the industry. This industry has a high chance of escalating in the post-pandemic times as compared to the badly affected segment of IC vehicles. This is because there is a high probability of people switching over from the over-crowded public transit to EV two-wheelers as the expense for both remains the same.

With the booming of this innovative industry, there opens a myriad of business opportunities in this segment. This includes:

  • EV Manufacturing/selling
  • EV Spare Parts Manufacturing/selling
  • EV Charging Station
  • Solar charging station
  • Portable Charging Station
  • EV Charging Station Management
  • Home Charging Station Setup Service
  • Charging Station Setup Training Service
  • Electric car battery manufacturing
  • Battery swapping
  • Services to convert ICE vehicles into EVs
  • Last-mile connectivity solutions

With a country like India where there is already a high demand for the EV sector, there is surely a reserve of abundant profit promising opportunities to unearth.

Arti Mudaliar 0 Comments
Apr 17 2021
Internet Businesses – Silver Linings in the Post-Pandemic World

“The Internet produces new business models and also reinvents traditional business models” – Marc Ostrofsky

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced people across the world to become internet users like never before in history. People have started spending more and more time online for working, buying essentials, entertainment, communication, education, news, and updates, etc. According to research, about 4.66 billion people, which means about 59.5% of the worldwide population, were found to be active internet users as of January 2021. With the downturn of the offline channel, businesses are left with no option but to move online for surviving and thriving.

Thus, we can say that the pandemic has revolutionized both: the behavior of the customers and the functioning of the businesses. And so, today internet is undoubtedly an avalanche of business opportunities.

Let’s discuss a few of them here.

Chatbot Business 
To run a successful business, it is important to stay on top of the latest trends in the industry.

Chatbots or AI-powered virtual assistant software simulate conversation via message apps, phones, websites, and mobile apps, etc. Today, they have become the essential requirement to the companies for 24/7 customer support, lead generation, scheduling interviews and to market and sell products, etc. About 47% of chatbot users prefer buying products using this medium.

Chatbots are much more efficient, error-free, cheaper, faster, and always available, unlike a human. Since one can rely on their pre-written commands and programs, they are widely preferred in the sectors of banking, real estate, retail, legal, healthcare as well as hospitality. It is expected that 90% of the interactions of the banks may be automated with chatbots by the year 2022.

The chatbot market across the world may reach up to USD 1.25 billion by 2025, with a CAGR of about 24.3 % which means that the chatbot business has a successful prospect in the coming times.

Box Subscription Business 
The subscription box is a strategy of marketing and product distribution that involves delivering a package of products and services directly to the customers periodically. As customers subscribe for the products/services for a certain period, this business generates a predictable revenue and there is no overstocking of inventory.

During the pandemic times, consumers mostly relied on box subscriptions for their entertainment, remote work tools, education, food products, health and wellbeing products, etc. due to the convenience it offers. With such changing trends the subscription business model is likely to grow in the post-pandemic period, unlike the one-time product purchase system.

Netflix is a classic example of the profitability of the box subscription business. The revenue of Netflix is completely influenced by its continuously expanding international subscription base that generated about USD 6.14 billion in the quarter of 2020.

Online Advertising Business 
Online or internet advertising is also known as digital advertising, is nothing but utilizing the internet as a medium for marketing and advertising to the consumers.  It is one of the most efficient and effective ways for businesses of all sizes to increase their reach, target new customers, and broaden their revenue streams. It incorporates different types of display advertising, SEM or search engine marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, etc.

With the transformation nudged by the pandemic, businesses are rushing to emphasize their online presence. This being said, there is no need to explain the importance of digital marketing and advertising in the changing times. To mention, the popular social media networks such as Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest, Youtube, Snapchat & TikTok cover almost all types of audiences that it can surely drive leads and sales for any type of business.

In the year 2021, ad spending in the online advertising market is estimated to go up to USD 398,762 million. The online advertising industry thus has an incredibly promising future.

Web Designing and Development Business
Web designing is about creating the layout and visual aspects of a website and Web development involves generating a functioning website utilizing the website design.

The demand for web designing and web development services has considerably grown in the pandemic times. With businesses embracing online channels, there is an inevitable need for new website design. Businesses already present online also seek effective redesigning of their websites with the latest features like highly interactive and responsive web elements, voice user interface, etc. as a competitive strategy during these trying times. Several small businesses that had to shut down their physical stores now solely rely on their websites to carry on their businesses.

Recent research says that the tech industry will have a market growth from USD 131 billion in 2020 to USD 295 billion by 2025.

With such dramatic transformations, the web designing and web development industry unquestionably will have a great opportunity for advancement.

Online Education Business
Online education or e-learning is preferred for its aspects like convenience, the flexibility of studying at one’s own pace, availability of wide resources, cost-effectiveness and, the broad gamut of specialization, etc. Learning via online medium is not just limited to students. Employees, also seek it to develop their occupational skills, for update themselves with the advanced systems related to their work to grow in their career.

Online education was rapidly advancing before the pandemic too but with the circumstances evoked by the pandemic, this industry is growing at an incredible rate. Schools, universities, and companies are functioning remotely and this heightened the preference for online learning.

With such a massive change, the future of education has permanently gained momentum towards non-traditional virtual learning systems, which promises the profitability and success of this business.

Research estimates that the global market of online education will grow up to USD 350 billion by 2025.

Affiliate Marketing Business 
Affiliate marketing involves promoting another company’s products and services and earning commissions from the sale of their merchandise.

Affiliate marketing is not dead as perceived by many business people across the world. During the pandemic, this industry has seen both upward and downward trends depending on the niche of products or services involved. Many affiliate marketers had to change their niche during the covid-19 pandemic, to survive the transformed market.

However, in the long run, the pandemic will turn out to be a boon in disguise for the affiliate marketing industry. In the post-pandemic world, affiliate marketers may view the cloud clearing-up scene and find that with the incredible number of businesses and consumers moving online, there are increased opportunities for growth in this industry. Not just that, there would be additional profit-yielding niches of the products and services, that either did not exist or were not much significant in the previous market.

Conclusion
For seeking growth and profits in any business, a thorough understanding of the contemporary trends and foresight of the prospects is inevitable. Flowing along with the current market trends is the most assured approach to seeking success in a business in any situation.

 

Arti Mudaliar 0 Comments
Apr 16 2021
E-Commerce Business Opportunities

“E-Commerce isn’t the cherry on the cake, it’s the new cake” – Jean Paul Ago CEO L’Oreal

E-commerce or Electronic commerce refers to the buying or selling of goods & services through the medium of the internet.

The covid-19 pandemic caused shutdowns and travel bans across the world. This forced consumers to choose online mediums over retail for their shopping. And so, the pandemic has caused a dramatic peak in the e-commerce business. Recent data from IBM’s U.S. Retail Index says that the pandemic fast-tracked the switch from retail to e-commerce by almost five years. It is also very likely that this revolution would be permanent.

Let’s discuss some promising opportunities in the e-commerce industry.

Selling Handmade Items
Many people with artistic skills need an online marketplace to sell their unique handmade kinds of stuff such as clothing, jewelry, paintings, sculptures, toys, soaps also candles, etc. find among the people who have a great interest in such products. Anyone who has a talent for producing handmade goods has huge potential to profit. You just have to find your expertise and partners and make sure that your uniqueness is your own selling point in this competitive business. Hence an e-commerce platform that sells handmade goods is highly lucrative.

Etsy is one such successful online marketplace that connects buyers & sellers around the world with its delightfully unique collection of custom-made & handmade items.

Selling Education Courses/Services and Products
Online education platforms offer several advantages like a flexible schedule, comfortable learning environment, pacing options, career advancement, skills enhancement, cost-effectiveness, etc. as compared to the traditional education system. According to the latest market research, the global e-learning market will make approximately $325 billion by 2025, which is and this apparent through the Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 7.5%. Thus, it can be concluded that e-learning systems are becoming more essential in the educational sector as they give the students the flexibility of learning at one’s own pace & comfortable environment which has a positive impact on how they absorb information, which is vital for academic success.

Online Grocery Store
Before the pandemic, buying groceries via online stores was mostly preferred only by the Millennials. The COVID-19 shut down in the year 2020 has caused a revolution in grocery shopping. As a safety measure, people started purchasing their essentials via online medium. This led to a boom in online grocery selling businesses. To keep up with the competition, the retail grocery stores also started online sales, either by creating their websites and apps or by utilizing the prevailing delivery services.

As per research conducted by Mercatus and Incisive, online grocery sales will make about $ 250 billion by the year 2025. This means that there is a huge opportunity in the online grocery industry in the coming years.

Online Furniture Renting 
Furniture renting is a growing popular trend among the millennials and Generation Z, as they prefer hassle-free maintenance & management of furniture while cutting down the huge initial capital cost. Professionals who keep moving to new places find renting furniture as a money & time-saving, easy option. Renting gives choices in the latest designs for fresh looks every season. Work from home culture in the pandemic times further boosted the furniture renting businesses as people prefer having a comfortable & efficient work setting at home. These transformations are most likely to stay and grow further in the future, making the furniture renting business a highly promising opportunity.

Feather, CORT Global Network, Furlenco are some of the online furniture renting successful businesses. In the year 2020, IKEA the most successful furniture selling company also got into furniture leasing in 30 countries across the world.

Online Streaming
In recent years, the Cable-TV industry is taking a hit due to the popularization of online streaming businesses. Further, the pandemic has completely transformed the entertainment industry.  In China, Livestream e-commerce has been dominant in the last few years and is expected to yield more than $60 billion this year. With lockdowns everywhere around the world & strict social distancing methods, theatres, cinema halls could not function the way they used to. This further has made online streaming such as Netflix, YouTube TV & Amazon Prime, etc. more dominant sources of entertainment. Statistics confirm that the online streaming industry is anticipated to expand to $149.96 billion from 2020 through 2024 with a CAGR of approximately 18%.

Selling eBooks
For the past several years, e-books have already transformed the publishing industry. With all the aspects of life digitizing, physical books are not preferred by people anymore. Printed books are bulky, occupy a lot of space, are not easy to carry and maintain as well. Because reading is one of the favorite activities of humans & it can never go out of fashion, e-books have replaced the printed form of books. Technologically advanced reading devices offer an equivalent experience of reading a physical book. And so the e-books industry has a huge scope of growth. An e-reader is more handy and convenient to carry around than a book.

According to the latest research e-books industry can make USD17,723 million by the year 2025 with a CAGR of 3.2%. Fiverr, Google Play Books, Amazon, etc. are some of the e-books selling platforms that exhibit the lucrativeness of this industry.

Online Recommerce 
Online Recommerce or reverse commerce is nothing but selling used goods online. Selling used cars, used home appliances & tools, used apparel, used furniture & used electronics are gaining huge popularity in contemporary times. eBay, Amazon, Carvana, Flipkart, olx, are some of the popular e-commerce platforms that sell used items all around the world. According to a study, the market for used apparel has raised 21 times quicker than the retail apparel market in the recent 3 years and may reach $51 billion by the year 2023. Millenials and Gen Z are the ones who made the recommerce market boom. There is a huge scope for the online Recommerce business with millennials who prefer purchasing used items over the new ones for their affordability as well as their sustainability.

Conclusion
E-commerce is a fast-growing and versatile industry that offers huge scope for growth and success if approached with innovative ideas and well-researched moves.

 

Arti Mudaliar 0 Comments
Mar 18 2021
Business Opportunities in India for Foreign Investors

In the year 1991, India was faced with an economic crisis which led the government to initiate economic liberalization. Subsequently, FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) gradually escalated in India. 

The UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development), with its World Investment Report, 2020 states that India stood as the world’s 9th largest recipient of FDI in 2019 with an inflow of 51 billion USD.

As per the global investment trends monitor, No.38 by UNCTAD, the global FDI experienced a collapse in the year 2020. It dropped by 42% from 1.5 trillion USD (in 2019) to about 859 billion USD, by the effects of the pandemic. However, India defied this global FDI flow trend. In 2020, its FDI inflow grew by 13%, to 57 billion USD as compared to 2019. India was one of the only two countries in the entire world, that experienced an FDI rise in 2020.

So why is India becoming one of the top destinations of foreign investment?
The number 1 reason India is attractive to foreign investors is its promising market size. India is a rapidly growing economy & ranks as the 5th largest economy as well as the 3rd largest by purchasing power parity (PPP). It also has the 2nd largest population in the world, about 1.3 billion. The medical journal ‘The Lancet’ published an analysis that forecasted that in 2048 the population of India may peak to 1.6 billion. India is anticipated to have the largest working-age population by the year 2100, which would be about 578 million.

By 2025, the country’s consumer market is expected to grow four times. More and more foreign investors are realizing the consumer market size of India, the potential of rapidly growing Indian private companies as well as the benefits of its cheap human resource.

India’s economic growth chiefly depends on the FDI investments hence it has liberal foreign direct investment policies. Several sectors in India have foreign direct investment raised to 100% which confirms that the government is keen on welcoming foreign investors to invest in most of the sectors.

India has a robust & diversified industrial base to produce a broad range of goods and components vital for several sectors like automobile, textiles, chemicals, consumer durables, FMCG, healthcare, etc.

The government offers easy access to credit as well as has simplified the approval procedure for forming and upgrading logistics for smooth transportation & exports.

The World Bank’s annual report of 2020 on The Ease of Doing Business (EOBD) mentions that India escalated by 14 points and positioned itself at 63rd rank amidst 190 countries of the world. The Indian Government’s focus on ease of doing business has significantly attracted global investors.

India ranks as the 4th largest foreign exchange reserves holder country in the world with 584,554 million USD (as of 26th February 2021). This country’s sturdy, escalating foreign exchange reserve ensures secured on-time payment for profit & portfolio outflows repatriation.

A Digital Revolution was instigated by the Indian government’s policy decision taken to boost electronic transactions. It also plays a vital role in attracting foreign investors.

 

Business Opportunities in India in Diverse Sectors

AUTOMOBILE
In 2019, India globally ranked as the 4th largest automobile market. India positions itself as the leading heavy vehicle manufacturer in the world. It is the largest tractor manufacturer in the world. It globally ranks as the 2nd largest bus manufacturer & 3rd largest heavy trucks manufacturer. By 2026, this Industry of India is anticipated to reach up to USD 282.8 billion. It has a 7% share in India’s GDP.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS
India stands as the 2nd largest mobile market in the world and has nearly 1.1518 billion mobile phone users. It also positions as the 2nd largest telecommunications market in the world, and it has a subscriber base of about 1.2 billion. It has a 7% share in India’s GDP.

E-COMMERCE
The Indian government’s ‘Digital India programme’ lead to a surge in the number of Internet connections in India which is nearly 760 million, as of August 2020. This ultimately led to a boost in the E-commerce industry in India.

The value of the Indian e-commerce market is 84 billion USD in the current year. India’s E-Commerce may grow up to USD 99 billion by 2024 at a CAGR of 27% from 2019 to 2024.  Online Retail and e-commerce together offer a 10% contribution to India’s GDP.

CHEMICALS
India ranks worldwide as the 6th Largest Chemicals Producer. The Market value of India’s Chemicals & Petrochemicals sector is about 178 billion USD and is expected to grow up to 300 billion USD by 2025. India is one of the leading dyes suppliers of the world and satisfies 16% of the global demand for dyes and dye intermediates

GEMS AND JEWELLERY
India is identified as the world’s largest diamond processing center, also accounts for around 95% of processed diamonds of the world. It plays as the largest cutting & polishing center for diamonds in the world and is fortified by the policies of its government. The gems and jewellery sector of India is one of the largest sectors of the world & has more than 300,000 gems and jewellery businesses that fulfill 29% of global jewellery demand.

India is considered the hub of the international jewellery market due to its low costs as well as a highly skilled labour force. This sector contributes nearly 7% of India’s GDP, also around 15% of the total merchandise exports of the nation.

TEXTILES & GARMENTS
Raw materials essential for the production of textiles and garments like jute, cotton, silk, wool, artificial fibers, are abundantly obtained in India. Hence, India is one of the largest producers of textiles & garments across the world. India’s Garment Industry is worth one trillion INR. Due to the favourable FDI policy of textiles in India, this industry is highly chosen by foreign investors. This year, India’s textile exports may reach up to 82 billion USD and are anticipated to grow up to 300 billion USD by 2024.

The domestic textile & garment industry has a 2% share in India’s GDP.

BIOTECHNOLOGY
India has around 800 biotechnology companies that play a vital role in the country’s economy.

By 2025, India’s Biotechnology industry is projected to grow up to 100 billion USD at a CAGR of 30.46%. India positions 12th in the global biotech destination & 3rd in the Asia-pacific region biotech destination.

PHARMACEUTICALS
India is the leader of the global generic drug market. This country is the source of nearly 60,000 generic brands within 60 therapeutic groups & it solely meets 40% and 25% of generic drug demand of the US & the UK respectively. It is also the world’s largest producer of vaccines & fulfills more than 50% of the vaccine demand of the world. It produces over 500 diverse Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs). India’s pharmaceutical exports were worth 25 billion USD in the year 2020.

In 2020, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), based on per capita income positions India at 142nd rank by GDP (nominal) also 124th rank by GDP (PPP). Almost 60% of the GDP of India is made by domestic private consumption, in addition to that, it is the 6th largest consumer market in the world

Arti Mudaliar 0 Comments
Mar 14 2021
What Every Foreign Investor Must Know Before Investing in India

India ranks as the 5th largest economy in the world. It globally ranked 6th largest by nominal GDP & 3rd largest by PPP in 2020. In 2021, the estimated nominal GDP of India is 2.8 trillion USD and its estimated GDP per capita (PPP) is 9.56 trillion USD.

India is preferred by foreign investors to invest in mainly due to its prospective market size. As per a report of The World Economic Forum, India would become the third-largest consumer market & its consumer spending would be about 6 trillion US dollars by the year 2030. India is the second populous country in the world with a population of about 1.39 billion and thus offers the advantage of cheap human resources. UNCTAD through its ‘World Investment Report 2020’ states that in the year 2019, India was the 9th largest receiver of FDI with an inflow of about 51 billion dollars. In 2020, while the global FDI collapsed due to the effect of the pandemic, but the FDI in India escalated by 13% in comparison to the previous year.

To boost the economic recovery in the post-covid times, India is reforming its foreign direct investment norms to attract more foreign investors in the diverse sectors. Hence there is an avalanche of opportunities for foreign investors in India.

Do you aspire to explore the world’s fastest-growing market? SIGN UP & JOIN OUR FREE PCPB VIDEOCONFERENCE, to know the benefits of our powerful component “Market Success India” as well as our other PCPB components in detail.

Sign Up Now!

Foreign Investors must know a few things before investing in India. Let’s discuss them.

Ensure That the Chosen Sector for Investment is ‘Not FDI Prohibited’
Foreign investors investing in India must ensure that the sector they are wanting to invest in is FDI permitted.

Although India permits FDI in numerous sectors, there is an absolute FDI prohibition in certain sectors. The list of FDI prohibited sector in India includes:

  • Lottery business (includes government/ private lottery, online lotteries, etc)
  • Gambling & Betting Sector including casino (All the forms of Foreign technology collaboration in the Lottery Business, Gambling & Betting sector like licensing for franchise, trademark, brand name, management contract is also not permissible in India)
  • Chit Funds
  • Trading in Transferable Development Rights (TDR)
  • Manufacturing Cigars, cheroots, cigarillos, cigarettes, Tobacco, or tobacco substitute products
  • Nidhi Company (A type of Non-Banking Financial Company)
  • Activities/sectors not accessible to the private sector investment. E.g., Atomic Energy and Railway operations
  • Real Estate Business or Construction of Farm Houses (Real Estate Business does not incorporate the development of townships, construction of residential /commercial premises, roads or bridges, and Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) registered and regulated under the SEBI (REITs) Regulations 2014.)


Know the FDI Restrictions for ‘The Border Countries’

According to the government’s ‘Consolidated FDI Policy circular of 2020’, a non-residential entity can invest in any FDI permitted sectors in India, in compliance with the country’s FDI policy. But an entity from any of the countries sharing the land border with India, which includes: China, Pakistan, Nepal, Myanmar, Bhutan, Afghanistan & Bangladesh can invest in India only via the Government route. This means that they must get approved by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) or the government of India before investing in India. This regulation is applicable even if the beneficial owner of the investment is located in or is a citizen of any of these nations.

Particularly, the entity/citizen of Pakistan cannot invest in the sectors of defence, space, atomic energy as well as the FDI prohibited sectors.

 

Understand the Duties and Liabilities of The Director

According to the Companies Act, 2013 of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India, a foreign national can be appointed as a Director of an Indian company. But the person must comply with the below-mentioned criteria:

  • The person must obtain Director Identification Number (DIN) prior to getting appointed as a director of an Indian company.
  • The person must furnish DIN & pronounce that he is ‘not disqualified’ from becoming a Director in acquiescence to this act.
  • The person must present his written consent to undertake as director in the Form DIR-2, which must be registered in 30 days from the date of his appointment.
  • The director is responsible for fulfilling the duties of Directors as well as statutory liabilities listed out by the Companies Act, 2013. In the instances of misconduct by the director, fines & penalties can be imposed.

 

Make Certain That the IP is Protected

In India, IP ownership differs under varied IP laws. If the IP is not validly assigned by the company then it is by default owned by the employee or the contractor. Hence, for a business whose value essentially depends on its patents & intangible assets, it must make certain that the IP is validly assigned as well as owned by the company. To validly assign the IP, a deed with stamp duty paid is mandatory.

Set Expectations Accordingly

Investing in any sector in India involves a regular compliance filing with the Reserve Bank of India. It is obligatory even if no approval is needed for the transaction. Hence it is usually a time-consuming process. Even if the negotiation & signing of the main transaction documents can be accomplished very promptly, the procedures for closing such as receiving the shares certificate, getting appointed to the BOD, tax identification information, etc. are usually slow-moving.

Be Aware of The Pricing Guidelines

Because India is an economy with exchange controls, the RBI (Reserve Bank of India) proposes the pricing guidelines for the Non-Residents for acquiring the capital instruments of Indian companies. For instance, the price of the capital instruments of an Indian company that is listed on the recognized stock exchange of India should not be less than the pricing in conformity to the pertinent guidelines of SEBI. If it is not listed on the recognized stock exchange of India, then the price of the capital instrument of the Indian company should not be less than the fair valuation of capital instruments made by a SEBI registered merchant banker or a chartered accountant.

PCPB is all about prosperities. We would like to invite you for a FREE videoconference by our experts. Let our experts reveal to you PCPB’s 9 powerful components focused on vigorous growth and success of your business. So, why wait? Book your date now!

Book Appointment

To get further information & to know how Dhunicorn can help your company achieve all-round success, Contact us at inquiries@dhunicorn.com.

Arti Mudaliar 0 Comments