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    Wherever people want to relocate businesses, we could work with them: Harsh Pati Singhania

    Synopsis

    “Hopefully India will be able to deal with inflation without having to resort to as sharp an increase in rates as is happening in certain western countries. The scale of the Indian market is huge. The domestic market holds us in better shape than many others and Europe is very badly affected in many ways. The US also has its own issues although they are relatively better off.”

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    “India is one of the major countries which are starting to be recipients of relocation of manufacturing because supply chains from China have been disrupted. We are also looking at opportunities and wherever people want to relocate businesses, we could work with them and we have been working on things,” says Harsh Pati Singhania, MD, JK Paper.

    On Finance Minister’s comments on barriers to free trade
    In today’s environment, since supply chains are disrupted, there have been a lot of geopolitical issues. Today unfortunately the world has been turning inwards and therefore there have been many protectionist measures taken by various countries and economies or blocks which are against the spirit of free trade. The Finance Minister referred to it in a very specific context. She referred to it in the context of having tariff barriers or walls being put up in the name of climate change. If somebody is exporting, countries have the prerogative to put tariffs or cesses saying that this is not clean, this is dirty.

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    Now these obviously are other ways of putting tariff barriers and these are some things which have to be dealt with and I think the Finance Minister was saying that Indian industry should be talking to government and working out how to tackle some of these things but trade has to be free and open globally as that will only allow movement of goods and services.

    While the world is looking at China plus one strategy, they are searching for options for manufacturing. Are there any plans to increase the manufacturing or the supply from India?
    India is one of the major countries which are starting to be recipients of relocation of manufacturing because supply chains from China have been disrupted and because China was so much entrenched in the supply chain everybody wants an alternative and therefore Asian countries and India in particular come in as manufacturing destination.

    We are also looking at opportunities wherever people want to relocate businesses, we could work with them and we have been working on things but I cannot say too much about it at this point.

    Amongst the global headwinds that we are already facing, how do you see the demand outlook going ahead for your business?
    It depends on the kinds of businesses you are in now businesses in India have also been affected by high energy prices, high commodity prices which went up of course some of them have started cooling down and in some cases they have been the end product prices have been passed on in some cases, they have not been passed on adequately.

    It is a very different situation but we still have to wait and watch because we are looking at a scenario overall globally of high inflation and a very sharp monetary tightening that is happening by not just the Federal Reserve of the US but by all the central banks globally, including in India. This will lead to a sharp fall in consumption and the effects may not be seen now, but it is very sector specific.

    India is trying to work on a moderative stance and hopefully we will be able to deal with inflation without having to resort to as sharp an increase in rates as is happening in certain western countries. The other thing is that we are a very large market and the scale of the Indian market is huge. It is the domestic market which holds us in better shape than many others and Europe is very badly affected in many ways. The US also has its own issues although they are relatively better off.



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    (What's moving Sensex and Nifty Track latest market news, stock tips and expert advice, on ETMarkets. Also, ETMarkets.com is now on Telegram. For fastest news alerts on financial markets, investment strategies and stocks alerts, subscribe to our Telegram feeds .)

    Download The Economic Times News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.

    Subscribe to The Economic Times Prime and read the Economic Times ePaper Online.and Sensex Today.

    Top Trending Stocks: SBI Share Price, Axis Bank Share Price, HDFC Bank Share Price, Infosys Share Price, Wipro Share Price, NTPC Share Price

    ...more
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