As its first activity, the IACC is planning to represent India's franchising interest at the forthcoming International Franchise Expo at Washington during April this year. A 20 member delegation will be recruited for the purpose.

Other immediate activities planned by the association include a six-city exposition in Julyin India and a franchising trade fair in January 2000.

According toCadbury Schweppes managing director Ashok Jain, who is one of the members of the SPI, statistics show that a new franchise opens every 20 minutes, around the globe. His contention, therefore, is that franchising is a high growth business activity which has tremendous potential for entrepreneurs.

Statistics, in fact, show that while 80 per cent of franchisees succeeded in the first five years of being in business, more than 80 per cent of small independent businesses failed during the same period in the US. The argument, according to Jain, is not for the sake of statistics alone, but for the fact that franchising as a business format lives better than an independent small enterprise business format.

Franchising in India has increased significantly with the entry of many multinational companies like McDonald's, Nike, Coca-Cola and Benetton and with some Indian companies like Titan, Bata, Aptech and Hindustan Petroleum also using this option extensively. The IACC is planning to build in a quantum leap inthis activity through the newly formed association.According to Pal, the objective of the SPI will be to tap the vast potential of entrepreneurial abilities available in India by promoting increasing numbers of Indo-US partnerships in the area of franchising.