It is that time of the year, time to start looking back. This year is quite special because we are also looking at the first decade of the 21st century. Everyone is going to talk about how India is rising as a superpower and the country?s various achievements. It is the decade of the Nano. It is the decade when the Tata group stunned the world with its acquisitions. It is the decade of the global meltdown, stimulus packages, recovery, the Copenhagen Conference and so on. It has been an action-packed decade.
It is also the decade when the South of the Vindhyas shed its conservative, sleepy, growth-averse image and found success on many fronts. The dormant entrepreneurial spirit of the region asserted itself. It is well known that the South is a major contributor in the IT and BPO sector. What may not be known is that Chennai is the e-publishing hub of India, with more than 60 companies in the business. A few other examples will show the kind of quiet changes and the growth that have taken place in the South.
The biggest story of the decade in the country is the telecom revolution. No industry has seen such an explosive growth like this before. One of those who sensed an opportunity in mobile phones is D Satish Babu who set up UniverCell, a mobile phone showroom in Chennai in 2000. He started life as a door-to-door salesman of vacuum cleaners. Today, Babu is a success story and his UniverCell has grown to be the largest mobile phone retailer and among the better known brands in India. UniverCell?s customer base stands at three million, with 1,00,000 people buying handsets from its stores every month. Babu plans to open 700 stores across the country in the next two years. Each outlet will have an investment of Rs 28 lakh. Another interesting fact: Chennai has the largest mobile penetration in the country, more than even Mumbai. At last count, mobile usage in the city was 110%!
UniverCell is just one example of the retail innovations taking place in the South. Retail is booming, with traditional traders and shop owners setting up modern showrooms in multiple locations. Traditional vegetable shops have become chain stores and undergone huge makeovers.
Take the case of 30-something Murugavel Janakiraman, who is founder & CEO of Consim Info, formerly known as BharatMatrimony, a first generation entrepreneur who has set up the largest matrimonial portal in the country, with lakhs of registered users. It is not a free site. Murugavel is the first member of his family to go to college. He knew that he had to do something on his own, but did not know what. Murugavel says that his world opened up when he did his masters in computers from Madras University. He discovered a flair for programming. This led to a job in Singapore in 1994. He moved to the US in 1997, where he set up a Web site for the Tamil community. There was no revenue in this. But he noticed how many hits the matrimonial services got. This triggered the idea of setting up a matrimonial portal based on a revenue model. He returned to India in 1999, launched TamilMatrimony from a small apartment in Chennai with three employees. He realised that most Indian families no longer wanted to operate with limited choices. TamilMatrimony became inclusive of all languages, communities and became BharatMatrimony. Murugavel has also launched Elite.com for the rich. If the wealthy want to meet other wealthy prospects, they have to cough up Rs 1 lakh to register! ?The rich also need help,? he says.
Murugavel has grown rapidly and has set up a real estate portal and a jobs portal and will be taking his company public soon. Both Satish Babu and Murugavel have got VC funding, another 21st century phenomenon.
Then there is Sun TV, the low-key regional broadcasting moghul. When the media industry nationally and internationally was reeling under the downturn, Kalanithi Maran?s Sun TV Network with diverse operations?from broadcasting to cable distribution, DTH and radio?showed a healthy revenue growth of 17% for FY2009, touching Rs 1,008 crore, and a net profit growth of 19% at Rs 437 crore.
Although its DTH operations are yet to show a profit, subscription numbers are growing rapidly. Sun has 20 satellite television channels and 46 FM stations. It has gone ahead of Subhash Chandra?s Zee TV as India?s most valuable media company. Most of Sun?s phenomenal growth has come in the last decade, with broadcasting laws becoming more liberal. Critics attribute Maran?s success to his political connections. Which is unfair. He has moved forward and grown even when opposition parties were in power and when he briefly fell out with his grand uncle, Tamil Nadu?s chief minister M Karunanidhi.
Today, Maran is toying with the idea of entering the aviation industry. Another southern success story is the man who introduced no-frills low-cost flights to the country, captain GR Gopinath. His Bangalore-based Deccan Airways changed the rules of the aviation industry.
Another fast-growing industry is microcredit, which again took roots in the South first. About 70% of the country?s microcredit institutions exist in the South.
Chennai was known as the Detroit of India. It finally lived up to that reputation with a whole lot of international carmakers setting up shop, with Nissan being the latest entrant. Hyundai and Ford also use Chennai as their export hub. Tyre manufacturers Michelin and Apollo Tyres are investing in the state. The Southern states, especially Tamil Nadu, which feared invasion from the North and foreigners, have become most investor-friendly now. So much so that electronics manufacturing is a growing industry in Tamil Nadu, with many major global telecommunications giants like Nokia, Flextronics, Motorola, Sony-Ericsson, Foxconn, Samsung, Cisco, Moser Baer and Dell having chosen Chennai as their South Asian manufacturing hub.
Will the South continue to maintain its growth momentum? Some dark clouds are gathering with the Telangana movement destabilising the Andhra Government, and the Karnataka chief minister Yeddiyurappa caving in to the mining lobby. Hopefully business would triumph over politics.