India’s Foremost Trade & Investment Magazine INDIA GL BAL BUSINESS Global Edition The Big China Hack 13 38 16 INTERVIEW HOTSPOT GUEST COLUMN Striking a direct chord with real-time, Indian businesses of any size can Investing in the capital-starved personalised online content succeed in the US sectors of India Umang Bedi & Virendra Gupta Brian Lenihan Holger Rothenbusch President & Founder-CEO, Dailyhunt Acting Executive Director, SelectUSA Managing Director, CDC Group October 2018 £4.95 www.indiaincgroup.com ISSN 2516-3930 Creating lasting change in India through diaspora-giving The British Asian Trust works with business to tackle poverty and build brighter futures The British Asian Trust thinks differently By combining innovative finance with diaspora giving and traditional philanthropy, we are committed to achieving maximum social impact to help reduce poverty in India. Our work is geared towards education, anti-trafficking, livelihoods, disability and mental health, with an emphasis on children, young people and women. ‘Doing good’ can go hand-in-hand with a strong business imperative. We support powerful cross sector partnerships and investment in local communities by measuring outcomes, which makes our investors confident that we can deliver results at scale. Help us make a lasting difference For more information please contact: [email protected] and visit www.britishasiantrust.org The British Asian Trust is a UK Registered Charity (1127366) csr advert diaspora giving.indd 1 17/08/2018 14:07 FROM THE TOP Tackling the Dragon in India’s cyber rooms recently read a very disturbing piece in ‘The Times’ The question there is whether India is prepared to handle (London) about Russia allegedly “targeting British a concerted and determined attack on its social fabric via teenagers as part of a cover campaign to sow discord social media? My concern increases many folds when I Iamong young westerners”. read about the opaque dividing line between the Chinese Communist Party, the country’s government and its The report cites the example of the Kremlin allegedly big businesses. using fake celebrity posts to spread Russian propaganda with the intention of creating confusion about, among The Chinese security establishment’s tentacles run other things, the Salisbury poisoning. These tweets were deep into the country’s business houses, which are retweeted hundreds of thousands of times, spreading widely rumoured to further Beijing security and the fake news far and wide, the report said. That set strategic objectives. me thinking. Dubious intentions? Information control Nothing that I know, have read or have Chinese mobile phone companies JUST AS RUSSIA discussed with experts convinces me dominate the Indian market and its that China’s intentions towards India HAS UNLEASHED internet giants are buying-in big time are benign. Large Chinese companies into Indian start-ups in a variety of A DISINFORMATION such as Alibaba, Tencent, Xiaomi verticals, including social media. CAMPAIGN IN THE WEST and Oppo, which have become big TO FURTHER ITS OWN players in the Indian internet and Now, setting political correctness STRATEGIC GOALS, IT IS mobile telephony space can, thus, aside, I wondered if China could, if it QUITE PLAUSIBLE FOR wield, albeit unobtrusively so far, chose to, spread similar disinformation BEIJING TO DO THE SAME disproportionate influence over the in India. It is no secret that he who Indian mind-space. controls the flow of information wields IN INDIA AT A TIME OF ITS the most influence. CHOOSING. Just as Russia has unleashed a disinformation campaign in the West That is why totalitarian regimes to further its own strategic goals, it is around the world spend billions of dollars and have large quite plausible for Beijing to do the same in India at a time bureaucracies dedicated to spread official propaganda at of its choosing. home and disinformation abroad. In my view, it’s high time that effective measures to control Most strategic experts agree that India is China’s long- the possibility of a fallout of such a campaign, but as New term rival and that Beijing is doing everything in its power Delhi’s, and the world’s, struggles with Facebook and to ensure that India is denied its rightful place at the global WhatsApp show, it will be easier said than done. Hence high table. in addition to regulation, Indian business must step up their game through technology, and their own strategic Free run fears investments in indigenous platforms and striking friendly Despite my long-held belief in India’s systematic economic global alliances. liberalisation and opening to global competition, I question the prudence of allowing a free run in India’s buoyant There are too many points of potential conflict between the social media space. two countries; so, India can afford to treat this lightly only at great peril to itself, and indeed, its friends. The country has many fault lines that run across divides of religious, caste, regional, financial and social. These are regrettably exploited by groups sworn to destabilise India, Manoj Ladwa and much more easily these days through the explosion in Publisher & CEO, India Inc. social media usage. @manojladwa www.indiaincgroup.com October 2018 3 CONTENTS The Global Edition of 'India Global Edition' this time tackles the conundrum of Chinese investments into the Indian technology sector and the kind of balancing act that is required to ensure cyber security worldwide. A range of interviews and analyses delve into some of the other topics dominating the news in recent weeks. COVER STORY 8 16 Guest Column: Investing in the capital-starved sectors of India Holger Rothenbusch, Managing Director, CDC Group COUNTRY FOCUS Dragon’s kiss: Chinese investments in Indian start-ups can compromise data security by India Inc. Staff 20 India-EU trade relations: At a crossroads by India Inc. Staff FROM THE TOP 23 Lack of political will to conclude an India-EU free trade 3 Tackling the Dragon in agreement India’s cyber rooms Interview with Geoffrey Van Orden, by Manoj Ladwa, Britain’s Member of the European Founder & CEO, India Inc. Parliament for East of England Interview SECTOR FOCUS 26 India’s e-mobility challenge: Mass adoption will take at least another decade by India Inc. Staff 13 Striking a direct chord with real-time, personalised online content by Umang Bedi & Virendra Gupta, President & Founder-CEO, Dailyhunt 4 October 2018 REGION FOCUS 44 Beyond the Headlines: The India-US tango by Harsh V. Pant, Professor, International Relations, King's College London SOCIAL IMPACT FOCUS 46 Harnessing the true 31 Uttarakhand: An important investment power of corporate destination partnerships by India Inc. Staff Hitan Mehta, Executive Director, British Asian Trust Analysis 48 Special Report: Howzat! India takes cricket global by India Inc. Staff 36 Tough-talking India takes centre-stage by India Inc. Staff HOTSPOT 50 Last Word: Modi’s actions speak louder than fake bluster on ‘crony capitalism’ Published by Incorporating 38 Indian businesses of any size can succeed in the US www.indiaincgroup.com by Brian Lenihan, Executive Director, SelectUSA © India Inc. Limited, all rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without our written permission is prohibited. Views expressed INDIANS IN FOCUS by our contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views, policies of India Inc. While every effort is made to achieve total 41 Why trust is key accuracy India Inc. cannot be held responsible for to business in India: any errors or omissions. Lessons from Adam Editorial Smith to Jack Ma [email protected] Tarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo Advertising & Sponsorship Lemann Professor at PRICE £4.95 [email protected] PUBLISHED IN LONDON Harvard Business School www.indiaincgroup.com October 2018 5 The Big China Hack hina has invested to the tune to $9.2 billion if one considers the warned that India should closely of $10 billion in Indian start- period since 2014. monitor the flow of funds from China ups since 2014. This can into Indian companies and especially Cgive it access to data on hundreds Most top of the line Indian internet- the start-up eco-system. of millions of Indian consumers based start-ups like PayTM, Flipkart, and enable it to nudge the public Zomato, Ola and Gaana, among The ability and willingness of Chinese discourse in a direction it desires several others, have significant investors to write out large cheques and could acquire a critical strategic Chinese shareholding. while asking fewer questions than dimension in the years ahead. their US and European counterparts hough the Indian government has are the main reasons for their Chinese internet giants such as not taken any steps to stem this widespread penetration into the Alibaba, Tencent, Fosun and Baidu flow of Chinese funds into Indian Indian start-up and tech sector. But poured in as much as $5.2 billion start-ups – some officials have, in the real payoff they are looking for in Indian tech, especially internet- fact, actually welcomed it – several may be one to watch out for. centred start-ups last year, almost analysts and some Indian investors five-and-a-half times the figure of have expressed their apprehensions, Read on for a more detailed analysis $930 million in 2016. The figure jumps especially on data security, and of this conundrum. COVER STORY Dragon’s kiss: Chinese investments in Indian start-ups can compromise data security by India Inc. Staff ndia and China may not see eye Gaana, among several others, have to eye on many things – especially significant Chinese shareholding. China has invested after the eyeball to eyeball Iconfrontation at Doklam near the Concerns over data security almost $10 billion in India-Bhutan-China tri-junction – but Though the Indian government has Indian start-ups since that has not stopped Chinese tech not taken any steps to stem this companies from investing in India, flow of Chinese funds into Indian 2014.