The Rediff Interview/Rafat Ali: “The numbers are beginning to favour India”

Rediff.com has a two-part interview with our own Rafat Ali, where he talks about India, China, technology and communications. Here is the part one of Ali’s conversation with Rediff. The second part will come out Monday.
On investment in telecom and communications sector in India: “The returns for the telecom companies have been huge in India — it is purely a matter of scale. If you think you’re going for a niche, forget it. Niches in India don’t yet make money. It has to be a mass-market game. The key areas are very basic: agriculture, weather (subset of agriculture), medical/health, education, roads, real estate/construction and other basic necessities like water. That’s where technology and access to information (through communications) will help a lot. That’s what investors need to look at.
But there is a reality check here too: These are not short-term investments. At least five years at the minimum for the returns to start coming. But the absolute dollar values of these investments are small, compared to, say, other Western countries.
So, hopefully some of these investors will take a hedged-risk.”

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