After five years of conducting our annual Bhoomi Brands Awards, the one point that stands out very clearly is that when it comes to IT hardware it’s not cool to be an Indian. India might be the fastest growing IT market in the world, it might have the highest PC adoption rate, and it might be a market that everybody wants a piece of. But for those who have strived to set up their shops here being an Indian has bought them more disadvantages than advantages.
Domestic IT manufacturers have had to pay more in terms of excise, even at a time when India was the first country to implement the zero custom duty on IT goods. Inter-state movement of goods posed its own set of challenges, due to the changing duty structure. And if the taxes didn’t put the manufacturers into the red, then the market definitely did. Even today, 70 percent of the world’s fastest growing IT market – aka India – is buying foreign-owned IT brands.
And that is why 360 Magazine takes great pride in bringing to you its annual Bhoomi Brands Awards. For, these brands have not just made a mark in a market indifferent to its presence, but, in most cases, have even gone on to develop a global brand presence. For us it’s a matter of national pride to be able to provide indigenous brands a platform to celebrate their success.
Most of these brands have had very simple beginnings, just like their famous MNC counterparts, but while most of us know that HP started in a garage, very few of us know how TVS-E developed its first printer or how many versions it took for Tally Solutions to finally get the bug-proof version of its software.
What we do know is that there was a dream and somebody was brave enough to follow that one.
360 Magazine Bhoomi Brand Awards 2006 celebrates the achievement of this dream.