Horlicks, which has been around for 138 years, became part of Glaxo’s portfolio when the drug giant merged with SmithKline in 2000. The product is made with malted barley and buffalo milk (which is richer than cow’s milk and more readily available in parts of India) and marketed mainly for children. In recent years, Glaxo’s India unit has moved to capitalize on the nutritional image of Horlicks through an array of brand extensions, including breakfast cereals, biscuits, and a beverage called Mother’s Horlicks that is formulated for pregnant women.

In 2010, Horlicks sold almost twice as much in India as Coca-Cola’s (KO) popular Thums Up soda and last year brought in 50 percent more revenue than Tata Global Beverages’ Tata Tea, according to Euromonitor International. High malnutrition rates among India’s large population of children will continue to drive sales of nutrition-related product

Obviously, we all are happy to see Horlicks beating Pepsi and Coke. It is good for the Indian consumers who are (kids)health conscious compared to other countries which thrive on soda drinks. At the same time, it alarming to see that Indian kids nowadays depend on nutritional drinks instead of nutritional foods. Many blame the countries high inflation due to declining in Agriculture production. You can find all sorts of excuses but getting a nutritional food should be key for any household and nutritional drink should only be used to supplement the gap.

India needs to upgrade its 4.2 million kilometers (2.6 million miles) of roads, close the gap between the power its utilities sell and what its manufacturers need, and ease congestion at ports. Its failure to do so is hobbling the central bank’s efforts to beat inflation. Even after the bank raised interest rates by a record 375 basis points in 1½ years, wholesale prices have risen more than 9 percent on an annual basis for 12 straight months. Although food prices have dropped some, the bank says supply bottlenecks that also push up costs must still be tackled.

“India has allowed a large number of cars without creating enough roads; a large number of industries without enough power to run them,” says Sunil Sikka, president of Havells India (HAVL:IN), the nation’s second-largest electrical components maker by value. “It’s like trying to wear shoes without socks—very, very irritating and difficult.” Sikka says Havells must pay higher packaging costs to protect lamps and switchgears from bumpy roads, where average speeds are 20 kilometers per hour (12 mph). JC Bamford, whose excavators sell in 150 countries, needs at least nine days to move equipment 2,900 kilometers from New Delhi to Trivandrum in southern India, says Vipin Sondhi, the local unit’s chief executive officer. In the U.S., that would take four days.

While RBI is trying different ways to keep the inflation on check, Indian government is also planning to built and improve few thousands kilometers of roads this year. We can only hope the infrastructure gets better to help ease the burden.

It is in the Indian culture and ethos that we look to leave a fortune to our future generations, even if it meant sacrificing a bit of our lifestyle. The simplest way that you can achieve this fortune is by buying shares of good companies (of course at the right price) or units of good diversified mutual funds and leaving it undisturbed for decades, possibly away from your and your family members’ view. You can rest assured that they would come handy to your loved ones at times that are good or bad.

Interesting post with different outlook. I strongly recommend to read his full post at moneycaresolutions.in and post your positive comments.

Source: siliconIndia.com

• On paper – mathematically – Indian poverty should disappear by 2050. The reason it won’t is that huge inequalities in income will persist unless we rapidly implement second-generation economic reforms which deliver real benefits to the bottom of India’s socio-economic pyramid
• The Citi study relies heavily on India’s two dividends – demographic and democratic. The demographic dividend will ensure that India has the largest number of working-age people in the world (over 800 million) between 2015 and 2035 before tapering off as our population reaches a plateau of just over 1.60 billion and starts ageing (as China’s already is).
• The second dividend Citi banks on to project India’s rise to the top of the GDP rankings in 2050 – especially in comparison with China – is democracy. China’s autocratic government, the argument goes, can command 10% GDP growth, build superhighways and create gleaming infrastructure.

To reach $85.97 trillion in 2050, the Indian economy will have to grow at an average annual rate of 8.1% a year for the next 39 years. Optimistic or over optimistic? Now, we totaly forgot about the 2020 Super power dream put forth by our past president Abdul Kalam and started thinking about No.1 in 2050. I would say it is really too far out and too many things can happen especially natural calamaties which are taking place in all over world can totally put a country to devastating state like Japan, Thailand.

We can only hope mother nature would be good on us and focus on country near future growth and issues and tackle them to take the country in right path without corruption, total education reform and entreprenuership route. Here is the link to the full article, have fun reading it.