Over a century ago, Sir Frederick Upcott, the British colonial administrator in India, had scoffed: “Do you mean to say that Tatas propose to make steel rails to British specifications? Why, I will undertake to eat every pound of steel rail they succeed in making.” Tatas not only started making steel soon after, they went on to acquire the Anglo Dutch Corus Steel in a $13 billion deal. "Upcott would have suffered slight indigestion...," says a historic account of the house of Tatas.
We have seen lots of Indian journalists brag about the Indian economic emergence. However, for the first time in my lifetime - and I am happy to be there - the tide seems to be turning in favour of India in the Western media.
The 31st July 2009 edition of Financial Times has a news report by Joseph Leahy on Tata's trouble with Jaguar-Land Rover, with a side piece titled "East Steel Sir Frederick...", all praise for the Indian acquisitions of storied English assets.
It recounts the Hinduja owned Ashok Leyland of the former British Leyland, Tata's Tetley Tea, Eicher Motors' Royal Enfield - the world’s oldest motorcycle company, originating in the English Midlands in the 1800s, Hindustan Motors' Ambassador car, ex-Morris Oxford and again the Tata owned Corus Steel. By no means this is an exhaustive list.
"The colonised has become coloniser — at least when it comes to manufacturing," says
Leahy, and adds, "But the company with the biggest taste for all things British is the Tata group, the 151-year-old company that has become India’s biggest diversified conglomerate. Its association with the UK began more than 100 years ago, when it set up a branch office in London."
“The growth in mature markets will not match what’s happening in India. There will be huge demand over the next 10-15 years,” Leahy quotes Abdul Majeed of PwC in Madras, India’s southern automotive hub. “If you look at the competition, whether it’s BMW or Mercedes or Porsche or Audi or Volvo, everyone is trying to make sure they get their act together in India,” says Majeed.
I reckon Leahy is a strawberries and cream eating tennis fan, because he forgot about the Indian predominance of cricket, a sport of English ancestry, as well as about the bhangra playing in the English pubs and the goras eating tandoori chicken and curry in the UK restaurants - of course with swigs of 'made to the Indian specifications' Cobra beer.
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