Trakin' the india business buzz

5 Top-Selling Indian Novels of all time!

Kaushambi — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:19:00 +0000

India has produced many revered and highly acclaimed English fiction and novel writers who have garnered prestigious literary awards such as the Pulitzer and the Booker Prize, in the last few decades. Although English has been passed over in India as a colonial tradition, the novels written in English have been deeply expressive, rich and culturally embedded. Check out some of the top selling Indian novels you’ll love reading:

The God of Small Things

by Arundhati Roy

Roy’s Magnum Opus won the Booker Prize award in 1997 and till date stands as one of the most celebrated Indian novels on both the national and international literary platforms. The story is set in Kerala and revolves around the lives of two children Rahel and Esthepa and how they weave and imagine their childhood experiences while constantly trying to cope up with their highly dysfunctional family. It narrates a poignant tale about love, betrayal and kinship ties. Roy’s political propensities too are vividly fleshed out through this text as the novel deals with questions of caste, class and discrimination.

[Buy Now]

Shadow Lines

by Amitav Ghosh

Written in 1988 by the Padma Shree Award winning Indian writer Amitav Ghosh, Shadow Lines is an invigorating story about the borders that mark and limit our imaginations and memories. The story essentially revolves around the narrator who is trying to consistently juggle through memories and events from past and present in hopes of finding closures and answers to his life. Written in a non-linear manner, there are consistent references to major historical events such as the Swadeshi movement, the Second World War, the Partition of India and the Communal riots of the 60s in Dhaka and Kolkata. As you can expect, this book won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1989.

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Fasting, Feasting

by Anita Desai

Fasting, Feasting was shortlisted for the Booker Prize award in 1999. It is a story which reveals the deeply entrenched patriarchal family system of India. Set in a small town, it narrates the life of Uma, a grey haired spinster who feels smothered and imprisoned by her parents. The novel seeks to show how daughters in Indian families are always burdened with many responsibilities and eventually are forced to sacrifice their own aspirations and dreams in this process. It is an endearing novel which seeks to open a conversation between family values, cultural norms and individual aspirations.

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A Suitable Boy

by Vikram Seth

Published in 1993, A Suitable Boy went on to win the Commonwealth Writer’s Prize Award the following year. A thick heavy bound book with around one thousand four hundred pages, it is one of the longest Indian novels ever to be published. The story is about a mother who is in search of a suitable boy for her daughter’s marriage. Set in post-independence India, the novel constantly engages with the events and the anxieties which shaped the nation building processes immediately after the independence and the partition. It is an engaging epic about romance, love, politics and families. Be ready to read this familial saga over a few months!

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Train to Pakistan

by Khushwant Singh

This historical novel narrates the events that marked the partition of India in 1947. It revolves around the people of a village which geographically lies on the border of India and Pakistan. Through his character development and storytelling skills, Singh implores the readers to incorporate a more humanitarian world view. It is a haunting narrative about conflict, war and violence and seeks to formulate a social understanding of such communal situations without taking any sides or making any sensational political commentary.

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Indian novels, as this list suggests, offer a wide and an extensive array of options. Along with the powerful political and cultural engagement, these novels ensure a riveting experience to readers.

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Developers offered Free Blackberry Playbook to convert Android Apps to BB apps!

Arun Prabhudesai — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 05:47:27 +0000

Here is a golden chance for Indian mobile developers to lap up a shiny new 16 GB BlackBerry PlayBook Tablet. We are slightly late in reporting this as there are only 4 more days to go, but I guess it is still worth all the effort!

Alec Saunders, Blackberry’s Vice President of Developer Relations made the announcement about this initiative a few days back on Twitter.

To qualify, developers have to simply repackage an Android APK into a PlayBook BAR (Blackberry App) and submit it to Blackberry App world. The submission of the repackaged app should be done by February 13th for it to be eligible for the offer. Also, applications need to meet the standard BlackBerry App World Vendor Guidelines. Its that simple!

Some important things that developers will have to keep in mind:

Developers will have to remove all mention of the word Android from their app, in the application description and in the app itself, before submitting your app to BlackBerry App World
Developers will Remove all links to the Android Market from within the submitted app.
The app should be built with minimum of OS 2.0 compatibility.
Ensure your app is signed. Learn about code signing.

Check out the FAQS, Terms & conditions and other details about “Free BlackBerry PlayBook 2012 offer!”

Flipkart’s Letsbuy Acquisition – Consolidation in Indian Ecommerce Begins! [PR Update]

Arun Prabhudesai — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 03:40:16 +0000

Now, if this news is true, it may probably be a game-changer for fast growing Indian E-Commerce space. Last night, Medianama reported that Flipkart will soon be announcing acquisition of Letsbuy.com. Although, there is no official word or confirmation on this acquisition, the news has a good chance of being true.

Flipkart recently closed USD 150 million dollar funding, and are currently flush with funds to make such acquisitions. However, I am a little surprised that they have gone after similar multi-brand space acquisition in which they themselves are in.

Flipkart.com is clearly the leader currently in multi-brand online retail space, while Infibeam, Letsbuy, Homeshop18 and Indiaplaza all have very similar traffic from India as you can see from the Alexa traffic ranking given below.

Although, Amazon’s entry in India should not be much of worry to Flipkart in its current form, this acquisition points to one fact that they want to be far ahead in the game by the Amazon make a full fledged entry with their own multi-brand retail products.

Medianama also points that Letsbuy’s valuation is roughly in USD 20 to 25 million region and is expected to be part cash, part equity deal.

We will update when we get some more details of this deal!

Update 5:00pm, 9th Feb 2012: Following is the official Press Release sent to us:

Flipkart Acquires Letsbuy

Consolidates leadership in online Consumer Electronics space

Bangalore. February 9, 2012: Flipkart.com, India’s largest e-commerce player in physical products has acquired Letsbuy, the second largest retailer in electronics. With this move, Flipkart has firmly established itself as the leader in the consumer electronic space. This deal will also allow for a faster rate of expansion for both companies – giving the combined entity a much larger share in the consumer electronics market.

The acquisition is a combination of cash and equity. The founders of Letsbuy along with their 350+ team will continue to function independently, with the added advantage of now being able to access Flipkart’s superior technology platform and supply chain capabilities.

Speaking about the acquisition, Flipkart’s co-founder and CEO Sachin Bansal said, “This acquisition fits into our strategy of building dominant shares in all categories we operate in. We are already leaders in the books and media verticals. Given that we managed to build a leadership position in consumer electronics as well since its launch in early 2011, it made sense for us to consolidate when we saw this opportunity. This acquisition opportunity came at a very attractive price for us and the timing has also been ideal. The synergies will now allow us to accelerate faster and get to a share similar to what we enjoy in the online books category”.

Letsbuy.com founder & CEO Hitesh Dhingra said "Letsbuy.com has experienced a phenomenal growth in the last one year and holds a dominant position in e-commerce industry in India. We believe that our expertise in 3Cs* category matched with Flipkart’s superior technology and supply chain could be a killer combination. The Company had a choice to raise a large round of funding as well, however aligning our business with the largest player in the market made sense as the resultant synergies will guarantee our customers the best possible service, price and selection. ”

While the finer details on mutual synergies are being worked out by both teams at present, the move has been welcomed by investors of both firms. Helion, the lead investor in Letsbuy.com has said it believes that the combined strength of the two leading players is formidable and will be able to deliver a stronger value proposition to customers.

5 things that great brands do!

Kaushambi — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:47:27 +0000

What do you think makes great brands so powerful, long lasting and unique even when they’re not selling products and services that are radically different from one another? Have they really got their fundamentals strong or are they simply relying on smart advertising? Let’s check out what great brands really do and how they make that bang-on impression in customers’ psyche.

A great brand makes a long lasting emotional connect

Many experts say that customers purchase emotionally, which is largely true, especially in India, where advertising and branding is so emotionally driven. Do you remember the "Kuch Meetha Ho Jaaye" campaign by Cadbury, the Vodafone campaign with the pug or the Zoozoos and the Surf Excel campaign with "Dho Daala"? Why do these brands use an emotional pitch? Because they know that two washing powders or bars of chocolate can’t be much different from each other after a certain point. In the Indian context, substituting "meetha" with chocolate and "thanda" with Coca-Cola means going straight into the heart of the average local consumer.

A great brand is backed by great products and services

Great Indian brands like Raymonds, Asian Paints, ICIC Bank, Bajaj, Tata, Dabur, Naukri.com, Infosys etc. didn’t become great overnight. There are thousands of product and service providers who come into the market every single day but are unable to float their brand. That’s because great brands need time, patience and constant re-invention. The biggest mistake that most brands make is to be purely aspirational and cool, without maintaining substance, innovation and quality in their products and services.

A great brand elevates just about anything

If you thought that just because you manufacture bolts sold only to industries, you don’t need to have a great brand, then you are completely wrong. Whether you produce shoes, tea, pliers or travel services, you must give priority to branding opportunities and strategies, no matter how small your business is. Great branding can make just about any product or service so powerful that customers may recommend it without even realizing that they are actually doing so.

A great brand always has a story to tell

Every brand works on an association and a story. For instance, people associate innovation with Apple, Reliance with growth, Pantaloons with family shopping, Hindustan Unilever with quality, ICICI Bank with reliability and more recently speed with Flipkart.com etc. Over a few years, great brands build up stories around their existence to increase their connect with customers. This mythological build up can exponentially increase the recall value of a brand in the customer’s mind.

Great Brands are consistent

Apart from maintaining consistency in providing good products and service, great brands also try to keep the same color palette, design rules and visual appeal wherever they go. It’s orange for Barista coffee chains, red for Vodafone, the distinctly recognizable ‘Oooh la la la’ jingle for Kingfisher and the Amul butter girl as Amul’s mascot form decades. Whatever the visual representation may be, a great brand can be recognized without uttering a single word about it.

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Smartphone Market grows 61% in 2011 [Market Share Stats]

guest — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:12:54 +0000

IDC recently released stats on Worldwide Smartphone market and its growth has beaten analysts expectations as well. According to the the IDC’s Worldwide Mobile Phone Tracker, Smartphone manufacturers shipped 157.8 million units in 4Q11 compared to 102.0 million units in the fourth quarter of 2010. The YoY growth of 54.7% was higher than the 49.2% growth registered in 3Q11.

Top Five Worldwide Smartphone Vendors Market in 2011

Vendor	FY 2011 Shipment Volumes	FY 2011 Market Share	FY 2010 Shipment Volumes	FY 2010 Market Share	Year Over Year Change
Samsung	94.0	19.1%	22.9	7.5%	310.5%
Apple	93.2	19.0%	47.5	15.6%	96.2%
Nokia	77.3	15.7%	100.1	32.9%	-22.8%
Research In Motion	51.1	10.4%	48.8	16.0%	4.7%
HTC	43.5	8.9%	21.7	7.1%	100.5%
Others	132.3	26.9%	63.7	20.9%	107.7%
Total	491.4	100.0%	304.7	100.0%	61.3%

The total smartphone shipment volumes reached 491.4 million units in 2011, a whopping increase over 304.7 million units in 2010. However, in percentage basis, the growth was lower in 2011 (61.3%) as compared to 2010 (75.7%). IDC report also states that by December 2011, one out of every three mobiles phones shipped worldwide was a smartphone.

Top Five Worldwide Smartphone Vendors Market Share Changes

Apple:

Apple regained its market leader position by launching iPhone 4S worldwide. It also reached a new shipment volume record for itself and for the entire industry for a single quarter. The holiday season, delay in the product launch from 3Q to 4Q and the addition of multiple mobile operators has helped Apple achieve this record. The much hyped 4S has left few Apple fanboy’s disappointed as it lacked 4G LTE connectivity or a different size screen.

Samsung:

Samsung too had its share of milestones. It broke the 30 million units mark for the first time and also posted the largest year-over-year increase of the top lot (yeah true!! Who bothered about Samsung phones couple of years back ;)). Samsung also has concentrated on expanding in all kinds of market with Galaxy S2, Galaxy Nexus in the high end sector, Galaxy Ace and galaxy Y in the mass market. The biggest achievement for Samsung though was that it managed to marginally beat Apple in terms of number of units shipped!

Nokia

This is something which Nokia wouldn’t be proud of – Nokia posted the largest year-over-year decrease amongst the top manufacturers. But, Nokia has been in news again for good reasons due to the release of first set of windows smartphones – Lumia 710 and the Lumia 800. Nokia claims that it shipped over a million units’ in its debut quarter. However, the Symbian phones are losing their charm and Nokia could stop shipping these Symbian’s soon.

Blackberry

2011 has been a mixed bag of results for RIM (Blackberry). Firstly, the good things – The new BB OS 7-powered BlackBerry phones reached new markets. And then the not so good things – the global network outage in October (I almost died laughing at few of the jokes on BB!). Also the news that the first BB 10-powered smartphones will arrive only by the end of year 2012 has left the BB fans disappointed.

HTC

HTC has timed its releases quite well and it has been releasing the smartphones from time to time. It not only relied on Android smartphones but also released Windows Phone’s like Titan and Radar models. This strategy of HTC catered to both the mobile operators as well as the customers quite a well. However, when compared to the last quarter, HTC has shipped less number of phones.

[Source]

[This post has been written by Srikanth of PriceShred.com – An online marketplace to buy or sell second hand mobile in India.]

Yahoo Mail Home displays Full-page Fastrack Ad [Desperation?]

Arun Prabhudesai — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 06:22:52 +0000

I visited Yahoo Mail probably after a few months as my amazon account is attached to it and mails come to that email ID. However, I was taken by surprise when the page loaded – I was a bit confused for couple of seconds wondering if I landed on “Yahoo typo” homepage. But that was not true….

Here is the Yahoo Mail Homepage which was presented to me!

Yahoo Mail had a full homepage advertisement of Indian brand - Fastrack . The ad diverted me to their Facebook page. I am assuming that this ad will be shown only to users from Indian sub-continent and even then Fastrack is guaranteed of hundreds of thousands if not millions of Facebook Fans.

Fastrack being a youth brand, seems to be on a big ad-spending spree just before the Valentines day and this Yahoo homepage mail campaign is a great way of capturing huge number of fans.

However, I am surprised that Yahoo is accepting full homepage ads on probably one of its most popular pages in India – Yahoo Mail.

For me it comes across as a serious sign of desperation – what do you think?

[Note: As I mentioned earlier, I visit Yahoo mail homepage very rarely and I am not sure if it is a regular thing for Yahoo. For me it was a first and hence decided to write on it]

5 qualities of top women in Indian corporates!

Kaushambi — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:30:58 +0000

If you’ve read out earlier feature which covered the top 10 Indian businesswomen last year, then you’ll find this post to be more of an extension of the same. What are the qualities that what have gotten Indian women to the top spots of India Inc? Is it just about having a tough facade, compromising on family or having IIM/IIT degrees that allow them to skyrocket? No, there’s much more to that. Let’s find out.

Accepting that you will not be a star at work and at home

It’s only natural for women to not be able to give their 100 percent at their households and their workplace. If there’s an important board meeting the next day for which you have to prepare through the night, you simply can’t juggle entertaining your husband’s family for dinner simultaneously, for instance. As Business Today reports, Naina Lal Kidwai, HSBC’s India Head believes that this attitude is missing in urban women who still attempt to do-it- all. It’s okay to set up an alternative support system, ask for help and start by admitting that you can’t handle both equally if not less or more. That way, Indian women at work can start setting their priorities easily. These top Indian businesswomen affirm this quality:

"Shared responsibilities are the only way more women will pursue careers."

- Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairman and Managing Director, Biocon [Source]

“It’s better to spend quality time with your child, than spend the day after work cooking.”

- Renu Sud Karnad, Joint Managing Director and Member of the Board of HDFC Ltd[Source]

Not to accept or ask for any pity as a woman

Bunking work on the day of an important presentation in order to attend your child’s first annual day is probably not an option for women who want to climb that corporate rung. Although paid maternity leave / arrangements are arriving in India slowly, corporates don’t allow for extra time or a loose hand being given to employees just because they are female. Take for example, ICICI. Quoted in a Business Today report, K. Ramkumar, Head of HR at ICICI Bank says

"We do nothing. There is no chivalry, no kid gloves, there are no affirmative action committees. Your system has to be a pure meritocracy. No woman can play the woman card’.

Be on the top of your game

"My passion lies in the pursuit of excellence – can I do it very well, better than others?"

- Chanda Kochhar, Managing Director and CEO of ICICI Bank [Source]

This lady who can also ‘command an army’, as Business Today reports, is a perfect example of what focus and excellence are all about. As the CEO of ICICI Bank, each second of her day is scheduled for and planned, including the time taken by the elevator to reach her floor. K V Kamath recalls that when he newly hired Kochhar, she achieved her annual target in the very first quarter.

On the other hand Mallika Srinivasan, Tractors and Farm Equipment CEO recalls that whilst she was studying for her MBA from Wharton, she used to have her young daughter in tow, and would study in the laundry room because the hum of the washing machines helped her to concentrate.

Anjali Bansal, Managing Director, Spencer Stuart India, thinks that women who are poised to be successful have a killer work ethic and according to Shailja Dutt, MD, Stellar Search, "Letting anything slip is not an option", as reported by BT. These examples only point towards the fact that being a master of your expertise/area is a critical quality to have.

Don’t expect to please everyone

One quality that most top women in the Indian corporate space acknowledge is that woman needs to lose their nurturing side of obliging to keep everyone happy. You’ve got to be hard as nails and be ready to the extent of making some enemies in the workplace. For one, women in corporate India still face the wrath and envy of many men if they are climbing the ladder too quickly and secondly, trying to subvert the stereotype of being soft and submissive may tend to make female employees extra aggressive and hence piss people off.

Don’t give up easily

Most women in the corporate space give up when they have their first child in the age group of 25 to 35. The overwhelming workload combined with unsupportive families becomes a quick and easy reason for them to lose their cool and call it quits. But most of the top women you see in the Indian corporate space today are married, have children and yet have survived this tumultuous phase in their lives. The best way to deal with this is to think about where you will be in the next 5 years. Your responsibilities for your children would have decreased and you would be 5 years richer of work experience and perhaps a senior position. Would you want to let all of this go because of a hasty decision?

Vinita Bali, MD, Britannia has the last fair word:

"I think this gender thing is a bit overplayed. Ultimately, it is competence, skills, attitude and ability to lead that matter."

[Source]

Why IKEA may change household furniture Industry in India!

Kaushambi — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 06:46:33 +0000

Although the Scandinavian giant IKEA has been trying to come to India since 2000, it hasn’t been able to set itself up yet. And this was mainly because of the tight FDI rules in India until recently. But with the Indian government having finally shifted from a 51 percent foreign ownership cap to 100 percent foreign ownership of Indian single brand retail ventures, IKEA can finally start making its plans to revisit the thriving Indian subcontinent.

No formal announcements have been made as of now, but IKEA is expected to be one of the first large global brands to take advantage of 100% FDI in single brand retail! Let’s take a look at a few reasons why IKEA may be successful in India.

IKEA offers all types of readymade household items in one store

From its trademark foldable, pre fabricated, light furniture, to household items to stationery, to an IKEA food store to the linen section to home accessories to kitchenware to decorative items, IKEA has it all. Worldwide, IKEA is known by its motto ‘Everything under one roof’.

Just like Reliance Fresh, Big Bazaar, Spencer’s and the likes are gradually taking over the kirana stores of India, IKEA too has the ability to easily take over smaller independent shops of furniture that have been reigning over the Indian furniture marketplace from the past many years. The typical Indian trait of getting furniture custom made by hiring a carpenter on contract too could heavily take a beating.

IKEA offers quick and maximum customization

Indians are used to consuming customized items – whether is their Banarasi meetha pan, a kurti stitched by the gali ka darji or a piece of furniture made by the local Rajasthani carpenter. With IKEA, customization will take a whole new meaning for Indians. Choose a lampshade with a handpicked lamp base, choose a Futon with a shade of your choice, chose an arm chair with a different back cover and so on. Whether you are colour coordinating your own home or simply want to get DIY (do-it-yourself) furniture, IKEA serves every need.

Arm yourself with an IKEA notepad, item list and pencil from the store entrance and start ticking off codes of the items you’d like to take away from their warehouse facility in the basement. This experience is likely to strike a chord with the needs of customization loving Indians instantly!

IKEA’s pre fabricated furniture and goods represent modern Indian lifestyles

More and more working Indians living in suburban metros want shopping hubs that offer quick service, a reliable brand name, wide options under one roof and quick delivery. Also, with cost of living in metros ever rising and rented pads becoming smaller and more expensive, people are only going to opt for home items that take up less space in the house, store more and are easy to move.

As far as the pricing is concerned, only time will tell how IKEA suits its Indian customers, because the general reputation of IKEA products even overseas is that it is fairly cheap!

IKEA is a familiar brand name amongst urban Indians

Most well travelled Indians from semi urban and urban cities know the brand name of IKEA fairly well. IKEA along with Starbucks and Walmart, has been made familiar to Indians because they keep appearing in the media due to their constantly changing plans of entering the Indian marketplace.

Additionally, IKEA being a classic international business case study of streamlining costs and developing an efficient supply chain, many B-school students are all too familiar with the brand name.

IKEA’s CSR operations in India

Current IKEA CEO Mikael Olsson has his eyes well set on India as the next big opportunity. His 2010 visit exclusively focused on assuring Indian people and the Indian government that IKEA is not one of those companies whose Indian suppliers engage child laborers, unlike many MNCs that were accused of doing so in the 1990s, BBC News reported.

IKEA has been sourcing many materials from India from a long time and to re-affirm its goodwill in the country, IKEA supports UNICEF’s water and sanitation program and funds initiatives in the carpet and cotton regions in the country, reported ET. In the coming years too, IKEA plans to spend in areas of women empowerment, education, health awareness and industry-based programs that aims to benefit about a 100 million women and children.

One thing for sure, If and when IKEA enters India, they have potential to change household furniture Industry in India!

Would love to hear your thoughts on this…

Paradox of thrift: Why a high savings rate is bad for the economy?

Dr Vikram Venkateswaran — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:07:29 +0000

Let me ask you three questions.

Question 1: Do you have high savings?
Question 2: Do you save at the expense of putting off critical purchases?
Question 3: Do you think that is good for the economy?

Well if the answer to the questions is yes, yes and yes, then you might find this piece very interesting.

In the 1940’s John Maynard Keynes pulled the world attention to a theory that had been around since biblical times. The theory states that

“The paradox is, narrowly speaking, that total savings may fall even when individual savings attempt to rise, and, broadly speaking, that increase in savings may be harmful to an economy.”

The first reference to this theory came from the The Fable of the Bees: or, Private Vices, Publick Benefits (1714) by Bernard Mandeville, the title itself hinting at the paradox, and Keynes citing the passage:

As this prudent economy, which some people call Saving, is in private families the most certain method to increase an estate, so some imagine that, whether a country be barren or fruitful, the same method if generally pursued (which they think practicable) will have the same effect upon a whole nation, and that, for example, the English might be much richer than they are, if they would be as frugal as some of their neighbors. This, I think, is an error. (Source: Wikipedia)

Now how is that possible one might wonder? But to Keynesian economists the answer is very simple. In an ideal scenario total income would be equal to total expenses and the savings would match the investments. So in other words total savings would equal investments.

This equation holds everything in balance with all other factors being normal.

Total Income: Total expenses = Total Investments: Total Savings

In other words If the savings is increased then the equilibrium shifts against investments at a lower value, which finally affects the total income leading to a weakening of the economy.

So that is the theoretical logic, let me try to explain with an example.

In the 70’s and 80’s, Japan was at the forefront of world economy winning the war. From electronics to Automobiles the Japanese brands could do no wrong. Soon Japanese brands like Toyota and Sony were household names across the world. Japanese management practices were being copied and there were many best sellers on the rise of Japan. Hollywood also made some very funny anti-Japanese movies.

But then in 1990’s the Japanese juggernaut stalled. Sales and exports declined and Japanese economy went into recession, a recession that lasted almost a decade. The reason for the recession was that Japanese being very cautious on the economy curtailed spending. As the exports were falling, the Japanese consumers increased the saving rate, to brace themselves for the tight days ahead. This led to lesser spending in the local economy and further loss of business for the local Japanese establishments. So now not only the exporters were facing loss of sales but also the local businesses were losing business. This led to further recession something that lasted for more than a decade.

India faced a similar challenge during the peak of the 2008 recession. Luckily for us domestic demand picked up at the right time and bailed India out of the jaws of the recession.

Are savings good? The answer is yes, but as excess of anything is bad, the same holds true for savings.

It is best to view expenditure as investments and invest in local businesses as that would drive the economy and help sustain growth.