PETpla.net Insider 09 / 2019

EDITOUR PET planet Insider Vol. 19 No. 09/19 www.petpla.net 11 potential Indian customers, it usually requires a longer familiarity phase – a personal getting-to-know-each-other phase, whose outcome is decided over time and by one’s gut feeling. Then there is, regrettably, a complex administrative bureaucracy, which regularly tests the patience of both companies and their employees, and includes an uncertain outcome. As a former expat for our part-time local PETplanet representation in India, I know what I’m talking about. To counteract this, almost all foreign companies that are active in India also rely on local agents so as to be closer to the people, markets and authorities from the cultural perspective, and to thus reduce the communication dif- ficulties to the minimum – and not just those of a linguistic nature. Showing interest, regular conversation and the willingness to allow time for all these prerequisites, are key. Hurdles of the India Road Show In the India Road Show, we have embarked on our most challenging tour to date. The progress so far is both highly informative and promising but it is also a genuine challenge, in terms of the on-the-ground implemen- tation. When we were told long before the start of our tour that the Indian parliamentary elections would be taking place in the year of the tour we did not, admittedly, quite realise the extent to which this would be relevant to the tour. We know now. Every time one enters a new state there is a lot of bureaucracy, the design of the vehicle has to be approved all the time (even our lettering in national colours has resulted in long discus- sions), and one finds oneself being checked almost daily by the police. This inevitably leads to many a delay to the schedule. Our editor, Michael Maruschke, who was responsible for the north-east and the north on the tour, was obliged to switch to trans- port by bus, train and taxi for a short time, because the local authorities prevented the Editourmobil from being driven through their area. This year has seen incredible heat and drought, which affects not only us editors but also large sections of the population and which, here and there, is causing the public supply of drink- ing water to collapse. Water reservoirs dry out at temperatures close to the 50 degree Celsius mark; the ground- water level sinks and, in many places, mobile drinking water tankers have to supply the people with rationed water. Measurements taken in the Editourmobil show that, depending on the region, the temperature inside the vehicle has consistently hovered between 40 and 50 degrees Celsius, despite the air conditioning system! This has sometimes forced our editors to stay in hotels and guest-houses for the night. Altogether, this year’s tour is certain to lead the field of the most difficult overland editorial journeys undertaken by PETplanet. Macro-economic data India 2016 2017 2018 Population (billions) 1.3 1.32 1.33 Population growth p.a. 1.3% 1.3% 1.3% GDP (current prices, billions) US$ 2.29 US$ 2.65 US$ 2.72 GDP growth rate (real) 8.2% 7.2% 7.1% GDP per capita (current prices) US$ 1,762 US$ 2,014 US$ 2,036 Import (billions) US$ 361,2 US$ 443.0 US$ 513.3 Export (billions) US$ 264,1 US$ 296.2 US$ 320.1 National debt of GDP 69.0% 69.8% 69.8% Unemployment rate 2.7% 2.6% 2.6% Inflation 4.5% 3.6% 3.5% India’s Economy & Infrastructure With just under 3.3 million km 2 , India is the seventh-largest country in the world. With its particular loca- tion, nestling between the Himalayan region and largely surrounded by water, much of India enjoys a sub- tropical-continental climate all year round; the high regions in the north and certain coastal regions are the obvious exceptions. The south experi- ences pretty high temperatures year round, without pronounced fluctua- tion; by contrast, the northern part of the country can see temperatures range from 10 degrees Celsius in the winter up to 50 in the summer. When the monsoon arrives, between the middle of the year and autumn, there is, depending on the region, abundant rainfall. It regularly leads to flooding and causes densely populated areas and cities, in particular, to become submerged in water, as occurred last year in the metropolis of Mumbai. The country is divided into 29 fed- eral states and seven union territories. The capital and the seat of govern- ment is the city of New Delhi in the north. It is part of the Capital Territory of Delhi, which is divided into nine dis- tricts; the conurbation’s total popula- tion is over 16 million, just behind the business centre of Mumbai.