CRYPTOCURRENCY: SHOULD GOVERNMENTS BE WORRIED ABOUT IT?

 

Introduction:

A Cryptocurrency is not a currency. Yeah! You get it right . It is a digital asset, which works through cryptography. A distinguishing feature about Cryptocurrency is that they are not issued by any Central Government. And so, they are outside the purview of any legislation or legal criteria. There are large number of Cryptos in circulation, however, while some are immensely popular, many of them have very little or “zero” trading volume. Of all the Cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin leads the pack, followed by Ethereum, Biance coin, Cardano, Tether and so on. Different Cryptocurrencies have different specifications. Some are easily detectable while others are not. Some have vey less transaction time.

All the Cryptocurrency works through the technology, called Block-Chain. But what exactly is Block-Chain? A Block-Chain is a digital record-keeper of all the transactions. It is decentralized in nature and distributed across network of computer systems. So, the moment transactions took place, they need to be verified. The people ,who are active on the network, are supposed to verify it. This process is called “mining”. It requires massive amount of computing power and complicated algorithms. After the verification, the transactions are added to the “chain” in the form of “Blocks”. And people who have successfully verified it are given rewards in the form of underlying Cryptocurrency.

Comparing it with Fiat Currency, which is backed by governments, Cryptos has some inherent  advantages as well as some disadvantages which are discussed below:

Advantage:

1.     No Intermediary Required: When we transact through money, the overall transaction from beginning to completion is under the vigil of Bank. But, in transactions through Cryptocurrency there is not any involvement of the third party, i.e., only sender and receiver will be there. Due to this the transaction charges are minimal.

2.     No Geographical Barriers: The transactions are conducted on peer-to-peer basis i.e., you can send and receive payments to or from anyone on the network around globe.

3.  Privacy: Since, there is not any involvement of any third party in between , you can bypass the inconvenience of authorization requirement, giving you more privacy.

Disadvantage:

1.The biggest flaw with the Cryptos is that they are very volatile in nature. It is a very “ high risk high return” proposition. For example – if you follow the market trends of Bitcoin, you will see a very sharp jump in its prices.

Also, there is no definite correlation between state of global economy and its price.

2.The transactions are irreversible in nature. In case, you have transferred money to a wrong person, you cannot get it back. It depends on the whims and fancies of the person who received it.

3.Their semi-anonymous nature encourages their usage in host of illegal activities.

The bone of Contention:

The Governments across the globe barring El Salvador, are hostile towards Cryptos. Some even questioning its legitimacy.

There are two major reasons for that:

1.Disruption of Existing Financial Structure: The Governments and Central banks have the monopoly over regulation and issuance of money. And Cryptos are undermining their monopoly by offering us an alternative system of monetary transaction.

2.Illegal activities: There is a prevailing belief that money, through Cryptos, are involved in a lot of nefarious activities like Tax evasion and Money Laundering. It gives them the ability to bypass financial scrutiny and encourages them to camouflage their involvement in such activities.

Cryptocurrency block-chains are highly secure but it’s other facilities like wallets, exchanges are not much immune to the threat of hacking. There are multiple instances where several exchanges have been hacked in the recent past. Although in India, there is not any law that prohibits trading in Cryptocurrencies, yet at the same time they are not recognized as legal tender of money. In April 2018, RBI issued a circular banning financial institutions from providing services to people dealing with Cryptos. However, Supreme Court of India overruled that order.

Presently, we are getting a mix of responses from people. Many prominent people, like Gita Gopinathan (IMF) and Warren Buffett, have expressed their skepticism about the Cryptos. They claimed that it is a bubble which will  eventually burst. However, proponents ,like Jack Dorsey (CEO, Twitter), feels that it will protect against currency devaluation and expedite transfers. They think that it will bring more freedom.

However, there are some of challenges that Cryptocurrencies currently faces such as computer crash, thefts by hackers and fraudsters etc. While they can overcome these challenges through technological advances in coming time, but the main problem is that the more popular they become, the more liable they are to attract government restrictions.

 So, for them to be a part of mainstream financial system, they must satisfy a wide range of divergent criteria. For example- they need to be very complex enough for hackers and fraudsters to break, but very easy for common people to understand. Also, they should provide anonymity to its users, but at the same time do not become a heaven for tax evasion and money laundering. Though, these criteria are not easy to satisfy, yet they are the only way forward………

About The Writer

Praveen Kumar

Pursuing PGDM at IMT, Hyderabad

A Finance enthusiast person loves to deconstruct and explore the field of finance, talks about the complex world of cryptos.

THE RISING FALL OF TINY OWL

 

Around 2014, there were many startups who were looking for the opportunity to maximize the customer-centric business that would transfer the traditional business into techno-friendly business. In that, there was one startup that was into the food delivery logistics business known as TinyOwl.

TinyOwl, regarded as one of India's most prominent startups, began operations with five members: Harshvardhan Mandad, Tanuj Khandelwal, Gaurav Choudhary, Shikhar Paliwal, and Sourabh Goyal. They wanted to create an app that combined food and technology to provide outstanding food delivery alternatives. The company intended to enter the market at a period when investors were eager to invest, and the Indian market was relatively new in this field.

In the initial period, they were doing very good as they were able to raise four different funding rounds from 2014 to 2015. Investors aided them by financing $27.7 million by the end of 2016, giving the company a promising start. With a large pool of money in their pocket, they went all-in on hiring, scaling, and expansion, regardless of their capacity. As a result of their careless approach, the company now has operations in 11 locations, employing over 600 people.

So, what led to the company downfall from being an investor’s eyeball- Here are some reasons according to me that lead to the downfall of the organizations:

1. Charging high margin rate: Tinyowl used to charge 20% to 25% from the restaurant and hotels per order but the problem was that they were not able to bring as many orders as the hotel and restaurant has expected. The order volume was low that lead to dissatisfaction between hotels and restaurants.
2.  Scaling up the business: whenever we start the business, we need to check whether the business is feasible in the long run. Can it give a good profit in the long term? There was a lack of clarity in Tinyowl, without measuring it they started to expand the business in other cities.
3.  Immature management: All of the co-founders were under the age of 25, and when they got the money, they blew it all up since they had 600 people and different cities to manage, but there were two things missing: education and experience to handle it all. With so much money coming from the investor the founder’s started to live a lavish life, as they were immature to handle so much money.
4. Hiring more than required: With such a large investment in their hands, the company and its founders were under a lot of pressure to deliver, and they decided that the best way to do so would be to hire more people and spend more money on more resources. They overhired and overexpanded, but didn't have the necessary management systems in place.

These were the reasons that led to the downfall of Tinyowl and in mid-2016 they got merged with the logistics company Roadrunnr as both have the same investor in both companies.

Now according to me, they might have survived if they would have followed these strategies:

1.    Product-Market Fit: For any organization who wants to grow higher fastly they should first check their product in a limited market. This would give them a good idea of how much their product is valuable in the market. In the case of tinyowl, the same goes with them they didn’t check their product in a niche market and went on to expand in various cities.

2.  Human Resource: Human resource management plays a big role in the success of any organization. How efficiently the H.R management is using their employees is a prominent factor in the success of the organization. In their case, they were hiring without measuring the workload factor and when things didn’t go their way they started firing people, this led to a bad impression of the company in eyes of its employees.

3.  Vision Alignment: one of the major factors of organizational success is vision alignment where every employee of the organization working in a single direction under one leader. This was something that was lacking in Tinyowl which can be seen in the hiring and firing of employees, the tussle between the founders in the various decisions.

About The Writer

Vinit Prasad

Pursuing PGDM at IMT, Hyderabad

A keen observer, love to read geopolitics and investment strategies, talks about TinyOwl

MAGICPIN AND ITS UNIQUE BUSINESS PROPOSITION

 

India has witnessed a rapid increase in the number of startups in the last 5 years. The country is now home to the 2nd largest number of startups in the world after the USA. In this era of new ideas and new business propositions, a unique startup, “Magicpin App” was founded in the year 2015 by two young IIM graduates who give rewards and coupons to its users for posting selfies in this app.

You must be wondering how this business makes money if it gives discounts and cashback to its users for only uploading selfies?

 Here’s the answer! Let’s start by understanding the business model of Magicpin that would give better insights and the strategy behind such an unusual startup.

 Business Model of Magicpin

Anshoo Sharma and Brij Bhushan founded ‘Magicpin’ in the year 2015 headquartered in Gurugram, Haryana in India. The sole idea was to give rewards such as discounts, cashback, coupons, and other rewards to the consumers using its platform for discovering local retail businesses such as restaurants, fashion stores, grocery, and other business outlets in the nearby areas. This would help in strengthening the retail business when online shopping (E-commerce) is growing rapidly.

‘Magicpin’ has tie-ups with the retail stores and local merchants who pay “processing and transaction fee” which is the main source of revenue for this startup. Magicpin provides a platform for these local merchants to engage with their customers and provide personalized marketing.

 For instance, you are a consumer visiting a nearby grocery shop. After making the payment, you first check if the shop is a participating merchant on the Magicpin App. Once confirmed, take a selfie at the same outlet and a copy of the bill invoice. This selfie-and-bill invoice should be uploaded on the Magicpin app. Once, the location intelligence technology validates the transaction, the customer can earn “Magicpin Points”. These Magicpin points can be used for availing discounts at the Magicpin partnered retail outlets. Thus, with the implementation of technology in the offline retail sector, Magicpin has truly transformed the local business by operating in 12 Indian cities as of August 2021.

Long road ahead for the success of Magicpin

This tech startup was in news recently when Deepinder Goyal, CEO of India’s largest food-tech startup Zomato, joined the board of Magicpin as an independent director. According to August 2021 reports, Magicpin was valued at $165 million after raising funds from Oyo’s founder Ritesh Agarwal. Though a unique business idea, Magicpin is yet to taste success and has to re-innovate its strategies to sustain the competition from well-established companies like Nearbuy, The Blue Book, CashKaro.com, and other rival companies.

 Magicpin definitely has associations with a few top names in the industry. However, in my opinion, it has not gained enough popularity due to inefficient marketing techniques. To increase awareness about the Magicpin app, Magicpin can use aggressive advertisements to make the consumers aware of its one-stop app to avail of amazing offers. Moreover, the company has to develop a way to gain the trust of the local merchants and rope in more stores to use Magicpin for more personalized marketing. Nevertheless, we have to agree Magicpin has an unusual business proposition and for the Indian economy to grow, such startups and ideas are required to boost the local businesses and retail stores.

Our country has witnessed a lot of startups, but it is an undeniable fact that such startups also require “magic” to be able to sustain themselves in the market. It would be interesting to watch if Magicpin will be able to create that “magic” and “pin” its company to the top in the near future.

Until then, keep creating magic with your unique strategies!

About the Writer

Sanjana Nahata

Pursuing PGDM at IMT, Hyderabad

An ambitious and result-oriented person, keen on self-learning finance and financial management puts forward her opinion on Magicpin.

ESG: THE NEW WAY OF SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS

 

The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic has led more investors to seek sustainable investing. How does a company treat its employees? Do the companies we choose for investments do anything for the betterment of our society and its people?

Today, in response to this demand for responsible investing, more and more companies are reporting their performances under ESG standards. In fact, in June 2021, CRISIL released ESG Scores for 225 Indian companies to gauge the compliance of companies across eighteen sectors.

What are the ESG criteria?

The ESG or Environmental, Social, and corporate Governance criteria is a business reporting method that helps a company, its stakeholders, and shareholders understand how the company manages its responsibilities to its consumers, the environment, and maintains its ethics. The term came into existence in a UN report in 2005.

Fulfilling the ESG criteria can mean different things to different companies, depending on the offerings it sells to the market. For example, fulfilling ESG standards for a manufacturing business can mean using more renewable energy in its factories.

In a world that is becoming more and more concerned with caring for the environment, ethics, and people, measuring company performances against ESG standards can be equally beneficial to companies and our society.

Benefits to Companies

Due to the rising trend of responsible investing, mutual funds have been pouring money into ESG-compliant companies. Inflows in the ESG mutual funds surged to Rs. 3,686 crores in FY-2021. These funds comprise companies that comply with ESG criteria.

Retail investors choosing ESG funds are usually long-term investors with goals that extend profit-earning. These investors choose ESG companies to represent their consciousness; this long-term outlook can provide companies with more stock liquidity.

ESG-compliant firms practice business responsibly, making them a safe avenue for retail investors. Apart from investors, suppliers and lenders consider it much better to be associated with an ESG-compliant company with a better chance of not being involved in any malpractices.

Companies that identify the ESG criteria they can apply to their business and stick with them attract a positive brand value among consumers. Also, these companies can attract and retain a talented millennial workforce, most of whom will always be concerned about the stance of their employer in ESG-related concerns.

There is a competitive and strategic edge hidden in the identification of the right way of implementing ESG. Companies that find the most befitting methods of compliance will be able to stay committed to ESG and make the switch to this reporting method faster than others.

For example, while a chemical manufacturing company can utilize better waste disposal methods for ESG compliance, the same might not work for a service-providing firm. Asian Paints launched new eco-friendly manufacturing facilities. Maruti Suzuki gave away scholarships to students from economically weaker communities.

Each company’s strategic benefit from ESG lies in its ability to find the best way to operate sustainably without making changes that become too hard to follow or implement.

Where does India stand with ESG Reporting?

In India, while ESG reporting had not been made mandatory for the Financial Year 2021-22, it was made compulsory for the top 1,000 listed companies by market capitalization for the Financial Year 2022-23. This disclosure will be mandatory as a part of the company’s Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BRSR). As of 2019, India had already earned $29 billion from investments in such funds.

Indian companies adhering to ESG standards have also been added to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index rankings in 2020, with Hindalco being the only Indian company to appear as an industry leader in these rankings.

Companies previously ranked in the DJSI include Havells, Godrej, etc. Majorly, these companies are Indian market leaders, offering high ROE and stable dividend payouts, among other performance indicators.

The future of ESG

While ESG is faring well in the markets today, the success of ESG reporting will depend on three things. Mainly –

1. The adaptation of ESG criteria in India and across the world;
2. Whether companies consider it helpful for the society or a sacrifice of returns; and
3. The accuracy and quality of reporting done.

For the ESG criteria to become a household name worldwide, a standard of adherence is essential to ensure quality reporting. Until then, companies can take the first step to become the standard of ESG reporting in their sector and economy.

Considering that the ESG criteria might just become mandatory across nations, the faster companies adapt their reporting to ESG, the better it will be for them.

About the Writer

Simaran Sinha

Pursuing PGDM at IMT Hyderabad

An avid reader with an interest in business research, personal finance, and investing writes about ESG in the business world.

COST OF CRITICISM IS LESS THAN COST OF FAILURE

 

Domino's Pizza has seen remarkable growth over the years and is one of the pioneers in the fast-food industry. It has dominated its rivals and has created a loyal base for itself. It has also given exceptional returns to its investors over the years. In the period from 2009 till 2017, its share price rose by 2000%, and this is because Domino's Pizza accepted its mistakes and rectified them.

The Debacle of 2009

In 2009 the American economy was recovering from the economic crises of 2008, and the companies started showing signs of recovery, but Domino's Pizza shares plummeted to a rock bottom value of $6. The company's share value touched its all-time low; the loyal fans of the pizza giant were leaving, and the company faced harsh criticism about the quality and taste of its pizzas. When other businesses were showing signs of growth, Domino's Pizza was on the verge of crashing.

What was the Problem?

Domino's Pizza was being criticized for the quality and taste of their pizzas. Even the loyal fans were criticizing and were changing their loyalties. People across America said that their pizzas tasted like cardboard and their sauce was worse than any low-grade ketchup available in the market. Critics of the brand added spice to the story and made matters worse for the company. Domino's Pizza saw a decline in customer base, and the sales soon took a downward trend. Domino's Pizza also ranked last in the Consumer Brand Preference Survey that year.

How the Recovery Began?

Instead of ignoring the issue, Mr. Patrick Doyle, (ex-CEO, Domino's Pizza) implemented the policy of 'Brutal Honesty'. He rigorously worked with his team for nearly 18 months and scripted one of the best comebacks of the business world.

To start with, he and his team interacted with the customers and critics of the brand and noted all their issues. After that, the chefs at Domino's Pizza completely changed the recipes from the ground up. Every possible combination was tried day and day out over the next 18 months. The chefs worked seven days a week to come up with their best recipes. The pizzas were changed completely, and all the feedbacks were taken into consideration.

Also, the 30 minutes delivery policy compromised the supply chain of the company. Most of the ingredients were canned, frozen, and pre-made, thus hampering the taste in a bid to make and deliver the pizza on time. The company's management rectified this issue and changed the entire supply chain of the company spanning 9.93 million square kilometres and more than 4200 stores. The full inventory management, storage, and transportation system were changed to use the best and freshest ingredients.

The company lastly launched the "Oh Yes! We did it." Campaign wherein they documented their journey of the past 18 months and how they changed everything. On the company's website, they posted videos of critics and how the company acted upon that. The company's head chef even delivered pizzas to its most prominent critics and took their feedback. The complete journey was documented, and Domino's Pizzas accepted its failure in public and then revamped itself to regain its lost glory.

Back to the Top

After the campaign launch, Domino's stock rose by 44% in a month and 75% in that financial quarter. This growth continued, and by 2017 a massive jump of 2000% in stock price was witnessed. This growth was even more than the giants like Amazon, Apple, and Alphabet. In terms of publicity, their campaign is gained over two billion media impressions to date.

This story highlights how embracing criticism and turning it into an opportunity can change the destiny of the business. Customer criticism is a part of the business, and the cost of criticism is less than the cost of failure. Doing nothing despite knowing the complaint is dangerous. Publicly accepting and acting upon it is a must. Also, offering discounts and coupons will not cover up the flaws in the business and help in marketing. Instead, connecting with customers at a personal level will go a long way in achieving success.

Hence accepting mistakes is like a long-term investment in the business.

 About the Writer

Ashwik Sharma

Pursuing PGDM at IMT Hyderabad

An Automobile enthusiast and Cricket fanatic, intending to make a career in Finance writes about the Dominos' strategy of brutal honesty.

AMAZON: BOOK TO SPACE

 

In his book “The Everything Store”, author Brad Stone said, “It is easier to invent the future than to predict it” while describing Amazon. In 2010 when the book was released “Jeff Bezos” advised the author that he had written the book too early. Today after eleven years, when Amazon’s revenue increased by 11 times, and it has built a global empire, it turns out that Bezos was right.

Amazon, a company founded in a garage and opened as an online bookselling platform, has become a world in its 26 years of journey. The global conglomerate has an array of industries in its portfolio, and numerous businesses are flourishing under the axis of the e-commerce giant. Amazon is operating in e-commerce, IT, Print, OTT, Consumer electronics, Video games, software development, Social developing services, and corporate venture capital with the help of its around 110 subsidiaries across the world. But is this astonishing success of amazon merely a” Right Time, Right step” method or the sheer brilliance of “Jeff Bezos”, which has helped the brand to become” Big Five” and is considered as the world’s largest software maker.

Bezos has recently stepped down as CEO of Amazon and exploring his other dreams. Looking back to his 24 years of journey, here are some brilliance and strategic moves of the world’s richest man, changing the business world.

A Visionary Mission

If you go to a web browser and search “Relentless.com”, it will take you to the Amazon site, precisely the efforts Jeff Bezos has put to outperform the competitors and played hardball wherever possible. From the beginning of his endeavors, Bezos ambitions are endless. He has planned to sell everything to everybody everywhere; Amazon never tried to play safe and sitting still happily; instead, the brand always pushed itself to embrace new technology and creativeness. Bezos’s knack for perceiving people’s future desires and the market’s needs was commendable. The products and services such as Kindle, AWS, and Alexa’s launch and success are prime examples of his visionary thinking. He disrupted his marketplace to enhance his company’s horizon. Bezos always has this idea that “Success breeds success” and for success “Timing is everything” and for so he invested endless money and resources when he felt it is imperative and there are certain times when these unlimited resources obtained no returns; however, these failures founded a worth implementing solutions for the company which eventually leads to its exponential growth.

People’s Entrepreneur

Jeff Bezos repeatedly stated that if you are selling products or services, you must be involved with the people you are serving. For that, you need to focus on consumers' reviews of your product and services rather than focusing on your competitor’s performance. Since Amazon’s inception, Bezos was passionate about understanding his products and services version from a consumer perspective. He always worked upon his products and services quality improvement, simplified functioning, cheaper cost, and quick deliveries. His relentless efforts to create its brand consumer-centric helps Amazon to win “Share of Heart”, which leads to its market share increment.

In its more than two decades of service, Bezos has made Amazon a powerhouse that we can assess in numbers as the brand has grown its market capitalization 2000 times and growing with a 45% CAGR in 21 years of its public company tenure.  Amazon is the world’s most significant player in e-commerce, web services, voice assistance, and 2nd most significant player in the video streaming platform. Still, apart from these numerical heroics and financial efficiency, Amazon has something which every organization of the 21^st century wanted to have in their kitty, an enormous amount of consumer loyalty across generations and its commitment towards creativeness.

“We do not make money when we sell things, we make money when we help customers make purchase decisions” - Jeff Bezos

Sayonara! Until next time. 

About the author

Piyush Ranjan Jha 

Pursuing PGDM at IMT Hyderabad

                                                    

A constant learner, interested in equity research, business research, and marketing intelligence.

THE NEED FOR METROPOLITAN CITIES

 

With more than 136 crores, India has only eight metropolitan cities, namely Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, and Pune. Delhi-NCR and Mumbai have a population excess of 2.4 crores each which is more than the total population of the continent Australia. In contrast, U.S.A has a population of 33 crores approx. and has 51 metropolitan areas defined by the U.S. Census Bureau. This clearly shows that for the required people, India needs more metro cities.

Why Metropolitans Cities are Important

Metropolitan cities offer more employment and education opportunities, along with access to better healthcare, connectivity, and housing facilities. With the intent to make a fortune and change the course of their lives, people from rural areas migrate to metro cities. Metropolitan cities are the centres for innovation, development, education, trade, and commerce. They have the potential to absorb a large amount of the population with the potential to uplift their living standards. Metro cities are considered fortune making centres. These cities help in the development of the public and are essential for the country's economy.

Crumbling Metropolitans of India

As urbanisation and development gained momentum in India, people started moving to big cities to earn more. Cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, and Delhi were more developed than other cities, and most industries and educational institutes were located here. Hence, these cities attracted a large amount of population. Later Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, and Bangalore also become important centres of employment and education.

Presently these eight cities are carrying the excess weight of the population than they were initially designed for. These cities face congestion, traffic management, poor sanitation, overcrowding, crumbling healthcare system, income disparity, inadequate residential facilities, rising crime rate, poor infrastructure, and inflation. The metros, instead of providing better lifestyles with improved employment, education, and healthcare facilities, and crumbling under the weight of population. They cities are not able to meet the expectations of the migrants. Slums are increasing in these areas and prices for basic necessities of life are soaring each day.

With the influx of population in large numbers, the demand for residential space has overgrown in big cities leading to excessive demand resulting in rising prices. Similar trend is observed in every sphere. Prices for healthcare, food, education etc, all has shot up rapidly. With more concentration of workforce in a particular area, the competition for securing employment is very tough, as a result of which crime rate is also high in these cities.

Pollution levels are very high in these cities, and clean drinking water is in short supply. In the past decade, Delhi-NCR has been ranked as one of the most polluted cities in the world, Chennai despite having floods in 2015, faces water shortages, Mumbai faces problems of congestion, crumbling infrastructure, high prices and increasing slums, while in Kolkata, poverty has reached to every high level. The same issues are faced by other cities as well.

What can be done?

Major decongestion programs across the metropolitan cities are the need of the hour. The population needs to be moved out from the Tier 1 cities to Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Presently, India has 104 Tier 2 cities, and the remaining towns are classified under Tier 3 cities. The government needs to focus more on Tier 2 and 3 cities. It should improve the infrastructure in these cities. Connectivity should be strengthened by linking these cities with expressways, railway stations and international airports. Purvanchal Expressway, Ganga Expressway, Delhi- Mumbai Expressway, Jewar International Airport are significant projects that will help develop Tier 2 and 3 cities. Similar projects throughout the country should be undertaken.

It is also essential that the industries are distributed across various unlike concentrating them in select few areas. Like in the U.S.A., the drives are spread across numerous cities, which is why it has more metropolitans. In India, the metropolitan cities have Service, I.T., Entertainment, Manufacturing, Banking, and other industries. As a result, they have become centres for all economic activity, but their infrastructure is crumbling under this immense load. This load needs to be distributed. Northern and North-Eastern areas of the country where it is difficult to set up the manufacturing sector, I.T., and service sector should be relocated there. Each industry should not be concentrated in one city but should be spread across multiple cities. This will help in reducing the economic disparity among various regions and would help in urbanisation.

India needs to reduce the size of its cities but increase the number of cities.

About the Writer

                                                         Ashwik Sharma                                                                    Pursuing PGDM at IMT Hyderabad

An Automobile enthusiast and Cricket fanatic, intending to make a career in Finance explain the reasons why more metropolitan cities are needed.