India Business

A great starting place for business research on or in India; this guide points to the best resources available to the HBS community. See the related guide, India Business News for business publications from and about India. Faculty, staff, and doctoral students may also want to consult HBS Research Data Opportunities in India Identified by KLS, Fall, 2011.

General Country Descriptions and Overviews

Overview

See the EIU.com Country Report for a broad and concise overview of India in a single document. The Library of Congress report is good for for historical background.

The industry & background note, Modern India by Tarun Khanna and Danielle Melito give an analysis of the government reforms in the early 1990s that are widely credited with sparking India's emergence in the world economy. Khanna's 2007 book Billion's of Entrepreneurs: How China and India are Reshaping Their Futures and Yours [HOLLIS | Amazon] gives a more current and in-depth analysis of the business environment in India and China. See Recent Books on the Indian Business Environment for a selection of other publications.

Sources

Asian Development Bank: India
Includes basic facts about the country, development issue publications and information about ADB projects in India.

EIU.com Country Report: India
Describes and forecasts the countries political, economic and social conditions. Updated quarterly.

ISI Emerging Markets
Includes macroeconomic statistics, forecasts, and analysis; reports on financial markets, companies, and industries; exchange rates; analyst reports; and business news for India as well as for other emerging nations.

Library of Congress. Country Study: India
Provides a valuable historical context of India by the Federal Research Division. Last updated in December 2004.

OECD iLibrary: India
OECD publications on India, including the Economic Outlook, and publications on energy transition, labour, poverty alleviation, and other topics.

Government of India (GOI) and Politics

Government sites

GOI Web Directory
Links to national and state government sites, including those of the judicial systems.

National Portal of India (GOI)
Links to the Constitution, rules & regulations, Parliament, and directories among other information.

Ministry of Finance
Includes the Union Budget and Economic Survey; various data and statistics; documents and reports; and links to the Departments of Economic Affairs, Expendicute, Revenue, Financial Services and Disinvestment.

Analysis and Commentary

Centre for Policy Research
An Indian research institute and think tank. CPR initiatives include accountability for service delivery, Asian security, global climate negotiations, the Indian legislative process, inclusive development, and the Indian city.

GovernanceNow
An online and print magazine on governance issues in India. Includes news and analysis from professional and citizen journalists on the governance of institutions and processes in India.

Janaagraha
A nonprofit organization that aims to improve the quality of life in urban India. Includes links to data, rankings and publications.

Economic Policy and Business Regulation

Economist Intelligence Unit: India is a good place to start for information on India and its regulatory climate. Doing Business in India allows one to compare India with other countries. The Ministry site is the primary source of regulations, but because Indian government web sites tend to be slow and difficult to navigate Manupatra is recommended to find specific corporate law or text of cases.

Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) (Ministry of Commerce & Industry)
Responsible for formulating and implementing industrial policy as well as foreign direct investment policy, the DIPP site includes information on intellectual property, foreign investment regulations, and information for foreign investors, including forms and FDI statistics.

Doing Business in India
Includes India's rank of overall "ease of doing business" compared with over 180 economies, as well as its rank by topics such as starting a business, getting credit, and protecting investors.

Economist Intelligence Unit: India
Link to EIU publications on India including annual reports on operating conditions, commercial laws, taxes, and business regulations.

Embassy of India (Washington DC): Doing Business in India
Although site has a promotional slant, it includes useful information on the tax system, labor laws, intellectual property rights and other topics.

Manupatra
A comprehensive database of Indian law -- includes:
..cases and bare acts (federal and selected states)
..tribunal and commission orders
..bills in Parliament
..ordinances, notifications and circulars. Coverage includes corporate law, capital markets, labor regulations and more.

PwC Destination India
PwC provides an introduction to the policies, laws and regulations in India and a guide to the more important aspects of doing business there.

Economic and Demographic Statistics

Economic Statistics

Multi-country statistical sources (listed in the Country Research Guide under Statistics), especially Economist Intelligence Unit (Click on data tool) and World Development Indicators tend to be easier than national sources to navigate, download, and compare with other countries. Indiastat.com is the best way to navigate Indian produced statistics and gives the source of data for verification. Global Financial Data is your best bet for time series.

CEIC
Includes macroeconomic, industrial and financial time series data for India and other countries. Categories of available data points are: national accounts, production, government and public finance, demographic, inflation, foreign trade, balance of payments, banking statistics, investment, transport and telecommunication, energy, and financial markets. (HBS does not subscribe to the Premium Indian product).

Global Financial Data
Includes time series data for the economy, national accounts, and aggregate financial markets and indices for multiple countries. Sources of data vary by country and series.

Indiastat.com
Includes data from the Indian government and industry associations on health, education, industries, banks and financial institutions, companies, cooperatives, demographics, labor and workforce, foreign trade, transport, media, housing, urban areas and villages and more. The source of data and the years covered for any particular series is noted.

Reserve Bank of India
The web site of India's central bank includes notification on monetary policy, statistics on the Indian economy, including the handy Handbook of Statistics on the Indian Economy and information on the Indian banking sector.

Demographic Statistics

India GIS data in ESRI SHP format [electronic resource]
Includes four data sets: IndiaMap includes socio-demographic and economic Census data for 2001 at the State, District, Sub-District, and Town levels. VillageMap includes socio-demographic and economic Census data for 2001 at the Village level. PollMap includes parliamentary constituency boundaries and data relating to the past four national elections [1986-2004]. Optionally, an application for historical analysis and impact of regional and statewise swings can be added. HistoricMap shows decadal change in district boundaries of India since 1951. Socio-demographic data is included for the census years i.e. 1951, 1961, 1971, 1981, 1991 and 2001.

Census of India
Summary data for the 2001 census are available on the site. The Government Documents/Microform Collection in Lamont library have data going back to the 1890s.

National Sample Surveys
Check Harvard availability
Annual surveys conducted by the National Sample Survey Organisation on topics such as consumer expenditures, housing and healthcare. Survey data is available from the Documents & Microform Collection.

Data sources not currently available at HBS

Please contact Sarah Eriksen to inquire about purchasing access to these data sources

Indus Analyticus
Firm provides demographic, consumer expenditure, and real estate data and low level geographic entities.

Economic Research Organizations

ICRIER
Indian 'think tank' devoted to researching India's role in the global economy. Focus areas include;Macro-economic Management in an Open Economy; Trade, Openness, Restructuring and Competitiveness; Financial Sector Liberalisation and Regulation; WTO-related Issues; Regional Economic Co-operation with Focus on South Asia; Strategic Aspects of India's International Economic Relations; and Environment and Climate Change. Working papers and publications are available on the web site.

McKinsey & Co. - India Office
McKinsey's India office publishes some general economic reports on the Indian economy and economic development.

National Council of Applied Economic Research
Research organization focusing on economic growth, rural development, and economic behavior.

National Institute of Public Finance and Policy
Public policy research organization.

Foreign Trade

Department of Commerce
Information on trade policy and regulations as well as a link to a database of import and export statistics.

Export.gov India
A U.S. Commerce Department site that promotes trade with India. Site includes useful background information for the exporter, as well as information on trade missions.

UNCTDAD India
Endeavor, sponsored by the Government of India, UNCTDAD, and the UK Department for International Development, to promote India's trade and development. Includes several studies and publications on factors affecting trade and development.

United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database
Annual data by commodity and partner country that is supplied by member countries and converted into US dollars using exchange rates supplied by the countries, or derived from monthly market rates and volume of trade. Whenever possible, quantities are in metric units. For many countries the data coverage starts as far back as 1962.

Company databases and rankings

Prowess is our most comprehensive database of Indian companies. Where companies from India as well as other countries are needed, ORBIS is the recommended database.

CorpFiling | Corporate Filing and Dissemination System
System where companies can file and investors can read filings to the Securities Board of India. The documents tend to be one page tables in html format.

Orbis
ORBIS is a global company database that is unique in its breadth of geographies and extent of companies covered as well as the availability of private company financial information (depending on the country in which the company is located.) Data on private Indian companies comes from the Center for Monitoring the Indian Economy (CMIE). World'vest Base (Publicly Listed Corps) and Fitch (Public & Private Banks/Ins Co's) also provide Indian information.

Prowess (CMIE)
Database contains detailed information on over 20,000 firms, including all companies traded on India's major stock exchanges and several others in central public sector enterprises. Available on the HBS campus only. See instructions for installing Prowess.

Rankings

Business Standard 1000
Annual feature of the business newspaper ranks India's largest public and private companies. Lists are available as .pdf files.

Corporate Governance

Institute of Chartered Accountants of India
The site includes reporting standards, news on regulations and taxes, and professional development material for accountants.

National Foundation on Corporate Governance
The site, sponsored by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), provides guidelines and thought pieces on good corporate governance.

Financial Markets

Bombay Stock Exchange
The oldest stock exchange in India, the web site includes current and historical market data, and reports on companies provided by rating agencies.

Future of Financial Markets
Community oriented site on financial markets that includes industry news and research reports from several reputable sources.

National Stock Exchange of India
Trades in equities, debt, options, mutual funds, are executed here. Site includes aggregate current and historical market data, list of members, and research publications.

Securities and Exchange Board of India
The regulatory agency of India. The web site includes trading rules and regulations, statistics on market volume and capitalization, information on status of offers and mergers and acquisitions and investor education materials.

See also: Financial Markets Research Guide.

Private Equity

Emerging Markets Private Equity Association
Knowledge and Library Services has arranged for a membership in the Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (EMPEA). This gives us access to their web site including: analysis of private equity regulatory environment in emerging countries, statistics on emerging market private equity activity back to 2005 (including lists of individual fund closes and investments by region, as well as selected data from the Cambridge Associates Emerging Markets PE/VC Performance Index), a list of members, and a library of research publications.

Industries

Multiple Industry Sources

Where industries in India are being compared to their counterparts in other countries, Global Market Information Database is the preferred source. Frost & Sullivan gives good analysis of the industries that it covers. The Annual Survey of Industries is the most comprehensive Indian source of information.

Annual Survey of Industries
The web site, produced by the Ministry of Statistiics and Programme Implementation, features summary level data. Historical data are available from Indiastat.com Also available in the Documents Library. For example, see:
Annual survey of industries [electronic resources](1978-2004)
Annual survey of industries. Factory sector. (2002-).

Country Commercial Guide: India
Annual reports by the US Commerce Dept. are oriented to US firms seeking to do business in India. Include information on regulations and detailed information on markets, especially those that are good export opportunities.

EIU Data Services: Market Indicators & Forecasts
Tool lets one compare data across countries and years. Includes historical (from 1990) and forecast data for industries, demographics, technology, credit risks, business operations risks, and economics.

Frost & Sullivan
Has reports on the health care (particularly diagnostics markets and medical devices), energy, and information technology markets in India.

Global Market Information Database
Market research reports about various consumer products and industries worldwide. Also includes analysis of current socio-political situation, economic performance and future outlook.

KPMG India
The consultancy's site includes publications on various industries including, financial services, IT, defense, and health care.

Agriculture

Sectors: Agriculture
Brings together agriculture related government information including statistics, technology, resource management, etc.

IndiaOneStop.com Overview of Indian Agriculture

Auto

Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India
Site includes statistics on the industry and a directory of Indian automotive manufacturers.

Automotive Advisory Service
Ernst & Young's India subsidiary offers a few reports on this page. Some are on the site, others must be requested.

Energy

Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas
Site includes regulations, reports and statistics on the sector.

Confederation of Indian Industry: Energy
Includes reports on efforts to develop alternative energy sources.

Finance and Banking

Association of Mutual Funds in India
Trade association for the Mutual fund industry, includes aggregate data and fund closing prices.

BankScope
Each bank report contains detailed consolidated and/or unconsolidated balance sheet and income statement. Data comes from Fitch Ratings and six other sources. Also provides company and country risk ratings and reports, ownership, and security and price information.

EIU.com Country Finance
Current and archived (back to 1996) reports on the financial systems of India and 58 other developed and emerging countries.

Indian Banks Association
Includes financial statistics for private, public, foreign banks with links to bank sites.

Indian Private Equity & Venture Capital Association
Web site has some statistics and industry reports on the page.

See the Reserve Bank of India - Publications for descriptions and data on the Indian banking system.

Health Care

India Knowledge@Wharton: Health Economics
Articles on the health care system and industry in India.

World Health Organization - Countries - India
Includes basic health statistics and descriptions of several health related issues in India.

Ministry of Health & Family Welfare
Good source for information on healthcare policy and efforts of the national government to improve access to healthcare.

WHO India
The site of the World Health Organization office in India, includes information on diseases and agency activities.

Information Technology

IDC
IDC has good coverage of the technology environment in India. Dedicated services include India IT and Telecommunications Markets, India: Annual Point of Sale Terminal and Printer Market 2008, India: Identifying Opportunities in the Current Economic Scenario 2009, India: Mobile Handset Usage and Satisfaction Study 2010, and India: Mobile Service Usage and Satisfaction Study 2010.

Internet & Mobile Association of India
Trade association site includes research reports on internet related topics such as online advertising.

Manufacturers Association for Information Technology
Association for the Indian IT, Communications Technology and electronics hardware manufacturing industries, the site includes industry statistics and a directory of members that can be searched by product/component.

MediaNama: News & Analysis of Digital Media in India
Covers internet, telecom, and mobile communication and apps. Features business news and analysis of policy.

NASSCOM
NASSCOM is a national trade association for software, services and business process outsourceing. The web site allows one to browse for companies (an online directory with advanced search capabilities can be purchased) and includes presentations on initiatives (eg: green IT, diversity) and tables of contents and executive summaries of research reports.

Media

Ministry of Information and Broadcasting
Includes decisions, regulations etc. relating to radio and television broadcasting, film, and other media outlets.

TAM Media Research
The company measures television, radio and internet audiences. Summary data is available free on the site. In the past the company has been amenable to providing custom data to HBS faculty. Contact the India Research Center for more information.

Mining and Metals Manufacturing

Joint Plant Committe
A government sponsored entity that collects data on Indian steel production and trade. Articles on steel are also available.

Textiles

Ministry of Textiles
Government ministry promotes the textile industry. Site includes information about commercial policy, developments in various sectors of the industry and production and price information.

Utilities and Infrastructure

Cellular Operators Association of India
The web site of the New Delhi based trade association includes industry statistics, position and technology papers and a list of service providers.

Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
Regulations and statistics regarding broadcast and cable, landline, wireless, and internet access.

Trade Organizations

American Chamber of Commerce in India
Organization of US firms operating in India. Publications and member directory by industry are available on the web site.

Confederation of Indian Industry
One of the largest industry associations in India, the website includes publications on various industrial sectors, corporate governance, and Indian regions.

Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry
The organization promotes policies and events to advance Indian industry. Includes business confidence surveys and economic outlooks.

India Brand Equity Foundation
Site, funded by the Indian government, promotes foreign investment in India. Brings together useful information for investors.

US India Business Council
A trade association that promotes close commercial ties between the US and India. The site includes a list of upcoming trade events and a daily news feed from major Indian business news sources. Initiatives include intellectual property rights, and education.

Periodicals and Journals from and about India

Browse Baker Library's India related periodicals by subject, format and time period. (If you would like a copy of the spreadsheet and don't have access to the site, contact Andrea Schulman.

See also the historical periodical sources listed below and the related guide, India Business News.

Bibliography of Asian Studies
Indexes English-language books, essays in books, and periodical articles from 1971 on. Earlier print issues available from 1941 in Widener and Yenching libraries.

Historical Sources

Material in Baker Historical Collections.

Historic Corporate Reports Collection
The Historic Corporate Reports Collection includes a selection of original company documents of Indian companies the bulk of which are late twentieth century. The collection mainly consists of annual reports but includes other company-related publications. The collection currently documents approximately 83 companies, including the Tata family of companies and Indian Oil.

Baker Old Class Collection
The Baker Old Class Collection is a valuable resource for tracing the development and growth of Indian business and industry from the late nineteenth century to the1960s. The collection mainly includes but is not limited to trade publications and government documents. Among the many serials are The Calcutta Overland Prices Current from 1859 to 1864 and Industrial India: official organ of the All-India Manufacturers' Organization beginning in 1957. The unique arrangement of the collection brings together books, periodicals, and pamphlets by industry or topic, allowing researchers to readily browse related research materials.

Business Manuscript Collections
There are several substantial manuscript collections, dating from the late 18th to the mid-19th centuries, which document foreign trade and commerce with India in addition to other countries. Examples include the records of the Tudor Ice Company, 1752-1902, which exported ice and other merchandise. They owned ice houses in Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, Singapore, Jamaica, Havana, etc. and the trade was primarily with these areas. The Gustavus Tuckerman collection documents Tuckerman's involvement in the import trade in China and India, 1847-1860.

Kress Collection
The Kress Collection of Business and Economics includes over a thousand titles related to the history, culture and economy of India, with particular strengths in European commerce with and settlement of India and the history of the (English) East India Company from the early 17th century to the late 19th century. Although a majority of the resources concern British involvement and administration of India, commerce with other European countries, including France, Portugal, Denmark and the Netherlands, is also represented. Subjects covered include trade regulations on Indian imports and exports, specifically the textile, dyeing and cotton industries; the introduction of steam navigation, including the Calcutta railroad system and the East India Railway Company; debates on the East India Company's monopoly of the East India trade; general history, description and travel related to the British settlement and colonization of India; and the political and governmental administration of India, including taxation, statistics and public finance. There are also numerous guides to commerce with India for foreign merchants. Recent acquisitions include various titles related to the East India Company, the land tax in India, steam communications with India and a collection of manuscript documents related to the French trading company with India, the Compagnie des Indies and its director Simon Gilly, between 1740 and 1760.

Material from Online Resources

Newspapers and Other News Media

The Times of India
Check Harvard availability
Harvard has access to this national newspaper out of Bombay back to 1861.

South Asian Newspapers
South Asian Newspapers is one of the modules of the World Newspaper Archive. When complete, it will provide more than 400,000 fully searchable pages of newspapers published in South Asia dating from the 19th century. Content, made accessible on a rolling basis, will include titles published in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in English, Gujarati and Bengali.

Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS)
FBIS is a United States government agency which translates the text of daily radio and television broadcasts, newspapers and periodicals, government statements, books, and other sources of unrestricted information such as databases and gray literature from non-English sources around the world (46679 results for India). Reports with translations are issued for eight world regions daily and cover such topics as military affairs, politics, the environment, societal issues, economics, and science and technology. Readex will offer online access to daily reports for 1941-1996.

Periodicals

19th Century UK Periodicals Online, 1800-1900
Part 2 of this collection entitled "Empire" includes journals related to the expansion of the British empire published in Britain, India, Canada, South and East Africa, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Digitized Archives and Manuscripts and Print Resources

Foreign Office Files for India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, 1947-1980, Part I: 1947-1964">
Representing the DO 133, DO 134, FO 371 and FCO 37 files from The National Archives, Kew, this online collection consists of the British Government's files on the countries of South Asia from shortly before Indian partition and independence up to 1980. The collection will eventually consist of three sections:
Section I: Independence, Partition and the Nehru Era, 1947-64
Section II: South Asian Conflicts and Independence for Bangladesh, 1964-71
Section III: Afghanistan and the Cold War, Emergency Rule in India, and the Resumption of Civilian Rule in Pakistan, 1972-80

India, Raj and Empire
Diaries, letters, maps, sketches and official and private papers relating to the East India Company's activities in India date from before 1857 (when the area came under direct rule of the British government) and from 1857 to 1947. Topics covered in varying depth include social history, urban history, trade, wars, agriculture, travel and antiquities, and Indian and Imperial politics.

Making of the Modern World, 1450-1800
Facsimile images of 61,000 works of literature on economic and business published from 1450 through 1850. Strongly represented in the collection are works critical to the study of the East India Company. It combines the selected material from two pre-eminent collections -- the Kress Collection of Business and Economics at the Baker Library Historical Collections, Harvard Business School and the Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature at the University of London Library. Full-text searching on more than 12 million pages provides researchers unparalleled access to this vast collection of material on commerce, finance, social conditions, politics, trade and transport.

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