BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : OCTOBER 23, 2000 ISSUE
BUSINESS WEEK E.BIZ -- STRATEGIES Revving Up in India (int'l edition) For two years, Anand Mahindra and Sunil Munjal were both working on setting up electronic marketplaces for their companies: auto maker Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. and motorcycle maker Hero Honda Motors Ltd., respectively. Although it was all going fine, Munjal realized that doing it alone would be nowhere near as profitable as ''doing it with a large group with more volume.'' So when his friend Mahindra approached him in May with a plan for an e-marketplace involving all the large auto makers and suppliers in India, Munjal jumped at the idea. That's how the India Auto Exchange got rolling. The venture, with $50 million pledged by investors, will include the entire automotive community from truckmakers to drivers and will provide everything from auto parts to mapping services. When it launches next summer, it will even sell cars online--something the Big Three auto makers' e-marketplace, Covisint, does not plan to do. Initially the exchange is just for India, but there are plans to hook up with Covisint and Volkswagen. India has big B2B ambitions--but its hurdles are just as sizable. Plans are on the drawing boards for four other online exchanges in such fields as agriculture and pharmaceuticals. Problem is, many of India's small suppliers don't even use computers, much less the Internet. And, while the government is rapidly privatizing the phone system, it's so creaky right now that few of the 28 states support Internet connections. There are just 2.6 phone lines for every 100 Indians, compared with a world average of 15 per 100. Existing bandwidth meets only 60% of current demand. So until this car gets wheels, it won't go very far. By Manjeet Kripalani _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS EBIZ Contents for issue dated Oct. 23, 2000 Asia's Internet Deficit (int'l edition) CHART: Asia Execs Tiptoe into E-Commerce TABLE: Playing Catch-Up (int'l edition) Prodding Singapore (int'l edition) Revving Up in India (int'l edition) Korea's B2B King (int'l edition) Drug Coup in China? (int'l edition) ONLINE EXTRA: Q&A with Gartner Group's Lane Leskela INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

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