Are the Prospectus of Indian IT Exports with West Asia in Doldrums?

India is in the eye of a raging storm with West Asia because of some objectionable comments made on Prophet Muhamamd by the ruling party's ex-spokesperson Nupur Sharma and ex-media head Navin Jindal. They were commenting in the context of Gyaanvapi mosque controversy. Nupur was participating in a TV debate and Navin made the comment on Twitter. A few days later, RSS Head Mohan Bhagwat made the surprising comment that his followers won't agitate against mosques in future, that Hindutva followers should stop looking for Hindu symbols under every mosque and India will become a major global power only if Hindus and Muslims walk together hand in hand. A few days later, both Nupur and Navin were expelled from the BJP.

The reason for these surprising turn of events became clear when the news broke out that the West Asian countries, followed by the other Muslim majority countries such as Maldives, Malaysia etc had expressed strong protest over the remarks made by the two BJP leaders. Some West Asian countries summoned the Indian ambassadors in their countries and formally lodged their protests and asked the government of India to apologise. The Indian govt said that strict action had been taken against both leaders, whose views represent the fringe element views; and India respects all religions.

However, the controversy refuses to die down. It has reached the UN. Pakistan has made strong observations against India in the UN. There is wide ranging criticism of India going on in most international circles. Al-Qaeda has threatened India with suicide bombings.

Implications for the IT Business

It has been widely discussed that these turn of events and the BJP's buckling down before the OIC have come around because these events have a strong trade implications for India. Some media outlets reported the news that in the Gulf countries, store owners have begun to boycott Indian made products, eventhough there's no official governmental boycott in these countries.

It must be mentioned here that India has trade worth 100s of billions of dollars with the OIC countries. Except the import of crude oil, much of this trade exists in the form of exports from India. Indian businesses are major exporters of electronics goods and IT services and solutions to the West Asia. Virtually every medium and large IT business leader in India has expanded his/her business to West Asia. All this trade can get adversely affected if the present situation continues or intensifies.

The present government has the business community's support base and the PM has worked very hard to build a business friendly relation with the OIC countries. This is the main reason for the Indian government to bend in front of the OIC.

The Indian IT exports to the West Asia include hardware, software, as-a-service platform solutions and services related to remote data management.

However, if this situation continues and if the UN takes a strong action against India, then the business community of India and the IT business leaders doing business in the Gulf will be primarily affected.

There is a need to repair the damage done so that the Indian IT business leaders' business in the West Asia continues.

Read more from Dr Archana Verma here 

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