Live data from Hacker News

I tried starting a manufacturing unit in India

superr.in

81–90 of 190 posts

Re: I tried starting a manufacturing unit in India

#81

Author of the article here. Do ask me if you have any questions.

Your article seems to imply that the process is inordinately difficult in India, but I'd challenge you to locate a country/jurisdiction that wouldn't put you through a rigorous process to convert a plot of agriculturally zoned land into a factory.

Maybe Shenzhen? But that's hardly agricultural anymore from what I've heard. I imagine you'll find few, and I suspect the infrastructure will be very poor in those places.

If you want no red tape, you need to go somewhere desperate for your investment enough to waive environmental, social and health protections, like parts of Sub Saharan Africa.

And in fact this is what many Indian and Chinese companies do. Just be ready to line the pocket of the local strongman.

Re: I tried starting a manufacturing unit in India

#82
I wonder about the larger context here.

Generally speaking in developed counties you can't just buy any given farmland and rezone it ... at will, just because you want to. That's not an automatic thing.

Nobody wants a smelting plant to just show up next to their town and pop up because someone wanted to build a smelting plant .... or something with massive truck traffic ... that now goes through small neighborhoods / school zones day and night ...

Having said that, the bureaucracy described is pretty thick. And at least in the US there's plenty of land that is locally zoned in a way that could change from farmland to something like 'light industrial' without that level of bureaucracy.

But you need to seek it out and not just buy rando farm land and announce you want to build a factory too..

I feel like this story both could happen in the US, but also would be fairly avoidable too.

I recall a hilarious story about a cosmetic company who operated exclusively in China but wanted to diversity their manufacturing around a bit and bought a building in a historic district in the US. But they did zero homework and were astonished to find out that nobody wanted trucks coming and going day and night through this small town's city streets and 'staging' in the local school parking lot. The clueless CEO said 'this was never a problem in China'...

Re: I tried starting a manufacturing unit in India

#83

Author of the article here. Do ask me if you have any questions.

If you were to to open a plant in China instead, which tariff would customers have to pay on your product?

It would depend on the product that is being manufactured/imported.

But the whole point of me starting this unit is because I "want" to make it happen in India and not import from China. There is a lot of unemployment in India and hopefully, I want to help a bit.

Re: I tried starting a manufacturing unit in India

#84

Author of the article here. Do ask me if you have any questions.

Have you considered contacting a local newspaper and going onto social media about this? It seems like the only ways to move this forward would be ("easiest" to most difficult): - forcing their hand with public shaming - forcing their hand with legal measures (looks like you're doing that) - changing things by getting officials into office that _want_ to change things P.S respect for hanging there this long already!

I have thought about it many times.

But the problem is everyone knows about this and majority of people think of this is good because they have been brainwashed by communistic ideology and they think that business people are bad and evil and hence they should be controlled and suppressed by all possible means.

Re: I tried starting a manufacturing unit in India

#85
post #63
post #23

There is zero benefit of setting manufacturing unit in India. Afaik, most of the manufacturing that happens here is assembly. Unless your product is one of those mass market, multi million dollar revenue makers you'll be eaten alive by adminstrative costs.

I'm a complete outsider, but from my perspective Indian manufacturing seems poised to doubly benefit from increased export at China's expense, and 'patriotic' local sales (even required by legislation in some cases).

[deleted]

Re: I tried starting a manufacturing unit in India

#87
Hernando de Soto did exactly this work almost 2 decades ago. He documented how many steps and weeks it takes to register a property or start a business. His thesis is that this cumbersome process limits capital formation in a business which then limits being able to leverage it via a loan and hence limits the size of small enterprises. The same goes for property since most small entrepreneurs use their home as collateral. This has locked up trillions in value which can be unlocked. His work is fascinating and was frequently mentioned for a Nobel.

[1] Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and fails everywhere else https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XCFW5ZN/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?...

[2] Mystery of Capital Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nco18FWM85E

Re: I tried starting a manufacturing unit in India

#90
post #82

I wonder about the larger context here. Generally speaking in developed counties you can't just buy any given farmland and rezone it ... at will, just because you want to. That's not an automatic thing. Nobody wants a smelting plant to just show up next to their town and pop up because someone wanted to build a smelting plant .... or something with massive truck traffic ... that now goes through small neighborhoods /…

The land in the write-up is located beside a highway and trucks don't need to go through any town to get to the unit.

Nor a I trying to build a heavy industry like a smelting plant. I am currently planning to build a warehouse shed which could be later converted into very light manufacturing plant for animal feed pellets or something similar.

Also, there are very few areas zoned as Industrial land. Also, this isn't a random piece of farmland. It's almost a barren land where most people grow grape vines or just some dry land crops like cactus.

Post reply on HN