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PANEL DISCUSSION
Panel Discussion was centred around l
Indian Mobile Handset Market: Opportunities and Challenges Ahead
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Scope of Feature Phones Domestic Vs Imports
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Govt. Policies (GST, BIS)
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Key Focus: 4G, Price bands, Tech ahead
Some Highlights of Panel Discussion Mr Bhattacharya, VP, IMRB: For a right decision, one needs the best and right data—from internal and external sources. The data is important as it helps to understand the industry and the ecosystem and take the right decisions. Incomplete, erroneous or misleading data can result in wrong conclusions and lead to bad decisions. This can have a debilitating effect on the whole process, the industry and the economy. Next, the data sources should be reliable. Right data, correct analysis and meaningful interpretation are necessary while managing the organizations and taking decisions. Seeking opportunity is not just fixing percentages and aiming at numbers, but most important is judicious assessment of the right target segment and the best strategy to reach out that segment. For instance, before launching a smart phone, the vendor should have clear information in terms of his target segment, the demand in that segment, the state of competition, demographics, the future projections, etc before taking decisions. Mr N.K. Goel: Yes. If we compare GST to a soup, the dif-
ferent entities, like central government, state governments, the industry and the last and the most important entity—the end consumer--who often bears the effects of the policies but cannot directly make policies, all have different interests and different expectations of this soup. Now, the GST, before it is finalized has to accommodate the opinions of 32 state governments and union territories. At last now the GST taking a shape, but we cannot know exactly how this soup will taste and how we are going to digest until it finally comes out, seen in implementation and experienced in practice. The government has been struggling for the last 2 years to accommodate the opinions and interests of different entities with new hindrances coming up at different stages. Now the soup is ready and it will be served soon hopefully by July 2017. Each of us has to taste and tell finally how he feels about the taste as different people have different tastes. Though everyone will not appreciate it, let us hope it will taste well to the majority.
Mobility APRIL 2017