UPS faces protective challenges with India

With its Indian partner, Jetair Business Solutions, Sandy Springs-based UPS expanded business in India by a whopping 25 percent last year, representing a growing — if deliberately undisclosed — portion of UPS' $47.5 billion in revenue. The UPS Store in New Delhi, the company's fourth in India, is part of a rollout of 150 retail stores over the next four years.
With markets at home becoming saturated — and with an economy appearing to slow down — many American companies are looking toward the world's fastest-growing economies, India and China, to pick up the slack. India's economy is expanding at its fastest rate in nearly two decades: Its $771 billion economy grew by 9.4 percent in the last fiscal year, slightly higher than expected.
But India's postal service wants to rein in international express couriers doing business in India, in what many here see as a backward step in the liberalization of the country's economy.
A recent proposal to be reviewed by Parliament gives the postal service exclusive rights for express delivery of letters weighing up to 300 grams within the country, virtually shielding the government agency from competition.
The proposal also blocks foreign ownership of express couriers operating in India and requires large private courier services to fork over 10 percent of their profits to a fund that helps the government improve its delivery service to the country's rural areas.
22/07/07 Raymond Thibodeaux/Atlanta Journal Constitution, US

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Categories: Cargo Jul 2007, Foreign Jul 2007