By Somali K Chakrabarti

Made In China goods set new Indian standards – The Times of India on 05th May, 2015

Today if you see your laptop, your cell phone, your TV , or your wifi dongle, there is a high possibility that you’ll find ‘Made in China’ labels on all of them.

China, the manufacturing hub and workshop of the world, is the largest exporter of goods in the world. ‘Made in China’ goods are to be found in almost all different parts of the world – be it in Europe, be it in the US or be it in India.

A wide range of utility items from electric bulbs, to thermometers, to bottles, to cutlery, to nail cutters, to those brightly coloured gizmos, some with flashy lights, fancy Chinese dragons are made in China and shipped to different countries including India. I have picked up a couple of them from different places and surprisingly some of them lasted for a few years.

Mind you, the list is not limited only to toys and gizmos.

Even idols of Gods and Goddesses such as Ganapati, Laxmi or Krishna are now being made en masse in China, and shipped to India in containers; it seems the China made gods are much in demand.

China is all set to build Global brands

Though colourful, fancy & attractively prices and they sell quickly, yet the faith of ‘Made in China’ goods still remains low.

Though this is the case with most Emerging Market brands, the perception of Chinese brands is likely to change soon, aided by the mandates of Make in India campaign.

The Make in India campaign requires that all products to be manufactured and sold in India have to comply with Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) norms.

All manufacturers Indian or foreign goods would be registered after their products are tested and found to confirm with the BIS standards. Availing this opportunity, Chinese manufacturers are upgrading their products to meet Indian standards and register under the new BIS scheme to declare conformity to Indian standards.

Of the 1574, items registered with BIS, 960 are Chinese goods.

Companies like Dell (tablets and servers), Sony (LCD monitors), Cisco routers are using China to ship goods into India.

Other Chinese players like Huawei, Haier and Xiaomi have already emerged as global brands.

Using an approach similar to how Honda and Toyota had set up their subsidiaries, production facilities and R&D in US, Europe in the 1960s, Huawei, Haier and Xiaomi have set up production facilities and R&D centres in India to get the consumer insights from India.

These global Chinese brands are using this opportunity to conform to Indian standards.

Having acquired the expertise to make world class products for Apple, Bosch, Dell or Ericsson, the day is not very far away when the Chinese start putting their own labels on their products.

The coming years will see more Chinese goods entering our homes.

Read my post ‘ Branded Hilsa on a Platter‘ on why Emerging Markets need to build Global Brands.

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