Recession-proof
Look around and all you get to hear are never-ending discussions on recession, economies crashing down, markets going dry, freezing recruitments, wage cuts and of course the much dreaded word layoff.
But as they say, what goes up, comes down, there are industries that did not get that badly hit by this recession and are managing to sail through smoothly. They are unharmed by this turmoil and continue with their expansion and recruitment plans. Here's a look at some of these industries:
Pharmaceutical
"Even in negative situations like a crisis or recession, there is someone that profits. Wouldn't people still go to various doctor's or other pharmacies to get their prescriptions and medicine they're in need of ? I think they would," says Anil Kumar Kathuria Senior Manager HRM Administration , IOLCP.
According to Ajay Kumar, HR Director, BD India, "Pharmaceutical industry has been less affected by the global economic meltdown since consumption patterns in this industry is normally the last to get affected."
KPO/LPO
Within the domestic market, the demand for legal services has been equally strong because of the economic growth. This has resulted in the rising demand of legal professionals .
"The economic slowdown in the US has resulted in law departments of corporations revisiting their legal processes and budgets arising from the sub-prime fallout. As a result , getting legal work done efficiently and cost-effectively from quality offshore providers in India has become a compelling option," says Bhaskar Bagchi, CPA Global.
Vivek Menon, Director, Human Capital Management, Integreon adds, "One of the sectors in the outsourcing industry that has been relatively unaffected by the economic recession is the Knowledge Process Outsourcing / Legal Process Outsourcing (KPO/LPO) industry . This space is driven by investment banks, law firms and large corporations. To survive the recession, businesses will have to rethink their strategies with an emphasis on optimising costs and growing the business."
Healthcare
"I would say that healthcare is one of the key sectors that have largely remained unaffected because it is a necessity like food and shelter and not a luxury. People tend to delay expenditure on all other things, but when it comes to necessities like food, home rent, education of kids and healthcare of the family, one makes sure that he gets the best that he can afford," explains Dr Balbir Singh, Senior Cardiologist, Apollo Hospital.
Narender Kumar, Business Head-VLCC Institutes adds, "Sectors like beauty and wellness, healthcare, education and pharma are now termed as necessities of life and a person generally does not like to cut down them."
Education
Education sector is also exhibiting resilience towards the impact of recession, as people prefer spending more on education to counter job crunch in times of economic meltdown.
"It will be an exaggeration , if we say that these sectors have remained insulated from the impact of the recession. But, on a comparative basis, the impact has been on the lower side. This can be attributed to the principle of 'Zero Sum Game' , where the loss of one sector can be termed as a gain for the other.
This is particularly true in case of education sector, where people go for higher education to gain an edge over others in job market ," expresses Ashok Mittal, Chancellor, Lovely Professional University.
FMCG
"The unit value of the product in the FMCG sector is too small to be affected by recession. These are daily utility items and will move at the counter irrespective," avers Amal Purandare , Head India Operations , Arzoo.com.
For example, a person might cut expenses by not buying an expensive soap, but she buys a soap nevertheless and doesn't settle for just a water bath, due to recession ," he says.
Interactive Media
The reasons for Web Solutions /Interactive Media businesses to not only sustain themselves but actually grow during the recession are simple. When most companies are looking to cut costs on expensive traditional media , the natural alternative takes them to the new communication and customer interaction medium of the Internet ," says Vineet Bajpai, Founder and CEO, Magnon Solutions Pvt. Ltd. and Magnon Interactive Pvt. Ltd.
Purandare further states that though the travel industry did get hit by the recession, the growth in the 'online travel' industry is so encouraging that a relatively small blip in the graph due to recession can be easily compensated by the industry's awakening of the benefits of booking online.
"Sectors where spending is largely non discretionary are primarily the sectors which remained unaffected and sectors which offer direct savings in cost or increase in productivity, saw growth," adds Harish Bahl, Founder & CEO, SITG(Smile Interactive Technology Group.
Telecommunications
Aditya Maheshwari, Director -HR , Delta Electronics India says, "Government is driving huge investments to improve and expand tele-density in India's huge rural market which accounts for 70% of total Indian population. Several international players are also setting up base in India to target this huge market."
"Telecom sector has also shown a recession proof character as a mobile phone today has evolved into more of a necessity , just like food, shelter, clothing, healthcare, etc., " asserts Sumesh Arora, Head Finance & Administration, FUJIFILM India, adding, "India has immense potential for growth and this recession will not be able to put a noticeable dent on it for long."
Power
"In case of power, it's a basic infrastructure requirement and there is still a long way to go in achieving self sufficiency in this sector.
More players are required to join hands with the public sector to improve the requirement levels," avers Maheshwari.
Consumer Goods
Maheshwari states, "Millions of Indians under the age of 30 are slowly receiving better access to healthcare and education , which enables younger Indians to drive the economy by virtue of middle class growth. They will become consumers , spend discretionary income, and enjoy the associated status. This growing middle class will continue to create large levels of domestic customer demand for goods and services."
"The economy of India is the 12th largest in the world by market exchange rates and 4th largest in terms of GDP. Projections of sustained strong growth in India depend importantly on the utilisation of the huge increase in India's working-age population projected over the next two decades. I foresee more employment as economy will bounce back and move upwards ," Suman Anjoy, Head, HR & Professional Services, Himalaya Optical states.
These industries go on to prove that though things are looking glum, there is still a silver lining in the cloud. They have managed to sail through these troubled waters smoothly and the future is certainly looking bright.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/quickiearticleshow/4587567.cms
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