India is scorching proper now with U.S. shoppers and corporations. When Mattel launched its first Diwali Barbie earlier this month, the doll offered out in a day. U.S. retailers like Goal, Costco and Walmart are doubling down on merchandise to rejoice the Indian pageant of lights, which can start this 12 months on October 31.
At its inaugural India Development Summit this 12 months, Walmart reiterated a pledge to yearly supply $10 billion in items from India by 2027. In the meantime, U.S. imports from India have greater than doubled within the final decade to $87.3 billion final 12 months.
In fact, India has lengthy been a spot the place U.S. firms situated back-office and enterprise assist features as a result of its expert workforce, low labor prices, and ease of communication, spawning family names like Infosys, Wipro and HCL. The nation’s financial reforms and fast-growing center class helped propel firms like HDFC Financial institution onto the Fortune World 500 checklist this 12 months.
I just lately spoke with Viren Popli, CEO of Houston-based Mahindra Ag North America (MAgNA), a part of the broader Mahindra Group. Along with boasting the world’s top-selling tractor by quantity, Mahindra has been early with improvements like a tractor that runs on compressed bio-gas and “smart” subcompact tractors. Popli additionally oversees the automotive enterprise in North America and Mahindra Brazil, the place it opened a brand new manufacturing facility earlier this 12 months.
Whereas Mahindra’s Brazil enterprise is concentrated lower-cost primary tractors, its 30-year-old U.S. enterprise has the next portion of interest farmers in search of small however subtle machines. “About 15% of the market is below 20 horsepower,” he says. “These are the rural lifestyle seekers who buy big pieces of land and want to maybe have a small vegetable patch … They’re escaping technology and urban lifestyle, going back to this so-called simple life.”
“I think the brand of India itself is growing in the U.S.,” says Popli. “It started off with tech and now we’ve had lots of senior leadership in various organizations and Indian brands coming in the supply chain.”
As one of many largest Indian B2C manufacturers within the U.S., Popli is conscious of geopolitical forces that affect gross sales. “At a dealer conference recently, I got asked by about 10 dealers, how much Chinese content do you have in your product? We’ve never been asked about that.”
For some U.S. prospects, Mahindra is greatest often called the anchor sponsor for the No. 14 NASCAR Cup Sequence workforce and driver Chase Briscoe. “The community that watches it is largely rural,” says Popli. “And it’s so cool.”
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Diane Brady
diane.brady@fortune.com
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