Girija Pande & Haiyan Wang 
The Silk Road Rediscovered 
How Indian and Chinese Companies Are Becoming Globally Stronger by Winning in Each Other’s Markets

A roadmap for understanding the business challenges and
opportunities in China

By 2025, China and India will be two of the world’s four largest
economies. By then, economic ties between them should also rank
among the ten most important bilateral ties worldwide. Their
leaders are well aware of these emerging realities. In May 2013,
just two months after taking charge, Premier Li Keqiang left for
India on his first official trip outside China, a clear signal of
China’s foreign policy priorities.

The Silk Road Rediscovered is the first book ever to
analyze the growing corporate linkages between India and China. Did
you know that:

* India’s Mahindra is the fifth largest tractor manufacturer in
China?

* Tata Motors’ Jaguar Land Rover unit is the fastest growing
luxury auto seller in China?

* India’s NIIT is the most influential IT training brand in
China?

* China’s Huawei has its second largest R&D center in
Bangalore and employs over 5000 people in India?

* Shanghai Electric earns its largest revenues outside China from
India?

As these developments illustrate, pioneering Indian and Chinese
companies are rediscovering the fabled Silk Road which joined their
nations in ancient times. Winning in each other’s markets is also
making them stronger and whetting their appetite for further global
expansion.

This book examines how Indian companies such as Tata Consultancy
Services, Mahindra Tractors, NIIT, Tata Motors/Jaguar Land Rover
and Sundaram Fasteners have figured out how to win in China. Their
experiences may inspire and offer lessons to other Indian
companies. The book also examines how Chinese pioneers such as
Lenovo, Huawei, TBEA, Haier and Xinxing have made a strong
commitment to India and are beginning to realize the fruits of this
commitment. The key lessons that emerge from these analyses are:
the odds of success go up dramatically when executives adopt a
global rather than local-for-local perspective and are
skillful at learning on the ground.

Table of Content

Foreword – William Antholis, Managing Director, The Brookings Institution xi

Preface xix

Acknowledgments xxix

1 Asia’s Best-Kept Secret 1
Growing Economic Ties Between India and China

2 Succeeding in China 45
Opportunities and Challenges

3 Leveraging India’s Home-Country Advantages 89
Tata Consultancy Services in China

4 Making China a Second Home 115
Mahindra Tractors in China

5 Partnering with Chinese Institutions 137
NIIT in China

6 Driving Indirectly into China 161
Tata Motors and Jaguar Land Rover

7 Committed Pioneers 179
Chinese Companies in India

8 A China Roadmap for Indian Companies 223

Notes 249

About the Authors 257

Index 265

About the author

Anil K. Gupta is the Michael Dingman Chair in Strategy and Globalization at The University of Maryland’s Smith Business School. The author of six books including Getting China and India Right, he is ranked by Thinkers50 as one of the ‘world’s 50 most influential living management thinkers.’ He is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Emerging Multinationals.

Girija Pande is Executive Chairman, Apex Avalon Consulting, Singapore. Avalon is one of India’s largest strategy consulting firms. He was previously chairman/CEO, Asia-Pacific for Tata Consultancy Services. He received the Best CEO Award from Singapore HR Institute and serves on the boards of several companies as well as Singapore Management University and the Institute of South Asian Studies, Singapore.

Haiyan Wang is Managing Partner, China India Institute and co-author of Getting China and India Right. She has also been an Adjunct Professor of Strategy at INSEAD. A regular speaker at major events including TEDx, Economist Conferences, and Summer Davos, she has been named a ‘New Guru’ by The Economic Times. She writes a regular column for Bloomberg Businessweek.