The " UnMetro "

Last week in Bangalore I was a part of this event Called “ The Unmetro” organized by Dainik Bhaskar a leading newspaper in different states of India and Afaqs an event management company . As from the name Unmetro you can sense that it is not about Metro . To explain in simple terms it was an event to discuss about emerging market and business scope in Unmetro cities of India, cities that are going to be like Metro in may be 7-10 years of time from now. There are around 50 such cities in India that are falling in this unmetro category and if you are looking for scope of business then these are some of the good places for you to start with. The event had speakers and panelist from different business categories and they explained their business experience in these cities and put forward thoughts on how future is going to be like for business in these cities. There are numerous opportunities for both national and international brands in India, especially in the tier II and tier III cities.

The Keynote was presented by P. Krishnakumar Executive Director & General Manager, Consumer & Small Business Dell India and he shared his experience about how Dell has managed to penetrate in these Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities and have been really successful. He shared some of the great insights related with doing computer/IT business in these fast growing and aspiring cities.  

 

The Keynote was followed by Ashwin Naik, CEO and co-founder, Vaatsalya, a chain of low-cost hospitals in the Unmetro cities of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. He explained about how he overcame tough and genuine negativity to establish the brand “Vaatsalya” in Tier 2 and 3 cities in South Part of India. He shared  about  a book  “ If you want to make God laugh then show him your business plan” and explained about how he is going to spread the brand in other unmetro of India .

 

It was followed by a panel discussion that had Sudhakar Rao, director - branding, ICFAI; Bhaskar Choudhari, director - marketing, Lenovo; Srinivasan KA, co-founder, strategy, business development and marketing, Amagi Media Labs; Meenal Lall, DGM Business Development AMC Cookware and Peter Suresh, head- BIU, DB Corp. It was all about Wealth in the Unmetro's. Who are the new rich? How are they getting there? 

 

In a  Q&A session where Arvind Hegde, managing director and director - consulting, Ray+Keshavan, participated in was concentrated on Design of Business.  Lacing his relies with examples, Hegde laid bare the design challenge in these markets, an altar at which a number of Indian brands had regrettably fallen short, according to him.

At last was Anustup Datta, COO, Vertebrand, Bengaluru, shared insightful quantitative data and research driven facts about these critical new markets for corporate India. He covered many surveys that were done to gauge different business and nonbusiness aspects of these unmetro cities

 

The event was managed and organised by afaqs! Events.

 

For more information and insight on this event visit http://www.unmetro.in/ and http://www.unmetro.in/unmetro-insight-details.html?aid=54