"OUR INDIAN BUSINESS IS THE FASTEST GROWING ACROSS MARKETS"

Headquartered in the United States, NYSElisted Belden Inc. is a leading global provider of network infrastructure and digitisation solutions.

BW Businessworld caught up with its President and CEO, Ashish Chand, on his first visit to India after taking over the reins at Belden in February 2023 to understand the company’s India playbook. Excerpts from a conversation with Arjun Yadav:

We recently inaugurated our first Indian Customer Innovation Centre in Bangalore. We have built just five such centres globally

What’s behind Belden upping its game in India? What are the indicators that are driving this interest? 

India is a very interesting country where new infrastructure is being built and made more efficient using technology. Typically, countries first build infrastructure and then make it more efficient. But in India, this is happening in parallel. Many other indicators make this market attractive, such as the demographic dividend, the growing middle class, and their aspirations. Credit is growing at 15 per cent per annum, showing a lot of investment capacity. But at the same time, there can be issues around capital efficiency. If capital doesn’t become more efficient in India, it can lead to too much debt. The purpose of my visit was to reassess our posture, expose some of my colleagues to the realities of India beyond the headlines, understand the pros and cons of each of these dimensions and see where we can add value.

How do you see the thrust on infrastructure in India and how do you see Belden tapping it?

If we look at public investment within India over the last three to five years, 95 per cent of it has gone to transportation. So, that certainly is a big focus area for us.