The recently concluded India golf expo left visitors wanting
more. The expo broke tradition by coming to Bangalore after a departure of more
than 5 years. Needless to say that golfers in the city were excited for what
was in store.
2 days of symposium with an expert panel providing
participants insights into the sport from the construction, management and
governance.
No expo will be complete without a selection of merchandise
available for participants and visitors. Showcased were the latest and greatest
from leading manufacturers such as Taylormade, Callaway and Footjoy.
2018-2019 is an important year for India. From a political
point of view some key states are going to polls which will impact the general
elections to be scheduled in 2019. From an economic perspective, India has been
surviving on a consistent GDP growth of 7%. This is despite global pressure and
increasing nationalist trade policies by important global markets.
Despite India’s noteworthy GDP, the economy has been hit by
a few major shocks and the positive effects of these shocks are delayed. One
major shock to the system came through demonetization, where over night
currency notes were no longer legal tender. The next jolt came in the form of
GST, the unification of indirect tax, though important made it very difficult
for small manufactures and MSME’s to quickly adjust their processes to now
conform to the new tax system. The constant altering of the tax rate by the GST
council is a concern, however the in the long run this should ease doing
business for large sections of the business community. Unfortunately at present we are still
at the beginning of this journey. Finally another reform that has had a
tremendous impact on the economy is RERA. Real estate in India has been one of
the main drivers of economic growth and forms the highest percentage of
investment by Indians after gold. The net result is that real estate has a
spectrum of businesses and developers to offer options at various price points.
When RERA was announced for the industry, even though from a buyers perspective
it is transformational, for an industry perspective it is over bearing, as it
over night caused a major shift in the nature of the business. The net result
has been a delay in the announcements of new projects by developers and
prolonged slow down in the market.
In this scenario, the implications for golf are quite
significant. In India, golf is an aspriational sport whose growth is fueled by
increasing incomes and a burgeoning real estate climate. The physical
development of the sport will always be constrained by market forces and
political climate, however As stakeholders in the industry, we need to evolve
golf to have a third fuel of growth. This is true more than ever this year as
the country is in the run up the general elections of 2019.
Improving participation and encouraging beginners is one
aspect the sport needs to address as part of this vision. The golf associations
in India do their bit by encouraging junior development programs, however in
private enterprise as well, this needs to be encouraged. One step in this
direction would be more discussion on improving teaching methodology and golf
coaching, seminars devoted to teaching professionals, where professionals can
meet and share thoughts and ideas. In addition, golf also needs to penetrate
into schools, in particular international schools where fees are higher and
emphasis is placed on unique facilities on offer. This would help inculcate
golf at the grass root level and work in tandem to what is organized at the
associations.
In 2018-2019, as an industry we need to weather out this
storm of stagnation and prepare ourselves for the turn around. On a world stage
in January 2019, the rules of golf
are set of a massive game changing over haul. Perhaps this is the catalyst that
the industry needs.
As stakeholders of this beautiful game it is our duty to
weather out this passing storm and prepare ourselves for the growth. If we can
make small strides in these areas, the industry will have strong platform, from
which the next leap of growth can be made.
