David Oualaalou examines reports that DJI refused a 1.5 billion rupee Indian military drone order, citing market risk. The incident reflects a broader pattern of foreign companies exiting India, from Huawei to Apple, with thousands of subsidiaries ceasing operations between 2014 and 2021.
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Hello everyone and welcome to Geopolitical Trends. My name is David Oualaalou. Good to be with you as always. As a geopolitical analyst, I ask: after Indian military placed a huge order with DJI, a drone company, this is Chinese company, DJI refused to sell. Why that is? In this video, I'm going to provide you not only the answer to this question, but also my assessment as to how India has been recently sort of facing setbacks when it comes to foreign investments. Let's dive in into this fascinating topic. Recently, a business dispute between Chinese drone maker DJI and the Indian government sparked major discussions in the industry as to how reliable India is when it comes to doing business. So there are reports, and there are two contradictory reports. That's why I want to report this to you first, and we can further elaborate on it on a live stream as I am confirming other information. So reports claims that the Indian military Yeah, placed a huge order with DGI, but DGI refused to sell due to— and I put this in quote— high risk in the Indian market, end of quote. So which basically has attracted now attention, this issue. So, so DGI responded to inquiries from the Global Times stating that the speculation is seriously inaccurate. So DJI has not received any order from the Indian side, nor has it exported drones for military purposes, because DJI, by the way, produces drones for civilian use. Now, an article circulating on the internet claims that, and I put this in quote, according to a report from Hindustan Times, which is based in New Delhi, and information revealed by industry insiders that the Indian military recently placed an order worth about 135 million yuan, the equivalency of $18.8 million, with DJI. But DJI sort of requested to receive the goods after India pays 25% deposits. It also claimed that the DGI believed that, and I put this in quotes, "The Indian market carries high risk with unstable political, economic, and social environments and relatively outdated commercial laws, making commercial fraud quite common." End of quote. Therefore, DGI refused the order, citing, and I put it in quotes here, the high risk in the Indian markets. End of quote. So this circulated content has attracted now attention and even linked DGI actions to the unfair treatments faced by the Chinese companies in the Indian markets. We all remember Huawei. We all remember BYD, right? Suggesting that this is another move by Chinese companies to avoid falling into the Indian market trap and to establish rules for the Indian market. Ah, you can just see. So if the article is coming out of New Delhi and being worded this way, You can see what it's aiming at. But here is what I found in my own research, and I digged enough into this, and I found out that despite the red carpet liberal policies and incentives that India claims to offer foreign businesses, it is also true that India has not exactly been sort of a happy hunting ground for several multinational corporations. I did the research and the data showed me, and I found an article, by the way, in 2022, and I put the link for you guys, that the government in India revealed in its parliament in December of 2022, so which is last year, that as many as 2,783 foreign companies and their subsidiaries, their subsidiaries ceased operations in India. And this was between 2014 and 2021. This is according to the research that I found. So, and by the way, I'm gonna give you an example of some of those multinational corporations. You're looking at, uh, Cairn Energy, you're looking at Holcim, You're looking at Daiichi Sankyo. You're looking at Carrefour, which is from France. You're looking at Henkel, Harley-Davidson, and Ford, among others. We all know what's happened with Foxconn, right? We all know what just happened with Apple moving its operations to China, even though I've heard that Apple kept some, but most of its operations moved to China. BYD, which I did a video for you guys, did not agree to deliver the goods to India without receiving first a deposit. And Indian officials accused them of not adhering to international business rule. Well, no, no, no, no, no, you have to— it's a normal process in business. You pay either 50% upfront, then you pay— you complete the funds at the end. Simple as that. So the idea that— well, they claiming that, well, who violated the rules first? In the end, India agreed to pay 80% in advance, leaving aside the cost of effectiveness, you know, of the Chinese electric buses. So no more. And this is what happened because the company requested from India to pay 21% deposit of the cost. So, so according to report, there were possibility of a deal between DGI and India, but multiple negotiations ended up in failure. So it tells you where the story is. Maybe time has come now for some calls for the Indian government's to come forward with really its practices as to why multinational corporations are exiting India. So if you guys like me to further elaborate on this topic, I did the research, I found a massive amount of information, I'll be happy to do it. Just make sure to leave me comments, uh, or, or questions, and if you like me to do this live stream. So by the way, If you like the content of this video, please hit that like button and subscribe to show your support for this channel, and I truly appreciate it. As always, remember, geopolitics impacts your daily life in more ways than one. Till next time, bye-bye.
