Emerging Wealth & Work Force

India’s population is accumulating more wealth as its economy continues to develop. One fifth of
theworlds middle class population live in a BRIC economy. Figure 3 (see appendices) shows the
growth of the global middle class population over the next 20 years. China circa 2010
were 13th in the list of countries with the most of their population who were middle class this
can be seen in figure 4 (seeappendices). India over the coming years has the opportunity to
expand its middle class population to
overtake the likes of China. According to
Li, C (2010:39)
this will be a result of “India’s...more rapidpopulation growth and even income distribution which allows
growth to be distributed across allsegments of society.” This is ideal for a foreign investor as the
wealth and growth of the Indian population currently being seenis a long term benefit.
Any investor seeking to invest can have the reassurance that there will an
everincreasing number of middle class citizens with higher disposable income. This is a
huge opportunity foran investor seeking to invest in the Indian aviation industry as there
seems to be a strong correlationbetween economic growth and growth in the aviation industry.
Currently there is a lack of a westerninfluenced Indian based airline that offers both domestic and
international routes, the Indian’s desire toembrace the western lifestyle gives the ideal
platform for a western influenced airline.
Hjarvard, S(2003:243)
backs this up by quoting “a middle-class utopia of India’s global modernity is a desire
toappropriate and take part in certain forms of Western otherness: the ability to travel abroad...the
abilityto consume foreign goods and to appropriate other aspects of a Western material lifestyle.”Not
only is there a wealth of potential customers within India there is also a large amount of
workforcethat are trained within the aviation industry. This will allow any foreign investor
to quickly build a qualityworkforce and integrate them into business operations.
Swaminathan, M (2009:140)
states that theIndia’s civil aviation has become the third largest creator of jobs and careers. Also
states that in the1980’s state-owned Indian Airlines recruited personnel in so much excess compared
to its operationaldemand. Therefore recruitment within the industry would be the ideal opportunity to
recruit the bestpersonnel from industry competitors as they would in most cases be
operating from the same airportsacross India.