Northeast market fails to revive

Guwahati : Despite the speedy recovery promised by the state
government, nothing much has been done to bring life back to normal in the
northeast. The IT retail market has come to a standstill with sales dipping
below 30 percent across the region. This has left the dealer community sceptical
about the prevailing situation here, with pleas falling on deaf ears.

"We are closing down our shops early these days at 6:30pm to avoid any
trouble since tension is mounting up. Generally, the bulk of the trade takes
place around 7 to 8pm and since there is little movement in the streets and
market we are losing customers," said Joydeep Gupta, Joint Director, BMG
Informatics, Guwahati.

This week, the retail market was worst hit as a three day long political
bandh gripped the entire state coupled with another bandh on Tuesday, called by
the Assam Chamber of Commerce in protest of the government's failure to handle
insurgency in the area.

Amidst the tough situation here, distributors in the state have put up a
brave show ensuring proper logistical support across the state even under severe
security halts and check points setup across the region. Yet, because of the
panic situation, sales in Guwahati alone have dipped by over 25 to 30 percent
since last week.

"We can only hope the situation gets better with time. If the political
movements and bandhs by All Assam Students Union (AASU) and the leading
opposition party, AGP goes on at this pace, I wonder how long will we be able to
continue to run our business here," Gupta apprehended.

Dealers in south Assam and east Guwahati are optimistic about the situation
in Assam and are hoping that the market will soon recover.

"Even if the IT market in Assam comes to a complete halt now because of the
blasts and fear setting in, dealers here are accustomed to the political
situation. A breach in security has not only happened in this state alone, but
it has happened in Mumbai, Delhi, Gujarat and Bengaluru. I believe that it is
completely safe to carry out business here. It is because of the global slowdown
and the rise in hardware prices that the sales have gone down. Surely the market
will recover in another 20 days," said GC Biswas, CEO, SD Infotech, Guwahati.

Although distribution and logistics have been unaffected in the state because
of the distributors' strong presence here, other areas have been largely
affected, especially Tripura. Many dealers in Agartala are facing a severe
supply crunch as deliveries by the distributors could not be made in time.

"There has been a supply shortage here as distributors are not being able to
deliver the goods on time. The market is slow in Tripura now as it usually is in
November; otherwise, we would have faced a lot of problems with order supplies,"
said Subhash Modak, CEO, Computer Link, Agartala.

According to Nabarup Chakravarty, Branch Head-Northeast, Ingram Micro, "For
the past five days, transaction in the market has been pretty slow with sales
going down by nearly 30 percent. As there is apprehension about the security
concern in Guwahati, movement in the market is too slow for normal business to
carry on."

Ingram Micro has a storehouse in Guwahati from where resellers across
northeast are supplied products. "During the crisis, we have ensured proper
supply of stocks across Assam, but the supplies in the other states have been
much affected. However, the market has shown some signs of recovery in the last
two days, although at a much slower pace. We are hopeful that the market will
recover in another 20 days."

Another major distributor in the region, Redington India, saw their supply
chain taking a major hit. Debabrata Dey, Branch Manager-Northeast, Redington
India said, "Supplies and logistical movement across the region has been hit
hard. Although things have started improving now, I must admit that our supply
chain has been shattered particularly with lower Assam remaining closed and
cut-off. As political agitations are becoming the order of the day, transit in
the market is in a bad condition." Dey claims that while previously they were
able to deliver goods to Tripura in 10 days, now it is taking a minimum of 15
days to supply the same goods. "The scenario here is grim and I wonder how much
time it will take for the market to return to normalcy," said Dey.