Shillong's black Christmas

Shillong: The small channel community in Shillong is bracing itself for a low-key festive season. Being the capital city of Meghalaya, Shillong is the focal point of all state activities but with a population of 8 lakh, it is one of smaller cities of the eastern region. The government sector caters to 60-70 percent of the business in the IT sector, while the rest comes from education and retail.

Speaking about the slowdown in sales, Sarad Bawri, Director, Lifeline Enterprises said, “Business in the last two months have been dismal. Even though Christmas is round the corner, there is still minimal activity. This is the worst Christmas in terms of business for a long time.” Expressing his surprise at the turn of events, Bawri added, “We used to think that Shillong is isolated and shielded from the global economy due to its small size. But the ripples of world recession are being felt here too. Customers have tightened their purse strings now and business has spiraled down.” Bawri further added that there is a hibernation period that occurs right after the X-mas boom and the channel partners are usually prepared for that. “After February business picks up, but this year everything looks very uncertain,” he said.

According to Rajiv Kalra of Indian Export and Import Company, people have become cautious due to the fear of recession even though they are not directly affected by it. “As soon as there is a change in the thought process of the people, business will ease up. The fear of the economic gloom has put us in this situation,” he commented. Kalra further added that while business has been down channel partners were trying to tackle the situation by coming out with great Christmas schemes, which is helping ease the situation.

Another industry source confirmed that the market in Shillong has been faring poorly in the past few months. The source shared that business is down by 30 to 35 percent from the previous year. It is not just Shillong that has been affected. The situation is similar in other cities in the East, such as Guwahati.

However, Manish Pasari of Infotech Solutions believes that the changes in the market have been minimal. “For a market to be hit by recession, there needs to be a big economic boom. Shillong has not had a big boom as such and therefore the global economic meltdown is not evident here,” Pasari said. “I know there has been some government budget cuts, but its too early to tell whether that will have a serious impact on the IT market of Shillong. Though if the situation does not improve in the next few months, it could spell trouble,” he added cautiously.

A similar state of affairs was reported just before Durga Puja and Diwali in the East, when the IT sales in the entire region were at a all-time low. For the eastern zone of the country that has been dealing with floods, serial bomb blasts, the Singur fiasco, regular bandhs and the economic crisis, sluggish sales during Christmas holidays is another blow to the already struggling IT markets of the region.