When Warren Buffett recently invested $26bn to acquire full control of the Burlington Northern Railroad in the United States, his investment was less about transportation in America than about confidence in international trade and the value of logistics infrastructure, according to Paul Bradley, vice president of India's Economic Times. Bradley sees Buffet's decision as having important implications for India.
"Mr. Buffett is an astute investor, and when the stock prices fell during the recession, he placed a bet on the long-term value of the rail network as an optimal logistics play for the future believing in the inevitable expansion of global trade," Bradley writes. "From the same logic, as India's industrialization rapidly expands and consumer spending further evolves (especially through organized retail), the efficient movement of both raw material and consumer products will be essential to the country's continued expansion as a rising economic super power of the 21st Century.
"Mr. Buffett understood this concept with his recent acquisition and astute investors should equally study the opportunities in India as logistics infrastructure continues to build momentum," Bradley says.
