Finnish Companies Outsource to India, Too

(CHENNAI) - The global-giant handset-maker Nokia (NYSE:NOK) plans to make its Chennai manufacturing plant a major nerve center. Nokia said it plans to make its manufacturing plant in India, now the second-largest market for its handsets, a global hub for exports. Nokia already exports to 58 countries from the India plant, and it is looking at the Chennai as a global plant for global operations.

The world's largest handset maker by volume also said India has already over taken the U.S. to emerge as the largest market for Nokia handsets after China.

India's mobile market is one of the fastest growing in the world, fueled by low tariffs and rising middle-class incomes.

MP: Note that India has now surpassed the U.S. in cell phone sales, at least for #1 Nokia, and is second only to China globally. Just like the "baby boom generation" in the U.S. had a major impact as it matured and moved through the U.S. economy, the emerging "middle class boom" in India and China will have a major impact on the global economy as it grows and matures.

Quote: "The baby boomers are the rat that the snake swallowed. Through sheer numerical power, as it goes through the economy, the rat changes everything. If you have this big cohort, it changes all the institutions it goes through."

Like the baby boomers in the U.S., the emerging middle classes in India and China will be the rats that change everything.