(Top) A view of snow-clad Munich; (Below) A crestfallen Oliver Kahn

The fair…

Over 500,000 sq m of exhibition space in the halls and at the open-air site of the swank and newly-expanded Munich Trade Fair Centre. More than 2,400 exhibitors showcasing their cutting-edge technology, including international participants from 45 countries. It doesn’t get bigger than this.

bauma + mining 2004, the largest investment goods trade fair in the world, will be held in Munich during much kinder climes, from March 29 to April 4. But the picturesque Bavarian city, fiercely proud of its beer and Bayern Munich, is putting its best foot forward even in the midst of the snow-swept winter to make the summer expo catching a truly memorable one for participants and visitors alike.

And the summer of ’04 will find more participation from this part of the world, with 21 companies from India (up from three last year), taking up 425 sq m of exhibition space (up from 60 sq m in 2001).

More than 180 media representatives from Germany and the rest of the world were invited to a sneak-peak at the glittering Munich fair centre, part of which would also house the media centre for the 2006 Fifa World Cup.

As the FC Bayern Munchen-emblazoned, giant twin-level bus swerved off the A94 motorway and rolled into the white-sheet kerb approaching the fair grounds, the sheer magnificence of the steel-and-glass messe (mela ground for us) was awesome. Inside, it was German organisation and marketing mettle at its professional best, as the fair officials reeled off impressive facts and figures to stress why the 27th international trade fair for construction machinery, building material machines, construction vehicles, construction equipment and mining machines will be “the best ever”.

A stable democracy and a large pool of young, educated people offered good sales opportunities in India, raising expectations of “moderate to good” growth rates comparable with Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, said German trade experts.

“Demographic figures alone make India a very promising country and a lot of potential and foreign manufacturers are increasingly shifting their production sites to that country,” according to Reinhold Festge, president of the Construction Equipment and Building Material Machinery Association of the German Engineering Federation (VDMA).

With China being “an absolute boom market” for a number of years, Festge cautioned that two-digit growth rates, “as in the past”, can’t be expected, at least not in the medium term. “A growing number of voices in Europe are starting to warn against overheating the domestic economic activity in China, pointing to the situation in Southeast Asia in 1997, when the financial markets were stuck in a prolonged crisis,” he said.

Under the circumstances, other Southeast Asian countries and India offered “extremely viable alternatives”, felt a section of exhibitors who will hawk their cutting-edge equipment at bauma. “There is no denying the overheating in China, and the sheer intensity of activity going on in Shanghai alone merits global attention. We certainly feel India is worth exploring as a place to do business in the longer term, and the feel-good factor over the Forex reserves hasn’t gone unnoticed in the EU,” observed Renzo Brugiotti, member of the management committee of the Association of Italian Construction Equipment Manufacturers.

Jorge Cuartero, managing director of the Spanish association of equipment manufacturers for the construction and mining industries, agreed India should not remain just a remote beep on Europe’s radar any longer. “Meaningful strategic alliances with the Indian mining sector, particularly in the potentially-rich Northeast, are now concrete possibilities,” he stressed.

Promising that the new expanded bauma + mining 2004 would be bigger and better than ever before, Manfred Wutzlhofer, chairman and CEO, Messe Munchen GmbH, said, the fair will feature national pavilions representing China, Korea, France, Spain, India, Brazil, Italy, Finland, South Africa and the US.

Back home, Indo-German Chamber of Commerce Calcutta regional director B.G. Roy promised “an increased participation” from these parts, particularly from the mining sector at this year’s bauma + mining. “Last year there was no one from east India, but this time three companies have confirmed their participation, one from Jamshedpur, one from Patna and one from Calcutta. And this is just the beginning with mining being integrated into bauma.”

…and the football

It’s peak season in the Bundesliga and Europe alike for Bayern’s (Michael) Ballack brigade, and there was no missing the heat of the football fever even in the blizzard-like conditions gripping Munich this winter. Larger-than-life cut-outs of Oliver Kahn stare at motorists and pedestrians from giant electronic billboards, whether at the Hauptbahnhof or near the church on Neuhauser Strasse (where the Jesuit father Rupert Mayer used to preach against Hitler and where he is now buried).

The bauma curtain-raiser coincided with the build-up to the Bayern vs Real Madrid Champions League showdown. The weather was their biggest ally, but Munich’s mood about the crunch tie was anything but euphoric. “We don’t stand a chance against their galaxy of stars. If you stop Ronaldo, Raul will score. If Zidane has an off-day, Beckham will get you. The task is hopeless,” mumbled the cabbie resigned to a defeat that didn’t quite happen.

When pointed out that Bayern have always had a measure of Real at the Olympic Stadium in recent times, Herr Becker, at the wheel of the Merc taxicab, killed the REM number playing on the FM station, pulled up by the picture-postcard Isa river and asked quizzically: “Do you guys play football in Calcutta?”

“Of course we do. In fact, we hold the Guinness record for the highest turnstile turnout in a local derby involving East Bengal and Mohun Bagan — like your Bayern and 1860 (TSV 1860 Munich), you know?”

“Oh yeah! That’s cool. Will India be here for the 2006 Cup then?”

REM to the rescue, please.

Postscript: The genial lady at the Munich international airport duty-free manning the Bayern souvenir counter, tried desperately to push-sell a T-Mobile (the club’s sponsors)-embossed Kahn shirt to go with the ball-point Bayern stripes going for 3 Euros. “He is our true champion,” she declared, sporting a club scarf in red and white. Wonder if she switched her sales line after Roberto Carlos slipped one under her goal-keeping god.