South Korea's Economy
Korea, India and Lessons for Development
How Korean firms like Hyundai, Samsung and LG built big businesses in India, what India can learn from Korea, and a recap of the module.
Korea and India have growing economic ties.
Korean firms in India
- Hyundai Motor India: one of India’s largest carmakers, whose IPO in October 2024 was then India’s largest ever.
- Samsung: runs one of the world’s largest phone factories in Noida.
- LG: a leader in home appliances; LG Electronics India listed in 2025.
- Kia and POSCO.
Trade agreement
India and Korea signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in 2009, with talks to upgrade it.
Lessons for India
- Export discipline: push firms to compete globally.
- Education and skills.
- Manufacturing at scale.
- Risks: concentrated power in big conglomerates, and social costs like low fertility.
Module recap
- South Korea rose from poverty to wealth in decades.
- Park Chung-hee’s export drive used targets and cheap credit.
- The HCI drive built steel, ships and chemicals.
- Education fever built skills but at high cost.
- Samsung’s chip bet made Korea a semiconductor giant.
- Hyundai built world-class shipyards.
- Reforms after 1997 restructured banks and chaebol.
- Korean firms lead in batteries.
- Long hours, housing debt and low fertility are challenges.
The Noida factory
Samsung's Noida factory makes crores of phones a year, many for export, providing thousands of jobs and supporting India's electronics ambitions.
Thinking Korea's model can be copied exactly
India can learn lessons but must adapt to its own conditions.
Key takeaways
- Hyundai, Samsung and LG are major players in India.
- Hyundai's 2024 IPO was India's largest at the time.
- India can learn from Korea's export discipline and skills.
- Korea also shows risks of conglomerates and social costs.
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