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May 25
Blogging
It feels good to post to the blog again. Keeping it up to date has been a struggle. Since we've been here, we've been faced with limited internet access that is usually expensive. Getting on tonight cost around 10 dollars. Fortunately, though, everyone in the group has been willing to pitch in so that we can get online.
May 24
Working Hard
 Jamila(My roommate) and I have for some reason managed only about 5 hours max of sleep a night. Although we attempt to drift to dreamland much earlier it seems as though Jamlia gets a little slap happy in the wee hours of the night and I find myself awake and laughing at her comments that are laced with her spunky attitude as we blog and strive to figure out dreamweaver. Finally I just have to tell her to stop talking and we force ourselves to sleep to be able to endure the next day’s work.
Listen to the Teacher
Dr. Nathan warned us of the potential perils of Indian food , we should have listened to him. Not everyone has made it to every event. The mix of rich, soupy foods and heavy spices is a brutal one. When we first arrived on the trip, the temptation of exotic Indian food was too much to pass up. This was a temptation that came back to haunt many of us. Tums and Immodium have become heavily traded between us. Several of us even had to forego today’s company tours in favor of staying very close to much needed facilities. As for me, who shall remain nameless, I have learned that if my Indian teacher tells me to take it easy with the Indian food provided on the train that I should listen to him. How I wish I could go back in time and listen to him.
p.s. If you’re ever at an Indian restaurant, don’t order the Waldorf salad.
Meeting at Firstsource
 Our last meeting of the day today was at a Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) organization named Firstsource.
A BPO organization is an organization that another company can use for everyday tasks. For example, it would be a waste of time for an advertising company to do anything other than work on advertising projects. Therefore, it could outsource its everyday tasks such as payroll to a BPO.
Being a BPO organization, security was paramount to Firstsource so that delicate information about its clients would not be leaked to the general public. On certain floors, it was forbidden to travel with paper, pen or cell phones in tow. People were even frisked to make sure that they didn’t take anything delicate.
Of all the informative things that we learned during their presentation, the most interesting thing we learned was about their business relationship with Amazon.com. Apparently, the majority of books that are supplied by Amazon are not stored in an inventory warehouse. They have actually not been printed yet. Then, as soon as an order is made online, the order is sent to Firstsource which prints the book and then sends it to its desired location. Apparently they process up to 150,000 documents a day.
Interview with Loknath Sarangi
We met Mr. Sarangi on the flight from Delhi to Chennai, the conversation was a great way to spend the 2-½ hour flight. Mr. Sarangi is a plastics engineer and also has his MBA. He is employed by Motherson Auto ltd, which is an OEM supplier to the auto industry and specializes in plastic components. He was on his way to visit the Chennai plant, which he does once or twice a month, in his capacity as a corporate engineer overseeing quality controls.
He had some interesting insights to offer regarding the state of entrepreneurship in India. He has had entrepreneurial aspirations of his own for the past 10 years and would have started his own manufacturing business however there is nowhere for him to raise the necessary capital. This may need a little perspective. Mr. Sarangi is a plastics engineer with a MBA and 19 years of experience in his field. His company purchases underperforming manufacturer plants and then sends him in to make them profitable. He estimates that with a total investment of $250,000 he could start a similar business of his own. He has a proven track record and estimates his chances of success would be very high but raising the startup capital is extremely difficult. If he had access to the funding options that are available in America he would already be an entrepreneur. If he had $250,000 today he would be an entrepreneur in India tomorrow.
One of the other things that he explained to us was the level of risk that Indians face. There is no social security system and adult children have the obligation of caring for both their own kids and their parents. The security of a good job may not result in huge financial rewards but it means that these obligations can be met. Family is very important and many Indians desires are only to meet these obligations. So the rewards of entrepreneurship are not as important to them and the risk of failure is unimaginable.
May 23
Seaching for Saris
 Today was a day for travel and to catch up on our work. For Jamila, Joi and I this meant time to search for the beautiful Indian saris to take home for souvenirs. A sari is a 6-yard long piece of fabric that is wrapped around the body to form a dress. These dresses come in a variety of colors and designs and are the traditional dress of Indian women. They can be silk, a silk cotton mix, or pashmina wool. Passing through the streets in India you will probably never see the same sari twice. It is not like having a Gap on every corner, they are very unique. This is why the three of us girls were passionate about the idea of purchasing saris for a keepsake. Being adventurous we hopped into an auto-rickshaw (a three wheel motor car) outside our hotel and directed the diver to a store suggested by the concierge at the hotel. After haggling with the driver over taking only one auto ricksaw and the store we wanted to go to we were off into the fascinating city of Chennai. Jolting through the streets we observed we were being observed and quickly put away our video cameras in an attempt to look least like tourist as possible. It was as if the Indians do not see many Americans because they all stared at us as we shopped, but it was quite possible that we were violating some cultural norms. Anyhow, we managed to purchase some beautiful saris that we can’t wait to try on.
We were curious why the driver was so set on taking us to that particular store, so we asked. He explained that the store was a government shop and a portion of the proceeds from that store go to pay for uniforms for the school that his children attend and for things needed for their education. We were more than happy that we bought from that store knowing this.
As we traveled back from our adventure we stopped by two more stores that the driver recommended that were much more up scale than any of the other stores we had seen. It is fascinating how there can be such a difference in stores in one street. A dumpy jewelry shop is in one place and a much nicer shop that is closed in and air-conditioned on the next street that sells the same stuff.
Reflections on a New Day
The bus ride form the hotel to the airport takes us through some pretty nice neighborhoods with large houses and pleasant looking parks. At one point we get a view of the skyline with numerous tall buildings. The plane and flight processes are good to excellent, the airline personnel friendly and efficient and I get a glimpse of the city from the air -- it looks a lot like Atlanta, only larger. From a distance, the poverty is invisible and I think I spot a park that reminds me of Central Park. The mind boggling poverty we’ve seen on Monday and Tuesday have taken a toll on our psyche’s that’s not easily shaken but for a few minutes I feel almost like I could be back in the states. I feel better, more optimistic, and I’m not alone in this brighter outlook.
But then I feel guilty for being comforted by not being faced with the squalor observed Monday and Tuesday for the poverty doesn’t cease to exist just because I’m not looking at it at the moment. Erik and I discuss the notion and supporting research that poverty does not necessarily equate to misery. Are we doing this to reduce our feelings of guilt and discomfort? I honestly don’t know. Several students remark that this is a world far different from anything we’ve encountered before. One student remarks that India is more different than Mars is from our lives back in the states and I find the Mars allusion ironic since I named a previous entry after the classic 60’s novel about a human raised by Martians.
I believe money can’t buy happiness but it’s hard to believe these desperate, begging people living in such pitiful conditions are happy and that a few more material comforts obtainable with what’s so often called the root of all evil wouldn’t help. So as they say, it may not buy happiness or love, but money can sure make misery more tolerable.
May 22
Agra
 It is hard to believe that we have been here for roughly two days. The experience has been both humbling and overwhelming at the same time. Our hosts have been generous beyond belief sharing with us their hospitality and their perspectives on the state of entrepreneurship in India. We have definitely hit the ground running with little time for much else other than meetings and travel. The time for coherent blogging has been limited but I am going to try to catch up. Hear are a few sporadic thoughts.
Delhi has been quite an introduction to India. It looks as if it is a city that is the midst of decay and rebirth at the same moment. The numbers of people living on the streets and sleeping on the sidewalks is extremely difficult for me to get my mind around, especially as I am surrounded by opulent air conditioned comfort. It definitely made me reconsider my complaints of discomfort on the plane as I saw people with no blankets, pillows or anything else between them and their heads as they slept on the sidewalks. It feels at times like we are on safari and completely disconnected from the masses as we are whisked through them, apart of the swarm yet completely separate from it at the same time.
Entrepreneurship is everywhere and from what I have seen it is both need and opportunity based. The poverty forces people to come up with novel ways of feeding themselves daily. Everyone is hustling to find their next rupee, while at the same time wealthy entrepreneurs have been opening institutions of higher learning There is an abundance of colleges and Universities in Delhi along with a real hunger for higher education in anticipation of the jobs that it will lead to. In today’s edition of the Times of India there was an article that mapped out all the colleges in Delhi and gave suggestions on how to obtain and fill out applications and strategies for dealing with the competition.
The traffic is amazing. Drivers, cyclists, pedestrians and wildlife don’t seem to adhere to any firm rules but only loose agreements. Signs and lane markers are not commands but merely suggestion which we saw as six lanes of traffic form on roads that are set up for only four.
As we were leaving Agra, Barron was attacked by a gang of vicious entrepreneurial shoe shiners. They mercilessly soiled his topsiders with a mystery paste that could have been shoe wax or toothpaste and then got upset with him when he would not allow them to remove it for a fee. Barron, utilizing skills that would get him far on the gridiron, tried his best to evade the persistent shoe shine man, but he was just too good, too experienced, too determined and Barron was taken down a second time as another coating of mystery paste was rapidly applied to his shoe. In the end, Barron emerged the victor, battered yes but it was the shoeshine man that had to walk off his defeat as he readied his paste for another pair of foreign shoes.
Thoughts on the Stratification of Wealth
None of what I read or heard about India prepared me for the things that I have seen while being on this trip.
In my mind, I imagined a place comparable to Atlanta –- successful businesses mixed with a population of homeless people. The situation here though is so much more extreme than I would have ever expected. It’s not just a population of homeless people – outside of the hotel there are literally miles of shanties that entire families live in. While traveling the city at night, one can see dozens of people asleep in the medians. Wild animals (specifically cows and bulls) walk the streets while bicycles, mopeds and cars casually steer around them. The comparison to Atlanta wasn’t remotely adequate.
What struck me more than anything, though, was what I saw today. After driving past miles of shanties in the Indian countryside, we came to a 5-star Hilton. It was stunning to see how stratified the wealth in this country is. Of the 1.2 billion people in this country, roughly 700 million are impoverished. That means that the amount of impoverished people in India is twice the number of total people in the United States.
Indian Entrepreneurship
Yesterday ( the 21st) we visited Niesbud –the national institute of entrepreneurship and small business development. While there, I was caught by how different entrepreneurship can be around the world.
For example, the average business started in America is a service related business. In India, however, most of the businesses created are industrial. This drastically changes the start-up costs of a business. According to Niesbud, a micro company in India (the absolute smallest type of company) usually has a start up cost of about $50,000. A micro company in America, however, would cost significantly less. A small import/export company that only sold items over the Internet could be started for only a few thousand dollars.
May 21
Pyramid IT Consulting
Scott went solo and visited Pyramid IT Consulting at the invitation of company President and founder, Sanjeev Tirath. They met May 15 at the MIT Enterprise Forum event “Doing Business with China: The Evolving Paradigm”.
The Pyramid management team headed by COO Manish Jhanjee and including Product Manager Ashool Handoo and the Manager of Business Development, Mike Singh were extremely gracious hosts and spent most of the day with Scott. In addition to impressive presentations and demonstrations of Pyramid’s products and services, they discussed Indian Entrepreneurship and many interesting cultural topics and business issues. The Pyramid team opined that the government burden or obstacle to entrepreneurship had not improved in any significant manner. The explanation being that the local people enforcing government rules and working government processes had not changed and that they still required bribes. The burden of such corruption continued even for an established company such as Pyramid. They also shared that one reason for the boom in service industry is that electronic delivery provides far fewer opportunities for local officials to interfere with business processes and demand a bribe. I’m beginning to believe the Indian government has more in common with the Mafia than with a the US government.
Strangers in a Strange Land
Visiting Pyramid required a car trip that left no doubt, as Dorothy might say, that Scott was no longer in Kansas or anywhere else in the good ol’ US of A. Fortunately Pyramid provided a private car and driver as Delhi traffic and driving habits boggle the mind accustomed to orderly, albeit heavy Atlanta traffic. Lanes are even less respect than in Boston and “rules of the road” is an oxymoron in on par with jumbo shrimp and military intelligence. British style driving left of center is disconcerting to Americans under the best of circumstances – but it raises the anxiety level more than a bit when one’s driver or other vehicles drive on the wrong side (i.e. the right of center) when convenient or the mood strikes. When faced with a wall of oncoming traffic, the fearless driver plowed ahead with apparent certainty the stream would somehow part enough to get through. Hesitation is apparently a sign of weakness, not to be revealed without dire consequences. Then there are the swarms of motorcycles, auto rickshaws, rickshaws, animal drawn carts, human drawn carts, roaming cows, dogs and other animals as well as pedestrians competing to exploit every crevice between the larger cars, trucks and buses. Not surprisingly, most side view mirrors have no glass and are folded back against the side if anything more than a vestigial stump remains.
To complete the Twilight Zone experience, add incessant horn blowing, a barely functional AC, rare if any traffic signals and a driver with marginal communication skills despite minimal accent and apparent comfort with English and a second (or is it first) job as a senior marketing executive for a real estate development firm. For example, he asked “When am I coming to Atlanta?” I believe this was his subtle way of asking for a job with a relocation package.
The electricity has “gone out” several times in our first 24 hours in Delhi. Dr. Nathan had warned us about these small, “rolling blackouts” and had explained their cause as power plants lacking the capacity to meet peak demand. This understanding may have reduced the “startle factor” or worry when one occurs but it does nothing to lessen the direct cost burden on business and the indirect burden on all consumers indirectly through higher prices. These private generators also contribute to Delhi’s significant air pollution problems.
There are countless small and often subtle differences that are more humorous or curious than problematic, such as potato chips and baked beans at breakfast and tiny rolls of toilet paper with sheets that are both narrower and longer than in the US. Most of these differences have no significant impact on the economy or individuals but infrastructure problems like traffic, power, water and communication all place a significant burden on both business and consumers. I wonder how many of these issues and their severity are caused by India’s socialist heritage vs. the sheer number of affected individuals.
Arriving in India
We are finally here!
After weeks of anticipation and careful planning for what to bring, preparing our surveys, pre-trip meetings, and arranging for our homes to be left for two weeks we have finally arrived in India. The last day and a half has been quite interesting as we boarded our plane in Atlanta and made our way to India. The first flight from Atlanta to Newark proved to be interesting as the American man seated next to me spoke of his son who actually is and entrepreneur in India, developing property. What a coincidence! The next 12 and half hour flight from Newark, NJ went by rather fast as I managed to sleep a good bit of ride. We only had one minor panic along the way when one group member misplaced his passport. An extremely frantic ten minutes went by before the passport was found and all was well.
Even though it was night when we arrived the heat was more than we were used too, a dry heat. The second we walked out of the airport we were bombarded with men offering to help with our bags. They would not take no for an answer. I walked half way to the tour bus jointly carrying my bags before I gave us and let the porter take then. He then turned and insisted that I pay him American dollars for carrying my bags about twenty feet. Another man not even carrying my bags asked to be paid to. So, no time past at all before we got a taste a poverty in India.
As we drove to the hotel the first night we were all amazed at the chaotic manner of the traffic. Although we were warned of the traffic in India there is nothing like seeing an entire family on one motor scooter racing between cows, tour buses, auto ricksaws, and the bicycles with no order at all. It is hard to imagine a man, women, child and a young baby all on a scooter with no helmets. No family would be able to do this in the United States.
There was a lot to take in on our first night in India and we are anxious to start our day tomorrow.
May 18
RFIDs
Our guest speaker on Tuesday discussed his recent work with RFID (Radio-frequency identification) technology. RFID tags are electronic devices that identify and locate any item they are attached to. RFID tags could potentially replace barcodes on commercial products. Having these tags in place would make the inventory-tracking process of stores instantaneous.
As exciting as this is for businesses, it is a scary thought that these devices could be attached to human beings. If we were represented with chips, couldn’t our identities be stolen very easily? Would our every move be tracked? These are all issues to think about.
The Rising Middle Class
According to the Economist, McKinsey and Company, a consulting firm, has estimated that the annual growth rate in India for the next 20 years will be 7.3 percent. Under this assumption, India will overtake Germany (currently the world’s fifth largest consumer) in terms of consumption. As a result, the Indian middle class will get bigger and bigger while the poverty stricken population of India declines. This means that exciting times are ahead for India.
May 15
Doing Business with China -- MIT Enterprise Forum
Scott missed class on this evening in order to attend this event. The keynote speaker, Dr. Jag Sheth made numerous provocative and perhaps controversial points regarding both China and India. Please don’t argue or be angry at Scott if you happen to disagree with Dr. Sheth’s analysis, opinions and predictions (below) as he is only reporting what was said.
- The best capitalist countries today are former communist countries. Sr. Sheth notes the following three capitalistic advantages to being a “former” socialist country.
- Communism puts Discipline on the people.
- Communism promoted gender neutrality
- Communist countries invested heavily in K – 12 education
- Both India and China are “Former” communist or socialist countries
- India and China will dominate world economics in the 21st century much as the US dominated the 20th
- China currently leads India in economic growth but India will start to pass China in about 20 years due to China’s one child reproduction limits
- India and China’s growth advantage over the US and other economies is based upon their larger populations with higher birth rates. Scott notes this is a direct contradiction of what he was taught back in the 70’s when high birth rates were considered an impediment to economic growth and well being.
- Immigration into the US, both legal and illegal, and high Hispanic birth rates have prevented or at least delayed the economic decline experienced by most European economies
- India fears being labeled an American puppet
- India is the worlds largest purchaser of weapons
- China and India will grow closer over time and will eventually wield joint economic might much like the European Union. Dr. Sheth labels this future alliance “CHINDIA”
May 14
The Growing Economy
India is in the midst of an exciting time. According to the BBC, the Indian government expects their economy “to grow at a rate of 9.2% in the current financial year”. In addition, the country’s stock market is at an all-time high and India is increasingly viewed by outside investors as a good country to invest in.
During this time, according to the World Bank, the government is providing more services and more freedoms to its people. Recently, the Indian government passed the “Right to Information” law, which allows its constituents greater freedom to information. This allows the peoples of India to hold their government more and more accountable for its performance and services.
However, in spite of all the good things happening in India, the inequality of wealth distribution has greatly increased. According to the World Bank, the 99.99th percentile of the Indian population makes a salary roughly equivalent to $160,000 a year (after purchasing power parity is factored in), while much of India has the wealth equivalency of rural African states. The economy is growing, but not everyone is benefiting from it yet.
Railway Jitters
While reading through Wall Street Journal Articles about India, it becomes abundantly clear that we are going to a very different world. Most of us take for granted the safety of the commute to and from Georgia State. MARTA even advertises itself as being one of the safest railways in the country. But what is it like for people who live in India? Specifically, what is it like for people who live in the city of Mumbai?
Mumbai (formerly Bombay) is a city undergoing rapid growth. In India, it is viewed as the city of economic opportunity. As a result, the railways of Mumbai have become subject to dangerous overcrowding. During the weekday rush hours, the trains run with 2.5 times the amount of passengers that they can safely accommodate. An average of 13 people are killed every weekday – either from being pushed off the trains or from being trampled.
With money on loan from the World Bank, measures are being taken to make the trains safer. However, it is projected that the trains will still be running with 1.5 times the amount of passengers that can safely ride. Mumbai’s economic growth has made its railways very dangerous.
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