Category: FDIB India – 2008

We’ve spent the last two days in three activities that pretty well summarize what I’m bringing back from India.

The first is its past. As in any country with 10,000 years of history (that’s what they tell us), the oracles from the past for predicting the future point in any direction you want them to. We went to a show at the Red Fort here, which not only described the history (in a winners tell their version way), but took us past the Jama Masjid, the Friday Mosque that reminds one India is the second biggest Muslim country in the world, and the “unity amid diversity” must take account of some of the prejudices born in that past. The last episode they described was the incarceration of Indian soldiers in the fort who had fought in World War II–with Subhas Bose, in the Indian National Army the Japanese formed to fight the British in India. The three soldiers were tried by a British court for treason, convicted, and after Independence the verdict was set aside.

The 100 mile 51/2 hour ride to Agra, one of the capitals of the Mughal empire underscored the splendor that was India’s around the 17th century when it was the richest country in the world, or at least had some of the richest people in the world–it’s rulers. Shah Jahan, who built the Red Fort in Dehli, and moved the capitol there, built the Taj Mahal to honor, as a tomb, the main wife he loved. She bore him 14 children in 16 years and died during childbirth. I’ve seen it twice before, and considered myself lucky to have seen it once. And it is just as stunning as it was to me the third time, one of those visuals that not even digital photography can capture. At least this time I did not have to shoot 3 rolls of film. We also saw the Red Fort in Agra, begun by the earlier Moghuls, even pre Moghuls, and the place where Shah Jahan was imprisoned by his son, who decided he wanted to be the emperor and overthrew his father, killed his older brothers, who had a legitimate claim, and locked his dad up. And he turned out to be rather paranoid, beginning the descent of India that led to its sacking by the Persians and the conquest by the British. After the mutiny/war of independence (choose one; they’re both right depending on your audience), British troops were garrisoned in the Red Fort. And their barracks are occupied today by Indian troops.

The tomb of Akbar in Agra is also stunning. Akbar’s desire for social harmony (reversed by Shah Jahan’s son, Aurangzeb, and a troublesome question in India today) led him to issue edicts enforcing ethnic harmony. It helped that his wives were Sikhs, Parsis, Jains, etc. Love builds buildings, but also countries.

The ride to the Taj within Agra showed something about the environment: the biggest threat to its existence is not the crowds, which Saturday reached forbidden city (in China) proportions, but the pollution that is eating the marble. Hence, our bus stopped short of the area, and electric vans took us closer to the swarm of hawkers who wanted to sell us postcards, books, and bangles.

The five and a half hour ride showed something about infrastructure, too. As my GPS said, the distance was only about 100 miles. Why so long? Traffic was one thing. It took an hour to get from the Taj area to the outskirts of Agra, which has fewer than 2 million people. Part of the problem was narrow streets, part too many cars, and part the plethora of vehicles on it. Even though a major chunk, perhaps 60 of the miles, were on superhighway, it’s not a superhighway like we have. More like 51 south of Bloomington, where it goes right through the city of Wapella. Put horses, camels, motorcycles on the edges, and sometimes on the main lanes, and women with dried dung platters on their head (fuel!) and you get a picture of the wonderful chaos that makes patience a virtue in the east. Plus, the super highway does not extend to the city where we’re at, so we took back roads, and the back roads are semi-finished, sometimes busy, and usually bumpy. The wonderful weather we’ve had, cool and with a rainstorm one morning, cut down on the dust.

Second, our site visit was an indication of all you hear that is positive about the Indian economy. We went to Genpact, which GE started and spun off ten years ago. As we approached the building in our suburb, Gurgaon, about an hour south of downtown Delhi, it looked to me like many places in China–huge skyscrapers with more under construction, a wide street with some homeless or rather floating population living in tents for the construction–and a Chinese restaurant to complete the illusion. When we got inside, we got treated to the best presentation we had, in at least two ways. The company is global–operating in at least 9 countries, with 33000 employees-and meets and sets global standards. It started doing financial accounting for GE and has moved up the value chain because Indians are numerous, well educated (300000 students vie each year for the 2000 spots in the Indian Technical Institutes (it’s IIT; the winner last year came from a village without electricity, which shows how determined Indians are to succeed), and hard working, especially in areas Americans have shucked, like math. They told us turnover in their company, which as I said does Business Processing (maybe for State Farm, not all their clients will let them list the names publicly) was 30 percent, rather than the industry’s 70 percent because they benchmark great practices elsewhere and adopt them, including the 6 sigma of parent GE (I had a feeling I was meeting Jack Welch’s offspring, Welch being the GE Chairman at the time Genpact was conceived and born). One other thing about the company that was noteworthy; being in customer service, they demonstrated it. They were alone in asking us what we wanted to know, and while they had a canned presentation, they answered all our questions. India being 11 1/2 hours different from home made it possible for them to work all night (our night) and have information back to the us for the business day, a real competitive advantage in a wireless world.

Finally, Mr. Shirmali, the director of the institute, invited us to his house. He lives in a gated community about a mile from the campus in Gurgaon. The paper had a notice about the shortages of electricity which regularly goes off. At the Institute there’s a 20-second delay before our generator kicks in. In the suburb, energy is directed to the IT companies, while manufacturers complain that they have 10 hour shortages at times. And this is a heavy industry area!

Mr. S. wanted to show us his family. His house has, he said, 36 rooms so that when his extended family comes from Rajasthan or where there are now (he has 8 brothers and 100 family members regularly converge). He said he’s a Brahmin, the upper caste, and while caste is officially off the books, we read in the paper about a Dalit (untouchable) being beaten for trying to get into a rural Hindu temple this week. He introduced his wife of 30 some years, who was “arranged” for him as a bride when he was 20 and she was 16. Their parents were best friends and agreed if one had a son and the other a daughter they would get married. While that was then, he described the marriages of his son and daughter, which were very similar (my brother knew her father’s sister, we met with the family and agreed to introduce the children, etc). The persistence of the past is all around a country of 10,000-year history!

I wouldn’t presume to predict the future here; although I can’t muster the bluster of most of our optimistic professors, who rightly point to progress (cutting poverty–living $1 a day–in half in 15 years), the challenges are daunting. I’ve learned from China to temper my western cynicism, though, and suggest you look for information about the current meetings in Beijing between Prime Minister Singh of India and Hu Jin tao of China. If they get beyond geography and politics, they have 40 percent of the world’s population.

Any way, thanks for letting me share my thoughts and experiences with you. See you after a very long day and a very long flight for me.

And remember, what ever I have said about India, the opposite is also true.

Good morning.

For those of you who think it’s a small world, here’s my contribution to the proof. I was talking to one of the faculty here and she told me she was at Lynchburg College in the late 1980s. I say it’s a small world because in 1987, before I got on full time at IWU, I looked for jobs. One of them was at Lynchburg College, which offered me a job. She and I could have been colleagues! (She teaches accounting at the Citadel in Charleston today, where she wears a colonel’s uniform to class; she’s originally from Virginia, and I know would be much happier in the rural south—Lynchburg is in the Appalachian mountains) than I would ever be, but it was interesting meeting someone I might have met 21 years ago.

If you need more evidence, let me give you an even greater coincidence: We had a dinner Monday night (our only formal activity), where we were joined by a visiting group of faculty (India is full of visiting business students and faculty; one of our members is with the University of Wisconsin, which had a group of students here; today I understand U Maryland MBAS will be here; we ran into a Kansas U group Sunday–add India to your itinerary if you’re’ interested in business, and probably more certainly in the future…). Anyway, the visitors were from the University of Bentley (so the sign read; I think they meant Bentley College, which is a Massachusetts business-only college). One of their faculty looked at me and said, “You look familiar. Were you at ISU? I taught there.” Turns out, 25 years ago, when I went back to school for an MBA, he was my marketing teacher, and his wife taught me management. After the dinner, they both came over and we mused on the possibility of reuniting 8000 miles and 25 years later!

One quick vignette on where the Indian economy may be moving. The marketing faculty we’ve met have noted the relative absence of Indian brands; certainly the mall–aside from Sari clothing shops and many spiritual (read yoga) shops–could be a mall anywhere in the states–McDonald’s, albeit without beef, Reebok, Hilfinger, and a variety of European and some Australian brands–Billabong. Foreign still has a certain cachet, and the Indian government has lowered tariffs from 150 percent to 12-15 percent in most categories. Our site visit two days ago was to Hero Honda, a joint venture between a bicycle maker and a motorcycle division that’s become the largest two-three wheeler manufacturer in India (Honda doesn’t let them export to more than two or three countries, which I found interesting, but does sell Honda’s made elsewhere in India!). The Hero Honda plant, one of three, has the leading market share in the country and has never had an engine–made here–fail, which is pretty remarkable for any manufacturing firm, the goal of which is zero defects but seldom met. The plant manager told us that as Indians become more wealthy, they’re buying fewer cycles and more cars, and the overall market is declining. Hero’s response is to look at the rural market where there could be growth it could find a way to finance the sales (and there are rising expectations in the countryside; TV is ubiquitous).

This is also Auto week, so the papers are full of Tata, Maruti, M&M, Indian automakers, and even Ford, I think the only American company here — building a small car for #1000 or $2000! Just what India needs — more traffic, though locals tell us proudly that the two and three hour rides are down to 1 or two, and infrastructure construction is one of the factors contributing to the “smoky haze” (that’s how they describe the dust that settles on everything here; some of it comes, I think, from charcoal heaters) which has delayed some flights. The Prime Minister, in fact, is flying to China and his plane is leaving 12 hours early to make sure he can get away. Hope we don’t get delayed!

Yesterday, they took us to a huge local market. Most of the clothes were around 150 rupees, which is under $4. It stretched as far as the eye could see, and was really busy. India has many shops like the ones we saw; in fact, the marketing professor I had lunch with told me that India has 15 million shops, more than any other country. I think I read the big stores–the Wal-Marts and Carrefours have not yet arrived, in part because the Indian government has been protecting these mostly mom-pop stores that employ so many Indians. And employment is a major problem. One thing that really struck me was that Hero Honda hires 5,000 employees. 1,000 are full time, and 4,000 are contract labor, who can be fired if demand drops and are not subject to what seem to be pretty strict labor laws.

Have to run, but you have a great day, and a wonderful weekend. We may play cricket this morning (I think I told you this is their football/basketball/baseball sport; who said they got little from the British Empire?), but we’re definitely going to Agra and the Taj Mahal tomorrow, leaving at 5 a.m.

January 8, 2008

Alston asked about the Indian response to the American presidential election, and while I can’t answer that question, I thought I’d use his question to share some other things about India, and our last two days here. Bear in mind the accuracy of one of our teacher’s comments, “Whatever is true about India, the opposite is also true.”

We’re getting the Hindustan Times, one of around 500 English-language newspapers (there are 5000 papers printed in Hindi, and about 60,000 –that’s right– newspapers registered in India). That so few are printed in two of the main languages indicates that there are many other languages–14 official ones, and hundreds of dialects. The number of newspapers increased by 2,000 last year, unlike the US, where papers are in trouble, which seems to be less true here. Part of the reason is that this land of contrasts still has only a veneer of internet connectivity—and about 40% illiteracy!

The news we are getting internationally is not much better than what we get at the Pantagraph–but it’s from Reuters, the British news agency. Right now, the headline story is about the cricket match in Australia, and how the Aussies have insulted the Indian team with racial slurs and whether the team should come back home (the press is as sensational as ours, though cricket is the main sport here; it’s a game someone described as going on forever–you can come back three days later and nothing has happened that you can see). The combination of the two impressions–Reuters and cricket–suggests something that really hit me the first time I was here: India is a former British colony. When I was here in the 1990s, I arrived January 1, ran to the papers and found the football scores: Royal Madrid 1, Arsenal 0. Nobody plays basketball that I can see, and the factory team sports (we were at an auto supplier yesterday, that could have been anywhere in the world) were volleyball, cricket, and what we call (alone in this world) soccer. I remember an Indian-born student I had several years ago, whose family would travel anywhere in North America to see the cricket team.

The motto here is unity amid diversity, and the diversity is readily apparent. As I said, India is 60% literate; it’s 82% Hindu; 70% rural; 25% impoverished, with a rich upper class that can patronize all the upper class stores we saw at a mall yesterday.

Our visit to a village was a revelation; I think agriculture in all developing countries is the main challenge. As I wrote Sondra, it ain’t Iowa. Getting there was one of the major challenges in India–transportation. While there’s an extensive rail system (I think 1 in 15 Indians is working on the railroad), the roads are an adventure. The road we were on, national Highway 8 to Jaipur, was two lane, but sometimes had four lanes of traffic–three headed at you, as well as the usual assortment of “vehicles,” two four-legged and multi-tyred (as they spell it in the British sphere). Apart from being Muslim, the village was probably typical of north India–it grows wheat this time of year (and mustard), and a second crop of sorghum in the summer. This village (we got there because the college has a working relationship with an NGO–non-government organization that has adopted the village) has 1000 households and 8000 people, 70% under 18. The average family is nine! The teacher told us that he has 500 boys in school, and 250 girls; the head of a woman’s handicraft group (which raises money for schooling by making and selling crafts) said that most farmers don’t see any reason to send their daughters to school, though that is changing. Still if 5600 are under 18, and only 750 are in school; that leaves many young people not in school. As I said earlier, agriculture is a challenge in developing countries because it’s not very efficient. Seventy percent of the population contributes less than 20% of the GNP, and while India has become self-sufficient in food, the country relies heavily on the monsoons (which barely touch north India) for irrigation. And if it were more efficient on the farms, and people moved to the cities, what would they do?

The highlight yesterday (beside the usual great assortment of food, yoga, and lectures) was a ride home on a pedicab–an open cart pedaled by a young man. The cost was less than a dollar; the ride, a hair –raising experience.

See you soon, and congratulations on having a free election! The Indian intellectuals are really proud of being the world’s largest democracy, one of the few positive things they credit the British raj for establishing.

We’re 7800 miles apart–yes, I did bring my GPS, but so did another faculty member–and about to begin getting the education we came here to get, at least the formal part. Our week will consist of morning lectures on a variety of topics, followed by site visits in the afternoon, for the next five days. Happily for me, we begin our day with a voluntary yoga. It’s nice to have a new guru (teacher), who told us yesterday something I’ve known but not articulated–that yoga is music for the body.

We spent yesterday visiting three sites, and given the traffic in New and Old Delhi , I’m glad I don’t drive here. The city has over 13 million people and over 33 million registered vehicles. The registered vehicles are 2, 3, and 4 wheels (and some with more), but don’t include all the “vehicles” on the street–and some of those are animals. Our neighborhood, for example, has a lot of what Harry Carey would have called Holy Cows, because, as you know, they are holy in a Hindu country. Add to everything else the facts that it was a Sunday, there was a parade downtown that closed several streets, that the British used rotaries, and that Delhi is building a subway and has most major arteries torn up, and you’ll understand why there was a crew from TV filming one of the traffic jams we got stuck in.

I learned that Delhi has been destroyed six times in its history, and rebuilt 6; that the British built what they called Lutyens city when; they moved the capital from Calcutta to this area in 1911 (Lutyens city became New Delhi); that the new emperors moved into the old emperor’s buildings (the British barracks became the Indian barracks; the governor’s quarters, the President’s, etc); that the British were the last destroyers (in 1857, when Britain finally replaced the East India Company with a political governance that cobbled together British and princely states–the latter not becoming part of India until the creation of an independent State); that when the British suppressed the Mutiny (British word) or the first war against the British (Indian description)–at least one of the Moghul tombs was ravaged because the last Moghul emperor hid there; that the Moghuls came from Mongolia, and were descendants of Genghis Khan; and that I’ll never remember the names of more than a handful of the over 3,000 Hindu gods.

Gotta get ready for class–and for yoga. Have a great day, Scouts, and a thoughtful meeting and election Monday. Remember, I’m in what likes to be billed as the world’s largest democracy. That is one of the saving graces of India.

Alston asked about the Indian response to the American presidential election, and while I can’t answer that question, I thought I’d use his question to share some other things about India, and our last two days here. Bear in mind the accuracy of one of our teacher’s comments, “Whatever is true about India, the opposite is also true.”

We’re getting the Hindustan Times, one of around 500 English language newspapers (there are 5000 papers printed in Hindi, and about 60000 (that’s right) newspapers registered in India. That so few are printed in two of the main languages indicates that there are many other languages–14 official ones, and hundreds of dialects. The number of newspapers increased by 2000 last year; unlike the U.S., where papers are in trouble, that seems to be less true here. Part of the reason is that this land of contrasts still has only a veneer of internet connectivity—and about 40 percent illiteracy!

The news we are getting internationally is not much better than what we get at the Pantagraph–but it’s from Reuters, the British news agency. Right now, the headline story is about the cricket match in Australia, and how the Aussies have insulted the Indian team with racial slurs and whether the team should come back home (the press is as sensational as ours, though  cricket is the main sport here; it’s a game someone described as going on forever–you can come back three days later and nothing has happened that you can see). The combination of the two impressions–Reuters and cricket–suggests something that really hit me the first time I was here: India is a former British colony. When I was here in the 1990s, I arrived January 1, ran to the papers and found the football scores: Royal Madrid 1, Arsenal 0. Nobody plays basketball that I can see, and the factory team sports (we were at an auto supplier yesterday, that could have been anywhere in the world) were volleyball, cricket, and what we call (alone in the world) soccer. I remember an Indian-American student I had several years ago, whose family would travel anywhere in North America to see the cricket team.

The motto here is unity amid diversity, and the diversity is really apparent. As I said, India is 60 percent literate; it’s 82 percent Hindu; 70 percent rural; 25 percent impoverished, with a rich upper class that can patronize all the upper class stores we saw at a mall yesterday.

Our visit to a village was an eye opener; I think agriculture in all developing countries is the main challenge. As I wrote Sondra, it ain’t Iowa. Getting there was one of the major challenges in India–transportation. While there’s an extensive rail system (I think 1 in 15 Indians is working on the railroad), the roads are an adventure. The road we were on, national Highway 8 to Jaipur, was two lane, but sometimes had four lanes of traffic–three headed at you, as well as the usual assortment of “vehicles,” two four legged and multi-tyred (as they spell it in the British sphere). Apart from being Muslim, the village was probably typical of north India–it grows wheat this time of year (and mustard), and a second crop of sorghum in the summer. This village (we got there because the college has a working relationship with an NG0–non-government organization) that has adopted the village) has 1000 households and 8000 people, 70 percent under 18. The average family is 9! The teacher told us that he has 500 boys in school, and 250 girls; the head of a woman’s handicraft group (which raises money for schooling by making and selling crafts) said that most farmers don’t see any reason to send their daughters to school, though that is changing. Still if 5600 are under 18, and only 750 are in school, that leaves a lot of young people not in school. As I said earlier, agriculture is a challenge in developing countries because it’s not very efficient. 70 percent of the population contributes less than 20 percent of the GNP, and while India has become self sufficient in food, the country relies heavily on the monsoons (which barely touch north India) for irrigation. And if it were more efficient on the farms, and people moved to the cities, what would they do?…..

The highlight yesterday (beside the usual great assortment of food, yoga, and lectures) was a ride home on a pedicab–an open cart pedaled by a young man. The cost was less than a dollar; the ride, a hair-raising experience.

See you soon, and congratulations on having a free election! The Indian intellectuals are really proud of being the world’s largest democracy, one of the few positive things they credit the British Raj for establishing.

Associate Professor of Business Administration Fred Hoyt was selected to participate in a Faculty Development in International Business Program in New Delhi, India. The program, sponsored by the University of Connecticut’s Center for Business Research, provided participants with information about the Indian economic system, plus opportunities to tour businesses and visit government officials.

January 5, 2008

Believe it or not, I’m probably close to where you might reach if you started digging in Bloomington-Normal, and cut through the earth; I’m on the other side of the world (and digging the earth might be easier than sitting for 14 hours in the plane (Chicago to New Delhi), arriving here around midnight India time. We’re ll 1/2 hours different (India would be 1/2 hour different!) than central Illinois.

The last time I was here, I brought students around the world. India was our second stop, and we came from London. As I recall that May 2001 day, the temperature was 100 degrees at 3000 feet–at midnight–just before the monitor cut off. Last night (have I been here only 24 hours?), it was 45 degrees. India is, as that example shows, a land of contrast.

I’m at the Management Development Institute with about 20 other faculty, to learn about the new India. We’re staying in a hostel that is sort of like camp–fairly spartan quarters, but quite satisfactory. At least the outhouse is in the room! The Institute is one of the top four business schools in India, and we’ll have a chance to meet with people in our area, tour factories and historic sites, and eat some great Indian food in the restaurant in the dorm.

Today was a relatively easy day. I was up early, finished a book I’d brought along, and went for a walk with a University of Wisconsin professor who happened to be up early, too. He’s Indian by birth, and speaks Hindi, which was a real advantage because it’s pretty obvious I’m from out of town. After getting acquainted with our hosts and each other (there’re faculty from both coasts, and a variety of business disciplines, and one political scientist), we went on a tour of the national museum.

I can’t help coming to India and comparing it to my recollections of the past (I was here in 97, 01, and now) and to China.

Compared to the last time I was here, there seems to be a lot more construction. It’s sort of like what I remembered China was 10-15 years ago. The two lane roads in Delhi are being replaced by superhighways (I thought our bus was going really slow; but I saw the speed limit for busses was only 40 km, or about 25 miles per hour), and the housing is gradually being replaced by high rises. The contrast between rich and poor is still there–families live in shanties (I think that’s an Indian word) outside gated communities, with the middle class (probably larger in the big cities, and certainly here in the nation’s capital) shopping at the new and quite large malls. We passed one that boasted at least 1km of shopping on each floor, or roughly a half mile! The chaos in the street (the Brahmin cows are wandering about, with motorcycles, bikes, trucks, busses, and increasing numbers of new cars, jockeying for space) is much the same.

We tour tomorrow too, and I’m eager to see once again the vestiges of Mughal rule (Moslems from Afghanistan, I believe, invaded and conquered India, before the British and there was a Mughal ruler until the 1850s) in the center of the old city. Perhaps since it’s formerly a British colony (the football scores here are Royale Madrid 1, Arsenal 0, which should tell you something about football!), I should spell it centre.

More when I get a chance, but my best to you all.