The first thoughts that come to mind is that there's a lot of work ahead of us (who is us?) - a lot. It's just difficult to imagine the size of India and the scale of its opportunities and problems while staying in the cities and commuting between cities for meetings or commuting to India itself for family reunions. First of all, it's a big country and most of our population dwells in the villages and small towns than in the cities. This is not a new insight - of course we read a lot about it but it is quite something to actually keep seeing villages after villages after villages, to keep seeing farmers (men, women and children) doing their thing everywhere. They are preoccupied in their own day-to-day activities - most of it is very basic - food, clothing, shelter, security, education and healthcare. We in the cities are preoccupied too but our wants are many, many layers above these fundamental wants. I observed that our people are basically thin - nearly everywhere because they are involved in physical labor. Childhood obesity is a problem of the cities but in the villages I saw kids walking miles before they could get to their schools. People used a cell phone everywhere I went (the networks worked everywhere - little better than I've experienced in the US). My favorite sight was that of a man taking photographs of his buffaloes grazing, using his mobile phone.
There's vibrancy everywhere. The fact that India is young is obvious to anyone's eyes. A happy sight is seeing children going to school everywhere. It appears that everyone's figured out that education is key. I recall seeing more children in school uniforms than seeing them working. At one point in Rajasthan, it just hit me that there are a million business opportunities out there - from WiFi/ Internet connectivity everywhere to private school education to highway coffee shops and food courts to entertainment to rural retail stores to travel needs to healthcare access to English speaking skills to software education. Mobile phones is super successful example.
India is getting built everywhere. Riding through Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Delhi, you can easily separate the chaff - where it's working, where's it's not, where the government is interested, where's it's not, where people are eager, where they are disappointed. Often times, you'd see one part of the highway being repaired for miles together. NH8, the highway of Vajpayee's dreams is pretty good in most parts. The highway connecting Ajmer to Jaipur is much like the good parts of I-95. However, a lot more development is required in the internal parts of our country - mostly from an infrastructure standpoint (and that's also where new opportunities lie). Our people are ready and waiting. I didn't see a sense of disappointment among people (except in Agra) but I saw a sense of hope, energy and excitement. As customers, they are ready and waiting for solutions that meet their wants. If businesses create solutions (regardless of how sophisticated they are or not) that fit their needs, they will buy - you can really feel that they want to join the global marketplace. They have a good sense and awareness of it and really, really want it. The Bottom of the Pyramid (BOP) model definitely will work - in fact, it is obvious to me as a logic that one can't even argue about. Analysis is something that we desperately try to put a control over something that we already sense - what I'm talking about is this sense part.
Somewhere on the borders of Rajasthan, a school boy in a checkered shirt was walking casually and listening to the evening news on an old transistor radio. His matter-of-fact responses to my queries on distances, the location of the village, his school and education and so on were very precise - so precise that I can easily see him fit into our line of work - quite easily. All that is missing in the puzzle is Internet bandwidth and language skills - the latter is becoming less important (not that it can't be taught). I recently heard that mimicking of American cartoon characters (particularly animal and bird sounds) is happening in India and a software okays the sound of someone chirping like a bird at a predetermined frequency - this type of work makes language altogether redundant!
The excitement of India's development and future is definitely felt in the insides - chiefly among its peoples but tangible development - not as yet. This gap in aspirations of the customers and lack of sufficient solutions presents a fundamental macroeconomic demand-supply opportunity. Businesses are bound to close this gap soon; the ones that lay the seeds now will take the first bites.
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