MBA India Trip Book Report #3

The Essential Guide to Customs and Culture
India
by Nicki Grihault

Overview
    Nicki Grihault, an English travel writer, has traveled and worked abroad for many years. She has spent much of that time in India and wrote this guide to help others to avoid social faux pas.  She provides examples of what common misunderstandings have been and what the outcome has been after committing them.  This small handbook will be helpful for reminding one of the differences between the United States and India and should also aid in preventing embarrassing moments.

Relevance of the book
    I chose to read this book this quarter because it's closing in on our departure date and I would prefer to avoid social pitfalls.

    One example of the guides usefulness is how gifts should be given and how they should be wrapped.  As part of our trip, each group has been assigned to buy gifts for our company contacts.  I now know that they should be wrapped in bright red, green or yellow paper, and that black and white wrapping should be avoided.

If the gift is money, it shouldn't be an even numbered amount, instead of 100Rs it should be 101Rs.  Also, any gifts given shouldn't be made from cowhides, pigskins, or amphibians (cowhide is taboo for Hindus and pigskins and amphibians are considered unclean by Muslims).

    When offered refreshment in India, don't refuse without good reason. It is considered an insult. You may refuse once, as this is customary, but you should accept the second or third time it is asked.  Wash your hands before and after the meal.  When eating, it is bad manners to eat with your left hand.  Only eat with your right.  It is however acceptable to pass a dish with your left as long as you don't touch the food.  When dishing food from a communal container, don't touch the food with your hands or other guests will likely avoid it.  The same holds true of drinking from a communal vessel.  Your lips may not touch it.   When passing the salt or other object, don't place it in the hands of the requester, put it down on the table.

    These are just a few examples that are covered in this book.  None of the other material I've read to date has given me as much practical knowlwedge of the customs and culture of India that I envisage using immediately upon arrival.

What were the shortcomings of the book?
    Being a book on customs, etiquette, and culture, it's difficult for me to gauge the efficacy of the book. Without being intimately familiar with India I felt that it covered all that I needed to know adequately, from the Geography, the Attitudes, the Religions, the Food, the Dress, even the Humor of the Indain people.  I'll carry the book with me as a reference when I travel to India.

Recommendations
    I have no qualms about recommending this book to a traveler planning to visit India.  It's not a huge compendium, but it doesn't pretend to be.  It's a small handbook that touches on the most important topics that you'll want to know about.  It related situations you might find yourselves in and helps you understand the Indian perspective in your actions.  A good little book.

Best Price Modern Wholesale (Wal-Mart) in India

The first (and only) Wal-Mart store in India is located about 500 kilometers north of New Delhi, on the Grand Trunk Road near the Holy city of Amritsar that Rudyard Kipling spoke of nearly a century ago.
Interestingly, to deflect the attention of politicians and activists who oppose the entry of foreign multi-brand retailers, the store isn’t called Wal-Mart. After many surveys and much research, it was named Best Price Modern Wholesale.
The endeavor is a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and Wal-Mart. Bharti owns the largest mobile phone GSM service in India. Until this stores opening, Wal-Mart's retail presence has been limited to providing retail items to their partner Bharti’s chain of 25 Easy Day grocery stores that opened last year.

This store however, is not a standard Wal-Mart such as the ones you see in North America. India has legislation that prohibits foreign companies from having direct competition with the domestic retailers and allows only limited foreign ownership as well. This store is not a retail store that will compete with other local retailers. This store is a cash-and-carry wholesaler that will mostly sell to vegetable vendors, hospitals, hotels, restaurants and other companies.
In order to buy from this store, you must be a business owner, a business owner’s family, or one of three of the business owners’ friends. This was a requirement that was meant to appease the local shop owners who saw the Hyper store as a threat to their businesses.

Wal-Mart has had ties with India for some time. Indian suppliers have been providing cloth, clothing, home products and jewelry for the last two decades. They’ve also been working for the 3 years before opening behind the scenes to develop additional suppliers. These new suppliers will help them stock the shelves of their new store in Amritsar with fresh produce and staples like lentils, wheat and rice. One of their stated goals is to provide localized store brands that will sell for 20-30% less than the leading brands, while being customized with taste, style or size for the local area.

Raj Jain (president of Bharti-Wal-Mart) claims that… “We’ll be able to deliver a different seasoning for noodles every 100 km - all with an appreciation for variations in local cultures and tastes.” “India is not a homogeneous market, so ours is not a cookie-cutter approach from the U.S."

Table 1 Comparison Demographics between India, Germany and S. Korea

The Story of India Q & A

Agriculture

1. What role have the monsoon winds played in Indian history?

A monsoon failure can cause years of drought, and scientists believe that a weakened monsoon may have contributed to the fall of the Indus Valley civilization. Monsoons in India blow from the sea toward land in a southwest direction from June to September and from October through December, winds blow from the land to the sea from the northeast, from the Himalayas to the Indian Ocean. This switching of the wind direction season to season, aid ships making the journey back and forth across the Indian Ocean for trade.

2. What is the importance of the Anicut Dam? What does its construction in the second century CE tell us about the Cholan Empire?

The Anicut Dam, built in the 2nd century, has been providing water to support farming efforts in the southern portion of India. It’s age is a reflection of the importance farming and the support of farming in the history of India.

3. While modern agriculture continues to employ 2/3 of the Indian population, it serves as only one fifth of the nation's GDP. What does this shift indicate about India's changing economy? Will agriculture diminish over time?

The shift in the source of income indicates that India is probably leaving the agricultural age and more fully embracing the industrial age as the west has done since the late 1800’s.

Allahabad

1. How does the massive pilgrimage to Allahabad in modern times illustrate India's historical spirituality

It is where, according to Hindu legend, Lord Brahma (the God of creation) performed the first fire sacrifice. Each year during this time, thousands of pilgrims travel to the city to take a ritual bath in the confluence to wash away their sins and increase their chances for salvation. They also perform religious rituals and listen to Holy Men.

2. How was Nehru's policy of non-alignment during the Cold War a reflection of India's past?

Nehru believed in the policies of Ashoka the Great (c. 269-233 BCE), considered the greatest Mauryan emperor in India’s history. Nehru advocated nonalignment, taking the side of neither capitalism nor communism in the Cold War. His goals followed Ashoka’s in the practice of Noninterference and peaceful co-existence. This practice was probably developed by Ashoka to enable a peaceful co-existence between the myriad of cultures, languages, and religion that exist in India.

3. What is the symbolism associated with Nehru's selection of the Lion Capital of Ashoka as the national emblem?

Because Ashoka has become an enduring symbol of enlightened rule, non-violence, and religious tolerance, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, adopted the Lion Capital of Ashoka, as India's official emblem in 1950.

4. While the Great Rebellion of 1857 attempted to rid India of the British,how did Britain subsequently change its ruling style to gain an even stronger foothold in the subcontinent?

The army was reorganized to have a higher ratio of British to Indian soldiers, recruitment focused on regions that had not revolted, and units were composed of soldiers representing many Indian ethnicities to make it less likely that group cohesion could occur through a religious basis.

Edicts

1. What purpose did the Ashokan pillars play during Ashoka's rule? Why do you think they would have been effective?

The pillars contained inscriptions of the Buddhism based edicts of Ashoka after he became remorseful of his past massacres. They were rules of civility that he learned from the Buddhist teachings. They could have been effective because of their locations near the Stupas (religious burial sites) and from the respect and awe that people felt for his transformation.

2. How did the possible meeting between Alexander the Great and a young Chandragupta influence the development of the Mauryan Empire?

Chandragupta was in awe of Alexander the Great. He sought to emulate his successes on both the battlefield and in construction of architecture.

3. In light of India's many religious traditions, why do you think Buddhism suffered a sharp decline in India after Ashoka?

There were many competing religions and philosophies in India. Without the charisma and constant reminders of Ashoka, other religions were able to gather converts.

4. What teachings of the Buddha are most relevant in today's world?

They are the first forerunners of the UN’s declaration of human rights. All humans are members of the same family.

Golden Temple

1. How do Sikhs show the importance of the Sikh holy book, the "Adi Granth"?

The Adi Grnth is brought into the Golden Temple each day for viewing. The Golden Temple is a monumental 2-story structure of marble with the upper story gilded in gold that is positioned in Amrita Saras (pool of nectar).

2. What traits does Sikhism draw from Hinduism? Islam?

Similar to Hinduism, Sikhism teaches that the karmic cycle of rebirths cannot be overcome unless you achieve oneness with God. Like Islam, it emphasizes belief in only one God.

3. Compare the basic tenets of Sikhism and Akbar’s universal religion. Can you make a connection between the two?

Akbar was a Muslim, which was monotheistic. The Sikh was also a monotheistic religion preaching a one true god.

Science

1. Why do you think yoga has become so popular outside of India?

Yoga is popular because of the similarity to “New Age” practices that are popular in that it is used as a method of physical and spiritual discipline but is not a religion per sa.

2. What aspects of Ayurvedic medicine are valued by many people in the United States?

Like many people believe today, Ayurveda emphasizes maintaining health through proper lifestyle including diet, meditation, and exercise.

3. Why were India's advancements in mathematics important? What aspects of math taught today in school originated in India?

The concept of Zero are said to have originated in India, many other concepts of algebra, trigonometry and even the base 10 numbering system were used in India during the 320-550 BCE.

Tamil Nadu

1. Why did the British find the region so valuable?

The area was considered the most fertile of all the colonies controlled by the British.

2. What did the Romans trade with Tamil Nadu?

Rome's conquest of Egypt in 30 BCE consolidated a maritime route to India that remained active into the 7th century. Pepper, spices, and textiles were the primary items traded with the West in exchange for wine, olive oil, and Roman coins.

Trade

1. Why has India been an important center of trade?

With both land routes and sea routes from many different countries, it was a source of spices, culture and religion by the Romans, Chinese, Portuguese, and British.

2. What importance did spices play in the development of trade? What eventually ended the European demand for Indian spices?

Spices were used for the preservation of food (as well as to mask rotting). The requirement for the spices for preservation subdued with the discovery of artificial refrigeration.

3. What was the significance of Vasco da Gama's arrival in Calicut?

He was the first person to navigate a sea route from Europe to India

4. Who did the British East India Company employ to assist the company in its domination of India?

They hired armies of Indians as soldiers and supplied with them with European weaponry to increase their effectiveness against its western competitors, the Dutch East India Company and the French Compagnie des Indes Orientales.

5. How might people of the United States react to a corporation being given the authority to govern another country?

I don’t think it would go over too well (although we’ve gotten close to it in Central and South America in the last century.)

2nd Book Review

The Elephant and the Dragon

Author: Robyn Meredith

Subject of the book

The intent of this book is to convey graphically the state-of-affairs in both India and China. Robyn is in the unique position as an editor for Forbes who is based in Hong Kong and who's responsibile for covering both countries. She has been writing articles about the politics and businesses of China and India for the last 5 years and has a deep understanding of the subject. She covers the strengths and weakness of each country from her point of view. China's quest for a strong infra-structure and it's concentration on connecting it's manufacturing base with the rest of the world and India's weak infra-structure that prevents the country from connecting it's manufacturing capability easily with not only India, but with the rest of the world. She describes how India is overcoming this deficiency by connecting it's service economy with the rest of the world through fiber-optic cables that connect shore-to-shore to all major developed countries. She postulates that the similarities of the two countries are that they are both embracing globalism and capitalism after emerging from their self-imposed isolationism of the last fifty years. The differences she noted that are the most startling is that the politics of the two countries couldn't be more different. Contrary to popular belief in the west that democracy and capitalism go hand-in-hand, China proves this belief wrong. The population appears to be content with the authoritarian communist government while practicing hyper-capitalism. India on the other hand are practicing hyper-capitalism as well but with hyper-democracy. Robyn discusses the twp political systems in place and what problems they both will have to overcome as a result of their political systems in the near future. She predicts that economies of both countries will continue to expand and that the western countries will have to deal with the expansion by looking at our own internal policies and national goals.

Who is the book for?

It's important to know the current landscape if you have any thoughts about establishing a business relationship with counterparts in either China or India, and this book will help you to gain this knowledge. Robyn covers not so much the ancient history of the two countries, but the more recent modern history and explores the potential limitations and outcomes given recent trends. She explains some of the contrasts that are very evident between the two countries. India being a chaotic, bustling, noisy atmosphere, while China exudes a lower key nose-to-the-grindstone feeling. She describes how the information system company's in India got a bit of a free-ride by not having laws in place to regulate them to the same degree as the established industries, and how in China the challenges of getting people to really be motivated and to work when the boss wasn't watching.

What are the best attributes?

I liked that there was both a recent history review, and the first person feeling I got while reading the book. I could almost feel myself in the position of living in a company campus with all the comforts to be found at home in the United States, while at the imagining myself going to the market a kilometer away and seeing the abject poverty.

I personally believe that this is why immigrants from both India and China seem to be more motivated than U.S. born natives....the first hand knowledge of how life can be unfair depending on where you were born, and how close you can be at any time to the poverty level.

What was lacking?

I didn't perceive any major deficiencies in this book. It was an easier read than Fareed Zakaria's The Post-American World, but my feeling is that she probably wasn't quite as rigorous with facts and figures. I enjoyed the personal asides Robyn brought to the book, as well as her assumptions of the challenges that both country will face in the near future.

Summation

I enjoyed this book in that it provided a good balance between facts and a vicarious experience. There was more life to this book than Farheed's. While reading, I could almost imagine myself in the situations she portrayed...and not just because of the few photographs included (though they helped). I think this book is a good "primer" on India and China, but shouldn't be the reference you would reach for if you wanted to argue a point. Farheed's book would probably be a better source for that purpose. If you wanted to get a flavor for India or China, this might be a better book for you.