Farewell Mysore, we shall miss thee!

So today we had our last lecture (sad and exciting at the same time) with Professor Padmanaban. Although the topic of e-governance is interesting, it can get a little long if he is just describing to us what it is for about an hour and a half. I wish we had a more interactive session because I think most of knew the basics of what e-governance is. It’s pretty self-explanatory. However, good governance is always quick, efficient, cost-effective, and provide information to citizens in a fair, corruption-free, transparent manner. The professor defined e-governance as SMART (simple, moral, accountable responsible, and transparent). This is the basics that e-governance should take, and this was the main takeaway of the lecture for me. With the world becoming so Internet-oriented it is only right that there be some kind of e-governance. There is so much information readily available to individuals today that they can choose to do whatever they like with it, and for that are in reality the ones flattening our world.

Aside from lecture and all, it was our last day in Mysore :-(. However, we got to eat some delicious food at the Mertopole Hotel, and yes there was that Gujarati food that I love so much! Although the real Gujaratis make it better (haha), it was very delicious. I must say that I have met some of the greatest people I will ever meet, and it was all on this trip. From the students at the institute to the people in the streets, to our very own group, I will never forget the everlasting memories I have made, and all the new friends I will get to keep in touch with!

Branding

Yay!!! Professor Balakrishnan (a freakishly amazing genius!) has returned from his trip, and today got to lecture our group! Today we discussed branding, and it was quite the interesting topic. I never even knew that there was such a thing called the SAFTA before coming to this class. I just thought these free trade agreements were something the US decided to implement. But with that and among other things, the function of branding became obvious to countries worldwide: for identification, practicality, guarantee, optimization, characterization, continuity, and ethical values. The main objective of marketing however is to disorient the customer (which just sounds cruel, but it’s true) but branding reverses this objective for it is for reorienting the customer. Even the branding creates risk, it allows for companies to compete more, and with that there needs to be more interaction worldwide for these companies to remain leaders. Just like our favorite person, Friedman, says… with the world becoming flat, it’s much easier to do business worldwide.

Belur Temple and Gene's birthday!

This is the longest ride I have ever been on… talk about motion sickness! Anyways, we went to visit Belur temple, and I have never seen such craftsmanship as I did at this temple. It was a really good time, minus the fact it was about a 3 hour ride!

Later that night, we had to go celebrate Gene's birthday so we went where? Where else besides the Road? Some of our buddies came along too, and here is the one picture where Gene is actually in it, even though he's not paying attention!

Infosys

Infosys… need I say more? Could there be a more beautiful site to see everyday when you go to work? Well, not unless you work at Infosys. With their buildings appearing like the Coliseum, the library that looks like a building from ancient Greek mythology, a whole little mall on the campus (yes… with a Domino’s!), and their housing for the faculty, what else could one ask for? Well… at first this company seemed like a dream to work at, but after that presentation… it made me think they have quite the ego! I respect that these people work hard at what they do, but I can’t imagine being kind of brainwashed to do what they want you to do. I still want to do what I want, and be who I am, and not act like they want me to… after all, we are going for individualism… right? I don’t want to offend anyone by saying this, so I am truly sorry if I have. Infosys is a great company and know what they are doing, but I would not be able to work there. However, Infosys has proven to be a leader in its IT services, and no one does it better. They offer so many great things to their employees (besides classes, there’s a large pool, workout facilities, and badminton courts the size of a football field… or so it seemed!) They know how to keep their company going, and even though they are not profit-driven, they really do put an emphasis on their employees to do the best. It really is a sign of globalization and how it’s making its way throughout the world. In The World is Flat Friedman talks about how the dot-com bust drove globalization and it forced companies to outsource/offshore their functions in order to become leaders in their industry, and Infosys is a great example of this. Here are some pictures of their absolutely gorgeous campus!

Larsen and Toubro

Today, we had Dr. Gayathri come in and lecture about the Indian Service Industry. We discussed many of the growth and business opportunities that India has seen. The Indian services sector has grown to be nearly 55% of the Indian economy, and is still growing because of the fast growing tourist economy and the emergence of KPO. This was easy to see when we went and visited L&T (Larsen and Toubro). L&T is India’s largest construction and engineering companies that provides many services to other countries worldwide. L&T does many things to maintain its leadership, and one of the things they have done is to improve themselves is integrating their future in detailed engineering, project management, construction, and most importantly, improving their delivery schedules to make sure they are at their highest efficiency. This is what is meant by the triple convergence that Friedman is constantly talking about. You know… companies weren’t able to really interact well with each other if they were located in different countries, but with the Internet and work flow software, they are able to work together, and do jobs that they thought they wouldn’t be able to! The world is becoming very individualized, and according to The World is Flat, these individuals will be able to change the way they interact with others… worldwide.