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.

Kabini in all its glory

KABINI!!!! That was an amazing get away, and the pictures speak for themselves.

What a day!! Never will I see so much of one city!

Today, we got to go see the city, and it was one long ride, but totally worth every second! My favorite part was seeing the palace all lit up in its beauty, and let me tell you, it was breathtaking! Never have I seen a palace lit up with 96,000 lights (although they could have added the extra 4,000 light bulbs to make it an even 100K), and it must have taken some patience to put those up, or let alone find a light bulb that’s blown out! In the morning we went to Chamundi Hills, and saw the temple up there, and I actually got to do some praying after 2 weeks of not going at all! Also, Srirangapatna was a really fun historical city to go to, and the bird sanctuary was even better! We got to see real crocodiles, and I’ve never been so scared out of my pants to be so close! Here are some pictures from that day! Enjoy!

A Monkey and AT&S

This evening we got to visit AT&S, a circuit board manufacturer. It was interesting to see this plant, and especially the machines that they use to make the circuit boards. Technology today is booming everywhere, and it’s about time that everyone realizes this. Friedman defines it as the triple convergence, and from that he wants us to understand that technology is what is going to level the paying field, and as Carly Fiorina says “technology will literally transform every aspect of business, every aspect of life and every aspect of society.” Now seeing these really cool machines at AT&S was amazing to see how one can manipulate a language of technology to do what it wants, and for it to produce something like circuit boards with little human involvement is simply amazing! I just could not believe how clean this place was too… all the factories we have visited have been awfully clean to my surprise. I thought that conditions would be much worse, but I was very wrong about that. As far as AT&S, many of their systems are computerized and there is no requirement for much manual human labor except to run the machine and make sure the circuit boards are made correctly. Because of this technology, their error rates are kept low, and it reminds me of Six Sigma practices. The best part at AT&S besides all the machines was of course, the random monkey in the yard!

Two Wheelin

TVS Motor Company is India’s number 3 two-wheeler manufacturer that has set up their base in both India and Indonesia while using Japanese technology. With their company being one of the first Indo-Japanese company making two-wheelers, TVS faces much competition from China and Japan as those two countries are the key players in this market. From this visit it was easy to understand how Friedman’s flattener #10 (steroids) connects to the company. With the readily available internet, TVS and other companies are able to easily find information and use it to their advantage. This is where the issue comes up. TVS was recently sued by its major competitor, Bajaj Auto, who claimed that TVS had stolen its technology in using twin spark plugs. With the use of the internet from computers and PDA’s (today’s steroids), TVS is able to claim that the use of twin spark plugs is old and was in existence long before Bajaj had introduced the technology. With this information, TVS will hopefully be able to resolve the issue showing that the information is already available, and is not a new concept.

Even though we weren’t able to take pictures inside the factory, I can tell you that it was one of the cleanest factories I have ever seen. I thought that because it is here in India that it would be in terrible condition, but it appears to me to be just as clean as a factory would be in the US.

Supply Chain Management

As India continues to grow and is one of the top choices for outsourcing and offshoring, they need to realize they are beginning to play an important role in global supply chains. Today’s lecture focused on the challenges faced in India as they need to focus on issues of supply chain management in order to succeed internationally and for multinationals to understand cultural differences as they pursue efficiency, growth, and higher profits through outsourcing and offshoring. Both India and other countries worldwide need to accept and learn the strengths and weaknesses of each other in pursuance of innovation, information technology, and technological advances to produce high efficiency and profit.

In India, there is a growing trend for IT professionals and this gives India a competitive advantage as many multinational companies come to India and its institutes to recruit new hires. Today, there are more IT professionals in Bangalore than there are in Silicon Valley, and there are more than 50 multinational companies that get their chip designed in Bangalore! Most of these multinationals that have outsourced to India are saving money because India has a special capability to supply products in smaller volumes. For that matter, the world is becoming flat. Friedman discusses the challenges faced by companies that outsource and offshore. He says that outsourcing may not guarantee someone a job no matter how intelligent or knowledgeable they are in their field; what matters is if the person can add value to the company because of the extensive knowledge they have in their field. Because of that, many recruiters from the IT field come to India to find new employees because they know Indians have the entrepreneurial skills and knowledge of IT in order to add value to the company, and also the companies are benefiting financially because they can pay at lower rates. As for offshoring, it reduces costs for the company, but the economy of the country may stagger because all the jobs in that field are being moved to a different place. Like with IT, many of the jobs are moving to India and China and now multinationals do not only compete within the US, but also with the other companies in large countries like India and China.

Furthermore, Friedman discusses the triple convergence. With the opening of societies of China, India, Russia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and Central Asia, the triple convergence is what really shapes global economics and politics. With the web-enabled playing field, information to anything is available at anytime. With technological advances, communication between different countries has become easier and allowed for collaboration amongst the countries to become horizontal. For India and the US to collaborate in the IT field has become very simple today because of the triple convergence, and that was seen from our visit to Automotive Axles Limited (AAL). They are a joint venture with the USA Arvin Meritor, Inc., and they manufacture rear drive axles. They export parts to the US and also provide for domestic companies. With the use of technology and their advanced IT systems, AAL is able to maintain their relationships both domestically and internationally. They must maintain their management in supply chain especially with the US as that plays an important role in the success of the Indian company, and for the multinational corporation. Here I have posted some pictures of the factory… it was pretty clean for a factory considering it was in India. It almost looked like it could be a factory in the US… the only strange part was that many workers didn’t have protective gear such as gloves and face masks, and many did not wear ear plugs.

Courthouses and the legal system in India

We got to talk about India’s legal system today and got to visit the district court. From the outside and at a distance, the building looks just like a courthouse in the U.S., but upon sight of the courthouse, I couldn’t believe that it was a courthouse. There were broken windows, the stairs looked like the carpet hadn’t been changed in 50 years, chairs broken, and people just everywhere! It’s so different than a courthouse in the U.S. where everything is kept clean and there are clean, unbroken benches for everyone to sit at. All the attorneys and lawyers were just sitting at one table in the middle of the room, which was interesting. What I really liked, however, was how the judge was greeted when someone left or entered the room; you must bow slightly with your hand over your heart or your hands put together in the middle of your body. I thought that was really respectful, whereas in the U.S. you may just get up and leave quickly and quietly.

It’s intriguing when we learned in lecture how corrupt the government is here. It takes nearly 25 years for a case to be fully settled, and it is really hard to get to the high court and Supreme Court. Also, it was interesting how judges are picked. For the small claims court the judge moves up in rank, but the higher courts, a government official will choose someone to be the judge. Furthermore, the small claims court cases are all done in the local language (Kannada), while the higher courts are all in English. It must be difficult if someone doesn’t know English to be in the higher courts, and if you don’t know the local language, you can’t be a judge in the smaller claims court.

As far as corruption goes, India’s government has been getting better, but still is quite corrupt. In the book Being Indian we read how people can pay/bribe officials to get a job… nearly 2 crore (20,000,000 rupees!) just to get a job! Here I posted a picture of what I could get of the courthouse… looks nice until you go inside!