Posts from — February 2009

At the Grammy Awards this year, much attention was focussed on Sri Lankan born British singer, MIA, who performed despite being nine months pregnant. MIA is also featured in SlumDog Millionaire.

But another important celebrity with South Asian connections was among the winners. Calfornia resident Zakir Hussain, won for the World Drum Project. Husain is the son of famous tabla artisted Allah Rakha and has a long history of successes with that amazing India percussion instrument, the Tabla. I heard him most recently at the US India Business Council dinner  in Washington DC last year.

At the Grammy Awards this year, much attention was focussed on Sri Lankan born British singer, MIA, who performed despite being nine months pregnant. MIA is also featured in SlumDog Millionaire.

But another important celebrity with South Asian connections was among the winners. Calfornia resident Zakir Hussain, won for the World Drum Project. Husain is the son of famous tabla artisted Allah Rakha and has a long history of successes with that amazing India percussion instrument, the Tabla. I heard him most recently at the US India Business Council dinner  in Washington DC last year.

While there is a global recession and crisis, India is one of the few countries that continues to grow.  Most of the current growth is driven by domestic factors in India, not by exports. Finance-dependent industries such as automobiles and real estate have slowed. But so much of the Indian economy has always run on cash payments; some of this is due to cultural factors; the “underground economy”,  ie people who want to avoid taxation and records are another factor.  The underground economy is usually an embarrassment to India, but in this situation, may be a source of resilience.

With China’s export-dependent growth rate expected to decline significantly, major press is predicting that India may emerge as the fastest-growing major economy in 2009. But The India Expert is not impressed; the misery of others is no cause for celebration.  This isn’t a horse race with a prize money. Besides, being first will give India’s government the sense that they can ease up on reforms, wastage and delays.

India’s potential continues to be underutilized. Its entrepreneurs and executives are capable of much more. When the number of Indian living in poverty drops to under 10% of the population, there will be cause for jubilance. There’s a long road ahead.

I write for Business Week from time to time and this week, Dr. Atul Goel and I wrote a piece entitled: Innovation from India, the next Big Wave.  It took them some time to publish the piece, but in many ways it is even more relevant now than when we first wrote it, given the state of the global economy.

Click here to read about how Innovative companies the world over are discovering the research and development advantages to be found in India.

3M India Limited announced that a new R&D facility will be established in Bangalore by middle 2010 to develop products for local markets and to connect better technology to customers, according to Inge Thulin, Executive Vice-President, 3M International Operations. Globally, 3M has 35 labs across the world. In keeping with its focus on innovation, 3M invests approximately 6 per cent of its sales on R&D. The new facility in India is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2010.

Takeway

Innovators such as Google, General Electric and 3M are making a beeline for India’s talent. Cost is a small reason for doing so. Talent, markets and capacity are probably more important to 3M.