Posts from — April 2009

For Western companies, it was conventional wisdom that you located your Asia-Pacific office in either Hong Kong or Singapore. Both cities offer modern amenities for expatriates and both have a cosmopolitan air about them. But the world has changed.

A Chinese survey of 112 companies found that 78% of them prefer to locate their staff on the Chinese mainland. Only 43% thought highly of Singapore and just 39% felt strongly about Hong Kong. While the report does not say, I bet Shanghai is the winner among the China mainland locations. Shanghai aspires in many ways to be the new Hong Kong and during my time there I have always felt quite comfortable and welcome.

Companies used to believe that they could “run” India out of their Asia-Pac headquarters in one of the cities mentioned above. And some choose Dubai. But most have realized that they must  choose an India location to manage the India market.

While the late George Harrison was probably the biggest fan of Indian yoga, the Beatles as a group were quite influential in bring awareness of meditation and of India to the west. Their joint concerts with sitar maestro Ravi Shankar in the 1960s are remembered by many.

On Saturday April 4th, Sir Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, the two surviving Beatles came together for a show at Radio City Music Hall in New York. Organized by the David Lynch Foundation, the surviving Beatles performed to raise funds to teach meditation techniques to 1 million ‘at risk’ children.

A slide show that ran along with part of the act, depictedthe Beatles and their friends at the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi Ashram in Rishikesh, India . The photographs presented Paul, John, Ringo and George in Indian costumes and you can see some of them here.

Tata Motors began taking orders for its new Nano car on April 1st. It sells for $2050, no joke. Over 300,000 Indian have visited Tata showrooms in the last 10 days. For most buyers the vehicle is an upgrade from a motorcycle or motorized scooter.

Nano production lines are expected to be backlogged for a while and the automaker will only accept 100,00o orders for now. The rest of the customers may have to wait several quarters for their wheels.

My home town paper, the Los Angeles Times, carried a nice story about the situation, click here.

My book, Doing Business in 21st Century India, was released as a hardback, audio book and Kindle edition last summer. Today they have released it on Apple ITunes. You can get to it at itunes.com/gunjanbagla

or you can try playing the sample MP3 file

Doing Business in 21st Century India

According to Mercer two India cities are among the ten most expensive locations for expatriates. Remember, we are not talking about the average cost of living for local residents, or even the cost of living for upper income Indians.  Expatriates  from the West living in emerging economies typically choose premium rental housing in very expensive neighborhoods and are quite particular about features required by them even among those areas.

With that caveat, the city of Mumbai figured at Number 4 on the list and Delhi was #8 worldwide.  Moscow, Tokyo and HongKong were the most expensive locations for foreigners living in those cities.