Posts from — September 2010

Excerpt from President Barack H Obama’s speech before the General Assembly of the UN last week.

Open society supports open government, but it cannot substitute for it. There is no right more fundamental than the ability to choose your leaders and determine your destiny. Now, make no mistake: The ultimate success of democracy in the world won’t come because the United States dictates it; it will come because individual citizens demand a say in how they are governed. There is no soil where this notion cannot take root, just as every democracy reflects the uniqueness of a nation. Later this fall, I will travel to Asia. And I will visit India, which peacefully threw off colonialism and established a thriving democracy of over a billion people.

I’ll continue to Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim-majority country, which binds together thousands of islands through the glue of representative government and civil society. I’ll join the G20 meeting on the Korean Peninsula, which provides the world’s clearest contrast between a society that is dynamic and open and free, and one that is imprisoned and closed. And I will conclude my trip in Japan, an ancient culture that found peace and extraordinary development through democracy. Each of these countries gives life to democratic principles in their own way. And even as some governments roll back reform, we also celebrate the courage of a President in Colombia who willingly stepped aside, or the promise of a new constitution in Kenya.

Why is this noteworthy? For two reasons. First because the most powerful man in the world is choosing to mention India, without the word outsourcing in a speech. Second because he is undertaking a visit in his first term in office. President Clinton waited until his 8th year in power and President Bush the son until his sixth year. Bush the father and Reagan never considered a trip to the only democracy larger than the United States.

Dr. Srikumar Banerjee, India’s topmost atomic energy official, said in Vienna, Austria this week that Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd is “ready to offer Indian PHWRs of 220 MWe or 540 MWe for export.” Banerjee claims that Indian industry is also “on the way” to becoming a competitive supplier of special steels, large size forgings, control instruments, software and other nuclear components and services on the global market.

In the past there has been talk of countries such as Kazakhstan, which don’t need 1000 MW stations and already have plenty of Uranium, using technology from India.

Western aspirants to do business in India’s nuclear ecosystem should be cognizant of the two way nature of India’s business opportunity.

This week, Infosys co-founder and billionaire Nandan Nilekani stood watch as the first step of the “Unique Identification Authority of India” database of every Indian citizen took its first step to reality in the field. Nilekani retired from Infosys to take on this role last year and the position has the rank of a Cabinet Minister.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi traveled to village of Tembhili (population 1,500) in Nandurbar district of western Maharashtra state and handed ID numbers to 10 people, including three children. Using including an iris scans, finderprints and other biometric methods, the system will log details of India’s population of 1.2 billion people into a central database. Every Indian will be issued a 12-digit ID number which they will use to receive welfare handouts, to apply for other documents like passports and even to open bank accounts. The whole process may take another four years.

India hopes that this will prevent corrupt officials from faking the names of people seeking welfare benefits or access to education – potentially saving billions of dollars. Corruption continues to be a significant problem in India and poor, rural citizens are often denied the benefits budgeted for them, such as the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, which promises 100 days of work to any Indian.

According to the 2010 Kenexa Research Institute WorkTrends Report, comparing country-level employee engagement differences in India, China, The Netherlands, Mexico, Denmark, United States, Switzerland, Canada, Brazil, Russia, Spain, Australia, United Arab Emirates, Sweden, Finland, Saudi Arabia, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy and Japan revealed that the order of these countries is consistent with the depth of employee engagement by country.

The city where I was raised is now home to the largest circulating newspaper in the world. The “Daily Awakening” or Dainik Jagran is a Hindi language newspaper whose circulation is buoyed by India rising literacy level, rising incomes and rising population. Equally newspaper circulation is buoyed by the prestige factor (reading a newspaper for a poor person is an inexpensive of declaring that they have begun the unshackle themselves from India’s past).

The Economist has a great story this week where is says, ” ..the number of paid-for Indian daily newspaper titles has surged by 44% to 2,700. That gives India more paid-for newspapers than any other country.” Additionally Indian papers are generally profitable, which is more than most Western newspapers can say today.

This phenomenon has significant implications for advertiser and marketers of any kind as they seek to expand their presence or sales in India. It creates an interesting dynamic as the lower socio-economic strata in India experience change in every aspect of their lives on an accelerated basis (cell phones. FM radio, television, you name it).