Day 2: Old Delhi and New Delhi
Being that India is a country many miles away from home to start
off I would like to make mention that this country and all it has to offer
continues to in a mere word astonish me. Upon waking up from a restful 8 hours
of sleep, I was lucky enough to have a nice breakfast with coffee with Gabriel
Quiroz and Dr. Predmore, in which we discussed Spain and its economic situation.
Just with a start like that I knew that today would be both interesting and
very eye opening. Now normally being someone who likes to keep to myself I find
that this wonderful group of diverse students brings out a more interactive and
more social version of me so thanks guys if you read this.
Moving on we began our day by getting on the tour bus in which our
tour guide Gotham (to which if I have spelled your name wrong I am sorry) took
us to Old Delhi a place in which he exclaimed "you can find anything
here." This I must tell you I found both intriguing and exciting as I was
interested to see if this place could live up to its reputation. As I would
later find out you literally could find anything. Our first stop was a Mosque
Jama Masjid to which we had to remove our shoes. Despite the cold marble the
sight of this unfortunately I could not take photographs inside but one of the
other students has so keep posted for pictures! Once I had recovered from the
amazing designs that lined the walls and even the floor of the sandstone and
marble encased Jama Masjid we then moved onto my personal favorite part of
todays trip, the streets of Old Delhi.
The first Mosque we visited
Another picture of the Mosque
Just a view at the jungle of wires that electricians have to deal with if something goes wrong
This is where they made jewelry like the earrings I purchased for my girlfriend.
The Rickshaw ride everyone looking somewhat concerned
Selfie in the Rickshaw
One of the many forts that conquerors built in India
Delivery Service anybody?
At the Gurudwara with some of the guys.
A picture of the Gurudwara that we visited.
Upon leaving the Mosque Old Delhi was just waking up from its
slumber, shops began to open and colors began to flow for miles. As much as I
was immensely impressed with this I could not help but see many people staring
at us throughout the streets which made me feel a bit uncomfortable and out of place.
Seeing this, however, gave me insight as to how tourists or visitors to New
York must feel. We seemed what felt like hours roaming these streets which
contained spices, jewelry, and Sari's which are traditional Indian dresses for
women. However, the laugh of the day was when one of our group members split
his pants, however, his name will remain off this post. Within minutes of this
we found a tailor and his pants were sewn back together and away we went. Of
course the girls were trying on Sari’s for what seemed like an hour while the
guys were standing outside but it gave me an opportunity to talk to the guys
and get myself familiar with everybody. Next we had the distinct privilege
of going to the U.S. Embassy American Cultural Center.
On
the bus ride over our teachers educated us on how the situation between India
and the United States is a bit fragile at the moment. Apparently, a diplomat
had a servant to which was being underpaid and was being used essentially as
slave labor was arrested and strip-searched. Since this has happened India in
retaliation has taken away the protective barriers in front of the U.S.
Embassy. So at the moment the situation amongst our two countries is rather
delicate. In our visit, which Gabriel has so graciously posted, a picture of
already we talked with two individual from the Embassy. They graciously
explained their roles in the Embassy as well as some of the issues and
successes they have encountered. Their roles at the embassy are to promote U.S.
exports and try to obtain investors to create jobs in the United States. They
exclaimed right now there is a huge potential market for medical equipment,
aerospace, and cultural products such as movies and books. These two individuals
also mentioned that Indian culture is very strong and it is hard to break into
this market. Seeing how the middle class of India drives consumption it is
self-explanatory as to why they would want to break into a market that contains
200-500 million people. They also emphasized the three P’s for successful entrepreneurship,
which were Patience, Perseverance, and Partners. As much information as was
thrown at us this whole day has been a wonderful learning experience.
After
leaving the McDonald’s that we purchased dinner at I had my first real
encounter with poverty despite seeing it throughout the day in which a woman
and her baby were begging for food to which I gave them some despite being told
not to give them money I thought some food would help. Poverty in this country
is devastating to see and it opened up my eyes to how privileged I am in the
United States. As we got on the bus we decided to head to one last destination a Gurudwara which essentially means "Gateway to the Guru," which practiced Sikhism, which utilizes the text the Guru Granth Sahib. This experience was probably one of
the richest (both literally and figuratively) due to the fact that the inside
of this Gurudwara was adorned with gold and gave me an insight as to the cultural
diversity that India in general has to offer to the world. In summation, I could
say this is the best day ever but there are more to come on this trip and I
look forward to all of them.
I particularly liked the Embassy visit because the officers gave a great account about the Indian way of doing business. Just to elaborate on the embassy’s role to promote U.S. exports, I found interesting to learn that it’s very difficult to stop negotiations in India. Negotiations go on, even after contracts are signed. Because contracts are difficult to enforce in India, the embassy always recommends getting the payment first, before shipment occurs, which is a must for exporting to this country. Despite of all the problems, there are still people coming in and the department of commerce encourages them to do so and helps start their export businesses in India. The first step is to come to the export assistance center. They have about 100 of them in every state. There you would work we a commercial specialist who will help a company prepare, review their product and will contact embassy officers to finalize the process of entry. There are about 215 foreign commercial officers located in most states.
ReplyDeleteThe best sector for export in India is education. At any time any given year there’s 100,000 Indian students in American colleges, postgraduate or graduate degrees. Cultural exchange programs exist as well. They’d love to see more American students coming to India but a lot of implications follow because the Indian education system is very competitive and there’s not enough space. Only people who are in the 96th percentile can go into college.
I also learned that many Americans are working on directing capital. There are huge market access issues across the spectrum. Basically if you’re an elite or middle class you have access to several markets (credits markets, consumer markets, labor market). There’s a huge segment of the population that is untapped and does not have access to these markets, whether it’s energy market, whether its capital market, so they set up a system where a for profit company builds off grid electricity in villages and gets a 13-20% return. They work with guaranteed returned models, where you get a guaranteed return unless the entire company collapses. Villagers want the electricity and they would pay if they could get it through all the utilities but the system is too corrupt or the infrastructure, both human and physical isn’t there. It’s a model where a lot of our companies have been successful. There are about 100,000 villages, that’s something like 400,000 million people, more people than the entire United States.
It was said that India has the worst gender gap of any democracy in the world, and it’s close to countries like Qatar and Mali. Of all the democracies in the world India ranks last, 107 out of 134 countries. There’s a huge untapped potential. This submarket is approximately 600 million people. It’s there for the taking. Half the population that is not being marketed to, that’s not being employed, that American companies have to care about the cultural restrictions on women in the workplace, or marketing directly to women in order to succeed in India.
Sorry to say there is some significant (inadvertently, I'm sure) misinformation in this day's summary. It is written in the blog that the Gurudwara was a 'second mosque' which practices Sikhism. Also, it went on to say Sikhism 'practices aspects of Islam and utilizes the Quran and Guru Granth Sahib' ... A lot of misinformation there. Sikhism, as is well-known, is not an offshoot of Islam or a sect of Islam. Sikhism does not use the Quran. Sikhism's temples are not mosques, but rather Gurudwaras (Gurudwara = "Gateway to the Guru"). Sikhism is a unique religion which is the 5th largest in the world. There is a monotheistic basis which it shares with Islam vs Hinduism, but it's not an offshoot. I felt it was important to share this information, as there is already much misinformation about religions outside the "big two or three" ... I want to say I truly appreciate the intention to learn about Indian culture and these faiths, and I don't mean to be negative - but I feel it is important to provide the most accurate information possible. I would ask if you could kindly correct the labeling and referral to the Gurudwara and Sikh faith. Thank you for your efforts in trying to learn and educate others!
ReplyDeleteI have updated this thank you, however, this was a working blog post to write about our experiences, but again thank you for your comments they are appreciated.
ReplyDelete