Hello all. I spent the first two weeks of March in India and it was fantastic! Most of my time was spent in Bombay, which is showing signs of promise for the first time in decades. Bombay, as you all know is a New York and an LA rolled into one fine cigar. It is the hub of one of the world’s largest film industries (Bollywood as much as I dislike the term), and one of the world’s largest financial markets. For the uninitiated, Bombay is an assault on your senses. Period. There are approximately 17 Million people living in this massive metropolis and they are a huge strain on the city’s infrastructure- although the infrastructure is getting better. This is all old news though. Lets look at the new, fun stuff.
I met an old friend, who is working for a French Shampoo brand. She is a young executive with a US degree in business (marketing) and loving every minute of it. One day she was working on a product launch with a group from another nearby city, the next day (a Saturday, mind you) she was negotiating a possible acquisition with one of the more successful indigenous consumer products companies in Delhi (which is a 2 hour plane ride from Bombay). She works 15 hours a day, usually from 11 a.m. (yes, lots of companies in Bombay start late, due to traffic congestion and coordinating business hours with their European, Asian or American counterparts) until after midnight, including most Saturday’s. And she loves it! That’s your quintessential Bombayite -all work and all play.
Although there are superficial improvements such as shiny towers, newer roads, and nicer shopping complexes, the most striking (and important) improvement seems to be in the attitude of the people of Bombay (and India)- the attitude of optimism, of ‘gogetterness’ which seems very similar to the late 90’s era in California and New York or Boston or (from what I have heard) the attitude in China. Young people in Bombay actually believe that life is going to be great, that they have a bright future full of world-class career and business opportunities and a world-class consumer lifestyle. (“You can get anything you want in Bombay these days” is something you hear a lot)
Although Internet penetration in India is woefully low today, mobile phones are everywhere. Whether your vehicle of choice is a $20 bicycle, or a $500,000, Maybach, you are most likely to own the latest Nokia or Motorola handset and using it every second of your life. Mobile phones in Bombay are truly a blessing- given the rotting ‘hardwired’ infrastructure and the sheer speed of life in Bombay. (When setting up meetings with old friends, they referred to exact timeframes such as 5-6 minutes, as different from 10-15 minutes in most other places, and were always before or on time)
Perhaps Bombay will bypass the inadequate Internet infrastructure, by WiFi connectivity just like it jettisoned its landline infrastructure in favor of Mobile infrastructure. Having wireless Internet infrastructure in the city would open up opportunities for the people of Bombay to devise new business models and capitalize on the natural entrepreneurial quality of the town.
Mobile gaming, anyone?
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