Route to Indian consumers' heart is through their stomach.. Click here to read full article

Why international business firm's need to adapt to local consumer culture in India. This article shows it for hotel industry.

Two individual journeys that changed destination of millions

Our first hero's journey!

Traveling around is considered to be a great educational experience. But some times even one journey could be the turning point in your life. Here I am going to write about two such journeys in the life of two remarkable Indians that changed the course of not only their own lives but transformed the lives of millions.

Year 1893. The place, South Africa. There sat in a very cold wintry night of South Africa a man without adequate warm clothes in the waiting room of a railway station. Nothing is extraordinary about if this wait was by choice, nay but it was by choice in a way. The story (real) is this.

Before our hero lost his belongings and found himself in the waiting room of a railway station, he boarded the first class compartment of a train from Durban to Pretoria. When the train arrived at Pietermaritzburg (also called Maritzburg) at about 9.00 p.m. a white passenger seated in the compartment did not like our hero who being Indian was ‘coloured’. In those days the whites and the coloured were segregated in every walk of life in South Africa. When asked to go out of the first class and board a van compartment at back of the train, the ‘coloured’ man refused. He was then forcibly taken off the coach but still refused to board the van compartment arguing that he had got the first class ticket so he had right to travel by first class. In the process the train left and our man found himself waiting in the cold night at the Maritzburg station. This man was none other than M.K. Gandhi, who would later become the hero of India’s freedom movement and get India independence from the British in 1947.

What happened to Gandhi that night on Maritzburg station was a transformational experience. Gandhi was new in South Africa and had gone there to develop his career as a lawyer. The physical hardship that he faced during this journey is nothing compared to the humiliation he felt being discriminated against because of the colour of his skin. He resolved to fight the ‘disease of colour prejudice’ as he calls it in his autobiography. This is when a big turning point came, Gandhi decided to take up a public cause and the great leader started one of the several battles that he won without resorting to violence and ultimately won India her freedom.

Our second hero’s journey!

Year 1974. Place Nis, a border town between Serbia (at that time it was part of Yugoslovia) and Bulgaria. Both were communists countries at that time. A young Indian was hitchhiking has way all the way from Paris to Mysore in South India!

It is a coincidence with the previous story but here also it was about 9.00 p.m. when our hero of this story was dropped at Nis station on Saturday night. The restaurant was closed and with no local currency and the banks to open only on Monday, our hero slept on the railway platform till next evening 8.30 p.m. to catch Sophia Express.

There were only two other passengers in the compartment; a boy and a girl. Our hero struck a conversation with the girl in French. The girl described how hard it was to live in a communist country. Suddenly there arrived policemen who were actually called in by the third passenger, the boy, who thought our hero and the girl were criticising the Communist government of Bulgaria. The girl was taken away and so was the luggage of our hero who was then dragged away and put in a small room of 8x8. The room was cold with stone floor and a hole in a corner to be used for calls of the nature. Our hero was left in that room to cool his heels for 72 hours without any food or water. Then he was dragged outside humiliatingly and locked up in the guard’s room on a freight train going to Istanbul where he was to be released after 20 hours. When finally he was let off in Istanbul, the guard’s parting message meant that he was let off because he was from a friendly country! India during 1970s was close to coming to communism having nationalised banks and other industries and increased the role of state in the economy. India had adopted Soviet styled planned economic development and heavy regulation of the economy since early 1950s. Anyway, our starving hero, who did have some Left leaning views at that time, had been without food for nearly five days and was shaken from inside out, literally!

Thirty five years after this life transforming long, lonely, cold journey from Nis to Istanbul, our hero writes this in his book, “ Deep in my heart, I always thank the Bulgarian guards for transforming me from a confused Leftist into a determined, compassionate capitalist! Inevitably, this sequence of events led to the eventual founding of Infosys in 1981.” Yes, our hero of this story is N R Narayana Murthy and he writes the above in his book A Better India: A Better World published in 2009. Set up in 1981, one of the giants in IT companies in India, Infosys today has revenues in excess of $3 billion, net income of close to $1 billion, market value of over $28 billion, has created more than 70,000 well paying jobs, 2,000 plus dollar millionaires and 20,000 plus Indian Rupee millionaires.

Two journeys that changed the destinations of millions, didn’t they?

The Oldest Democracy and the Largest Democracy Face Opportunity (challenge)

So many things have been happening in past few weeks but I am going to reflect on events in two democracies. First relates the oldest (modern) mother of democracy, Britain and the second to the largest democracy in the world, India.

Westminster Parliament complex with its famous Clock Tower does not just symbolise the great city of London but also represents a source of the economic and political power that the British enjoyed for centuries till the rise of the US in late 19th century and early 20th century. Clearly the United Kingdom had lost its global economic and political leadership in the last six seven decades. However, following the disclosure of MPs’ expense claims its great democratic institution has lost much more in past two weeks. It has lost the trust that people of the UK have in their politicians and political institutions. Members of Parliament in the UK get around £64,000 per annum as salary. They are also entitled to claim expenses like allowances for second home etc. Most of the claims made by the MPs have been according to the rules set by members of parliament. But the manner and nature of the claims have invited strongest ever public outcry and disbelief from ordinary citizens. I will not describe in detail these expenses as there is already a lot published about these. However, I’ll focus on the principles violated and why that matters not only for democracy in the UK but democracy in general. First, it seems over the years a convention had evolved to claim expenses for second house expenses etc. as a compensation for low salaries that MPs get. So rather than arguing openly for increase in salaries, the rules were framed and implemented that in a way allowed MPs to claim expenses, which don’t necessarily fit the criterion set by the parliament rules, i.e., the expenses should be wholly and exclusively necessary to perform their duties as MP. Second, the MPs tried to justify their claims referring to the rules in words rather than in admitting to the violation of spirit of rules. This does not behold good for gentlemen and ladies of the British parliament. They hold public offices and should be accountable for tax payers' money.

The consequences of the expense claims political scandal is having far reaching effects on the House of Commons and political career of many politicians. The Speaker of the Commons resigned two days ago, first time in the last 300 years of British parliament! Many politicians have been forced to declare that they will not be standing for election to parliament in future. Some ministers are worried about their jobs. The government has announced that there will be an independent regulator to monitor and sanction MPs expenses in future and that there will be complete overhaul of expenses allowed.

Now, let’s turn from this remarkable political development in the UK to India where as I write the government is being formed by newly elected parliament. There are so many challenges that the largest democracy in the world faces. They arise from the facts like the size of the nation (both geographically and demographically), coalition politics, poverty, global economic recession and its impact on India, the security and so on. All this makes the Indian prime minister perhaps, the most important executive in the world. The Indian parliament owes it to the people of India to improve the institutions and offer high quality public service. Will the MPs of Indian parliament do it? We have to be optimistic and see what happens. However, what they could easily do, as they are starting a new term, follow the spirit of Freedom of Information Act and set up individual websites. They could put before their constituents an agenda for their five year term, provide a quarterly report on how they are progressing the agenda, declare the perks/expenses they claim in addition to their salary from tax payers' money and declare a time table (even though it may vary occasionally) when they will be visiting their constituency and where so that the people whom they represent can meet and talk to them. I don’t think above few things are too difficult but they are basic mechanisms for public accountability which the MPs as public servants politicians should be expected to abide by.

If the parliamentarians in the UK fail to clean up the system effectively it will be bad example for democracy everywhere. If the parliamentarians in India become more accountable and learn from others' mistake, they will add a feather to democratic political system. What a coincident that two torch bearers of democracy face historic opportunity to improve record of democracy to serve the people who choose to be governed by politicians.