INDIA - KTH · Project India 2005 is a one-year journey through culture, political and business issues in India. The

INDIAYes Yes, No Problem?

�© Project India 2005

�© Project India 2005

“India will be the global high-tech engineering hub in the near future. Swedish engineers must take part in this development.”Anders FlodströmPresident, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)

� © Project India 2005 �© Project India 2005

© Project India 200�

International Business Association for Students

KTH

www.projectindia200�.com

EDITORS

Project India 200�, Dr. Simon Moores

AUTHORS

Viveka Andersson, Fabian Bonnier,

Per Wennerström, Marie Håkanson,

Sam Rahbar, Pernilla Emenius,

Robert Lagerström, Malin Olin,

Harald Knape, Sofia Groth

GRAPHIC DESIGN

Harald Knape, Fabian Bonnier

PHOTOS

Harald Knape, Project India 200�

PRINT

Fälth & Hässler, Värnamo

PRojECT INDIA 2005


Project India 2005 is a one-year journey through culture, political and business issues in India. The unique project-based course is initiated and run by students at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm. The aim of the venture is to analyse the potential of the Indian market – to investigate what Sweden and India can gain from this business cooperation.

The project group consists of ten students with different backgrounds and experiences, deliberately selected to form a unanimous and strong team. Close to receiving our Master degree, the course is an opportunity for us to challenge our analytical and engineering skills as well as our knowledge in finan-cial and cultural issues. This is achieved by letting responsibilities, normally handled by the faculty, rest on us. These include setting up course goals, administrate the work, finding project partners and finally present the result with a seminar and this book.

Our journey with Project India 2005 is coming to its end. Through the year, we have gained invaluable experiences in project organization, teamwork and international business. We are proud to present this book, in which we have assembled our experiences, analyses and results based on relevant literature, interviews and personal reflections.

We would like to take the opportunity to thank all persons involved in this project; both in Sweden and in India. We are truly honoured by the generosity, interest and support you all have shown. A special thanks to all our project partners, The Royal Institute of Technology and our supervisor Professor Gunnar Benediktsson for giving us the responsibility to run Project India 2005.

Project India 2005 - Stockholm October 2005


INTRo

India, Yes Yes No Problem? 10

The Land of Contrast 11

An Exciting Journey 12

ECoNoMY

Brief Historical Outline of the Economy 18

Introduction to a New World 20

Sweden vs. India in Figures 22

The Major Market Segments 2�

Outsourcing Trends (outsourced article) �6

How to Outsource Outsourcing ��

The Indian Giants �2

The Backside of India’s Economic Boom ��

India - Threat or Possibility �6

START-UPS

Advantages and Challenges �0

Project India 2005 Starts a Company! �6

Other Swedes in India ��

Contents

PRojECT INDIA 2005


INfRASTRuCTuRE

Mission Impossible 66

The Monsoon in Mumbai and Project Air India 72

Bangalore year 20�0 7�

CuLTuRE

Cultural Differences 7�

Poverty ��

Education �6

THE END

Conclusion �0

Members of Project India �2

Acknowledgements ��

Partners ��

10 © Project India 2005

PRojECT INDIA 2005 -

The aim of this book is to inspire; to give you a glimpse of India, the giant country that will take a central role in what might become the Asian Century.

Please do not read this book from start to end: open it, browse it through and find an article or some pictures that are especially interesting to you. Maybe you want to read about Royal Shirts, a company we started in order to illustrate how to operate a business in India.

Or why not study outsourcing? We did that by out-sourcing a chapter in this book – check out the re-sult.


INTRoINDIA, YES YES No PRobLEM?

THE LAND of CoNTRASTAN ExCITING jouNEY



13© Project India 2005

India, Yes Yes No Problem?

Why is north Indian food fattier than food

in the south? You will find some reflections

on this in the chapter about culture. What

does the word “Volvo” mean in India? You

can read about this in the chapter on mar-

keting. Yes yes, no problem, is a commonly

heard phrase in India that reflects the peoples

optimism towards the future. However, the

country has many challenges to face which the

question mark in the book’s title is meant to

illustrate. Our overall perspective is that India

is the country of diversity, which we will show

in this book. India is the country, where you

can expect the unexpected.

As Swedish engineering students we have

since January 2005, and especially during

our journey through India in August 2005,

had the luxury of exploring a country which

most definitely will grow to be one of the most

important countries of our future. The pur-

pose of this book is to create curiosity and an

insight into India by sharing our experiences.

This book will give you our picture of India.

We cannot simply after a month-long visit and

half a year of studying the country claim to be

experts on the subject. What we can and will

do, however, is share with you our own expe-

riences and opinions about a country with

more than 5,000 years of history and which is

home to one-sixth of the world’s population,

half of them being under the age of 25.

We hope that you will enjoy reading this

book and perhaps become inspired to carry

out further studies, make investments or

travel to India.

We are up in the mountains outside Aurangabad. Some children were playing cricket at a play yard when we passed by. As you can see in the picture, they got truly excited when we asked if we could join them in the game.

INTRo

12 © Project India 2005 13© Project India 2005

The Land of Contrast

“East is East and West is West and nev-

er the twain shall meet”, wrote Rudyard

Kipling, a British writer and soldier in In-

dia. In today’s world of highly complex

technological interdependence, India still

appears to most Europeans as an incom-

prehensible culture. This is a problem

as it sometimes discourages companies

from starting up in India. The root of the

problem is ignorance, which creates ste-

reotypes and cultural misunderstandings.

A better knowledge of India is justified not

just by the opportunity of good business

in an important part of today’s economic

market, but also by the fact that one out of

six people on Earth is Indian. This chapter

will give you a short introduction to “The

Land of Contrast”.

LAND of CoNTRAST

“The Land of Contrast” is a commonly

used phrase when describing India. Few coun-

tries in the world are as diversified as India.

India is therefore best viewed as a continent

rather than as a country. From north to south

and from east to west, the geography as well

as the people, the language, the culture and

traditions differ completely. Traveling in

India provides one with memories for life

and impressions, which may turn the world

around. In India, you will get to see the snow

covered Himalayas, the sunbathing paradise

beaches, extreme poverty as well as enormous

wealth.

WoRLD’S bIGGEST DEMoCRACY

“India’s biggest disadvantage compared to

China is that it is a democracy”, states Philip

Davidson, MD of Atlas Copco India. “But the

fact that India is a democracy is also India’s

greatest advantage”. In China, the government

acts extremely fast in all political decisions.

But what happens when the citizens cannot

influence the results? In India, however, the

system tends to be slow and badly affected by

the complicated bureaucracy. Rapidity, how-

ever, can never match the value of freedom

to challenge your brain and create new ideas;

something not allowed under a dictatorship.

It is hard to fully grasp the magnitude of

a national election in India. The electorate

exceeds 670 million voters in about 700,000

different polling stations spread across the

country. One national government and 28

state governments are elected out of more

than 5,000 candidates (2004 election). In

the 2004 election the Election Commission

INDIA

Capital New Delhi

Independence 15 August 1947 (from UK)

Population 1,080,264,388 (2005 est)

0-14 years: 31,2%

15-64 years: 63,9%

Climate varies from tropical monsoon

in south to temperate in north

Population growth rath 1.4% (2005 est)

Ethnic groups Indo-Aryan 72%,

Dravidan 25%,

Mongoloid and other 3%

Religions Hindu 80.5%, Muslim 13.4%,

Christian 2.3%, Sikh 1.9%

and other groups including

Buddhist, Jain Parsi 1.8%

Literacy definition: age 15 and older

who can read and write.

total population: 59.5%, male:

70.2%, female: 48.3%

Above: Jawahalal Nehru (left) India’s first Prime Minister speaking to Mahatma Gandhi. Below: Manmohan Singh (left), Sonia Gandhi.


An Exciting journey!

employed almost 4 million people to help the

actual 390 million who voted, not counting

the vast number of civilian police and security

forces who ensured that the election was car-

ried out peacefully.

After the last election in May 2004 it was

clear that the 19 party coalition UDP, with its

leader Sonia Gandhi, an Italian-born widow

of the former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi,

had unseated the ruling National Democratic

Alliance (NDA). Sonia Gandhi, however,

renounced the Prime Minister’s post and pro-

posed that the noted economist, Manmohan

Singh, replace her as Prime Minister. Even

though Manmohan Singh today is the Prime

Minister, Sonia Gandhi plays an important

role in keeping the coalition together.

HISTORy

The Indus Valley civilization, one of the

oldest in the world, dates back at least 5,000

years. Aryan tribes from the northwest invaded

Januari 2005

Project India 2005 started. The following 7 months were dedicated to

extensive preparations for our travel to come.

July 28 – August 7

Our first days in India were full of impressions; hectic traffic, noise,

intense colors, heat, humidity, Indian spices and smells. We went to

Rishikesh in the north and to Agra to see the Taj Mahal.

August 8

We met the journalist Narendra Taneja and the KPO company

Evalueserve.

August 9

The project group visited Ericsson’s main office in Gurgaon and dinner

at the Swedish Embassy.

August 10

We visited Indiska’s New Delhi office and one of their suppliers.

August 11

The group visited SECO Tools India’s headquarter/plant in Pune.

New Delhi

Pune

Cochin

Agra

Mumbai

Bangalore


around 1500 B.C. and created the classical

Indian culture. Arab and Turkish incursions

in the 8th and 12th centuries respectively were

followed by those of the European traders in

the late 15th century.

By the 19th century, Britain had political

control of all of India. Non-violent resis-

tance to British colonialism led by Mahatma

Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru resulted in

independence in 1947. The subcontinent was

divided into the secular state of India and the

smaller Muslim state of Pakistan. A third war

between India and Pakistan in 1971 resulted

in East Pakistan becoming a separate nation

known as Bangladesh.

All of these waves of immigration have

given India a complex culture with many dif-

ferences, which are apparent in, for example,

the 17 major languages. Spiritual acceptance

is also peculiar to India as every religion

is represented, including Hinduism, Islam,

Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism,

Jewry and Christianity.

August 12

We visited Atlas Copco and gave interviews to three Indian newspa-

pers.

August 13 – August 15

Saturday morning we left Pune for Aurangabad.

August 16

We learned about outsourcing at Capgemini, missile technology at

L&T (LARSEN & Tubro) and schooling for the poor in India at the

Akanksha school.

August 17

At the harbor of Mumbai we learned about the logistics of Indiska. We

also visited the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).

August 18

Some of us had a meeting with Astra Zeneca and some of us visited

IBM in Bangalore.

August 19

The group visited Volvo’s production plant and head office.

August 20

Some of us went back to Sweden and some of us stayed for another

two weeks of vacation.

New Delhi

Pune

Cochin

Agra

Mumbai

Bangalore

Gurgaon, New Delhi

Veer Savarkar Road, Mumbai

Volvo, Bangalore

Allepey beach, Kerala

Taj Mahal, Agra

Atlas Copco, Pune

Astra Zeneca, Bangalore



After having gained independence indus-

trialism started to take root, the population

grew and people moved from rural to urban

areas. A massive film industry, Bollywood,

was born in Mumbai and many other cultural

programs started. Lately, India’s economy is

booming, the political situation is more stable

and the optimism among people is high. Once

again, India must not be seen as a country, but

as a continent.

GEoGRAPHY

India, with an area of 3.3 million sq. km,

is a subcontinent divided into 28 states. The

peninsula is separated from mainland Asia

by the Himalayas. The country is surrounded

by the Bay of Bengal in the east, the Arabian

Sea in the west and the Indian Ocean in the

south.

The Himalayan region has a rich vegeta-

tion with varieties that can virtually be found

in the tropical to the tundra regions. Only

the altitude influences how the vegetation is

dispersed. In the rest of the country the type of

vegetation is largely determined by the amount

of rainfall. Outside the Himalayan region, the

country can be divided into three major veg-

etation regions: the tropical wet evergreen and

semi-evergreen forests, the tropical deciduous

forests, and the thorn forests and shrubs.

At the footstep of Himalaya lies Rishikesh. People from all India go there to see the Ganga.



ECoNoMY

India’s diverse economy includes tradi-

tional village farming, modern agriculture,

handicrafts, industries and services. The

country is capitalizing on its large numbers

of well-educated people skilled in the English

language.

The Indian economy is growing rapidly

but that has not always been the case. For

many years, socialism dominated the Indian

market, holding back privatization and for-

eign trade. Since the 1990s the government

has eased the pressure on the market, but

there are still a lot of problems to overcome

in order to boost economic growth further

and improve the lives of the poor. Controls on

both foreign trade and investment have been

reduced in some areas, but high tariffs and

limits on foreign direct investment are still in

place. The privatization of government-owned

industries has proceeded slowly, but political

and economic inflexibility continues to block

the required initiatives.

Timeline 1947-2004:

INTRo

War with

Pakistanover the Kashm

ir border.

Congress

Party, le

dby Ja

waharlal N

ehru,w

ins fir

stgenera

l electio

n.

Deathof Prim

e Min

ister Ja

waharlal N

ehru.

Former Prim

e Min

ister Nehru

'sdaughte

r Indira

Gandhi beco

mes Prim

eM

inist

er. India

devalues ru

pee

by 57.5%afte

r press

urefro

mth

e World

Bank

India

becom

es the world

'ssix

thnucle

ar power.

Indira

Gandhi retu

rns to

power as headof th

e

The Congress

Partylo

ses th

e general e

lection.

India

join

s the W

TO.

The BJPfo

rms a co

alitio

nheaded

by Prime M

inist

er Atal B

ehari

India's

billionth

citize

nis

born.

Adip

lom

aticoffe

nsive is

launched

toavoid

war withPakist

an.The US

andth

e UK urge th

eircit

izens to

leave India

and

Congress

Partywin

s the genera

l electio

n.

Manm

ohanSin

ghbeco

mes Prim

eM

inist

er.

India

gains in

dependence.

First 5 Year Plan,whichrepresents a period

of progressive liberalization.

Secondwar with

Pakistanover Kashm

ir.

The massive devaluation

leads to strongdom

estic pressure.The progress made by

liberalizationis stopped

andim

port controls are tightened.

Thirdwar with

Pakistanover the creation

of Bangladesh(form

er East Pakistan).

Indira Gandhi's Congress Party loses the election.

Indira Gandhi murdered

by bodyguards.Her son, Rajiv Gandhi, takes over.

Rajiv Gandhi murdered

by a suicide bomber sym

pathetic to the Tamil Tigers from

Sri Lanka.The economic liberalization

reforms begin.

The Congress Party is defeatedby the Hindu nationalist BJP,which

takes over the

reigns of power.

Vajpayee meets with

Pakistan's Premier Nawaz Sharif to sign

a peace declaration.

Former scientist, APJ Abdul Kalam

, is electedpresident

1947 - 1951 - 1951 - 1964 - 1965 - 1966 - 1968 - 1971 - 1974 - 1977 - 1980 - 1984 - 1989 - 1991 - 1995 - 1996 - 1998 - 1999 - 2000 - 2002 - 2004

Oxford Analytica, India: A Five Year Outlook


ECoNoMYINTRoDuCTIoN To A NEW WoRLD

THE MAjoR MARKET SEGMENTSHoW To ouTSouRCE ouTSouRCING



In order to understand the changing and

dynamic Indian market, one needs some

basic knowledge about the history.

After the Second World War, India

declared its independence in 1947. This was

followed by an economic policy influenced

by the Soviet planned economy. For a long

time, the country had a very moderate eco-

nomic growth – slower than many other

underdeveloped countries. Between 1947 and

1980 the GDP increased on average by 3.5%.

However, given an annual population growth

of 2.2% this represents a per capita growth

of approximately 1%. During this period,

India’s economic development strategy aimed

to achieve self-sufficiency and was totally

controlled by the government. High tariffs

and a complicated system of import licenses

protected the domestic trade from overseas

competition. Imports of consumer products

were prohibited with some exceptions, which

were charged with import taxes up to 300%.

At this time, the government employed 70%

of the work force. This was a time of bureau-

cracy and India’s share of world trade fell

from 2.5% in 1938 to 0.5% in 1980.

During the 1980s, the GDP in India started

to increase. However, the reason was much

as a result of borrowed resources. In 1991,

India faced a deep economic crisis and was on

the verge of bankruptcy. They could hardly

pay their debts and could not borrow more

money.

In June 1991, Narasimha Rao became

Prime Minister and took the controversial

decision to appoint the Oxford-educated

economist Manmohan Singh as the Minister

of Finance. He claimed that India could be a

global economic power by implementing the

following two new reforms. The first aimed

to open up the economy globally in order to

attract foreign investors. The second intended

to reduce the bureaucracy – by this time one

needed a license for nearly everything. Since

this economic liberalization, India’s economy

has grown on average by 6% a year and the

country is starting to be a key player in the

economic world.

Brief Historical Outline of the Economy

38 % of the doctors in USA are Indians

36 % of the scientists at NASA are Indians

34 % of Microsofts employees are Indians

12 % of USAs scientists are Indians (Source: Evalueserve)

ASToNISHING fACTS AbouT INDIA

Measured in number of films and movie visitors, the Indian movie industry

is the largest in the world, with a turnover of 40-50 billion SEK.

(Source: SvD)

The worlds richest man is an Indian born businessman, named Lakshmi

Mittal. (Source: DN)

The third riches man on Earth is Aziz Premji, CEO of Wipro Industries.

(Source: Fortune Magazine)

Pictures from the world famous movie Monsoon Wedding

ECoNoMY




2�© Project India 2005

A great new economic power is taking

shape in the East. India is bubbling with

optimism and is ready to play a big role in

the world market. This chapter will give a

brief introduction to the market that will

take a central role, in what might become

the Asian Century. “Understanding the In-

dian market is a must for the next genera-

tion of engineers”(Prajeet Patel).

The Western perception of India has

changed radically. When you open the news-

papers nowadays you find headlines like

“India’s spinning wheel arouses global anxi-

ety” (Svenska Dagbladet, August 26, 2005).

This has not always been the case. When one

searches for articles concerning India some 20

years back, they typically described the same

thing: a small, poor, urban village. There, the

journalist would find a widow with many chil-

dren from a lower caste. Some heartbreaking

photos were taken and the story was about

epidemics, starvation and poverty. Finally, the

article was headed “India: A Huge Country

on the Verge of Collapse” (Time Magazine,

1975). Basically, these were the Western per-

ceptions of India until lately.

Even though India is still a very poor

country in many respects, it is starting to

become a strong economic power with a huge

and diverse industry. India has, for example,

developed its own space program and nuclear

power plants. In the outsourcing industry,

many believe that India will be the number

one – the back office of the world. The middle-

class is growing rapidly; today it includes up

to 300,000,000 people, and their consump-

tion is rising even faster. The newspapers are

filled with articles with headlines like “India

is moving fast to become the global economy

power No. 1”. True or not, you can literally

feel the optimism when visiting universities

and companies – they are eager to compete

with the rest of the world.

In order to estimate a developing country’s

potential as a trading partner, one needs to

consider its economic growth, for which GDP

growth is a measurement. Without a stable

economic growth, the country might not be

able to make essential investments to produce

attractive export products. The country’s

imports of value products will also decrease

sooner or later if the growth is not stable.

Economic growth is also needed for long-term

social development as it reduces poverty and

increases the opportunities for households to

make savings and investments. A stable eco-

nomic growth also improves the government

income, which may be used for investments

in economic and social development, for

example, health, education and infrastructure.

Since 1991, when economic liberalization

Introduction to a New World

Since 1991, India has been among the top ten growing economies in the world. Considering India’s huge population, this has a dramatic influence on the global economy.

The Indian Market

ECoNoMY

Rate of GDP growth in India

-4

-2

0

2

4

6

8

10

1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005f

India Sweden

1991

22 © Project India 2005 2�© Project India 2005

reforms were started, India has been among

the top ten growing economies in the world.

Considering India’s huge population, this has

a dramatic influence on the global economy.

Looking ahead, investment firm Goldman

Sachs predicts that India will be the third larg-

est economy by around 2030. An even wider

spectrum of India’s population will escape

from poverty and contribute to an enormous

market of consumers and a huge, highly quali-

fied manpower. India will certainly, together

with China, take a central role in what might

become the Asian Century. Consequently, India

is becoming an even more important business

partner for Sweden. “I am convinced that in

many ways, Sweden’s future, and the future

of the European Union, of which Sweden is a

member, lies with India”, said Inga Eriksson

Fogh, Swedish Ambassador to India.

It is important to remember that India

must not be seen as a single economy. The

economic differences are huge between

regions, cities and the countryside, or even

more so between the parts of India that have

been influenced by modernization and the

ones that remain unchanged and extremely

poor. There is an incredibly rich elite and a

growing middleclass. In Mumbai alone there

are over 45,000 millionaires (USD). However,

it should not be forgotten that a huge part of

the poorest people in the world live in India.

So, once again, India should not be seen as a

country, but as a continent!

Back in 1975 it was a mistake to only

illustrate India as a country on the verge of

collapse, and it is also a mistake today to be

worried that India will soon take over as the

economy of the world. But the Indian market

is indeed an increasingly important global

player and must be considered accordingly.

“Understanding the Indian market”, explained

Prajeet Patel of Evalueserve, “is a must for the

next generation of engineers”.

2� © Project India 2005



ECoNoMY

Sweden vs. India in Figures

MACRo ECoNoMIC

Population: 9.0 million (2005)

Adult literacy rate: 99%

GDP total: USD 240.3 billion

GDP per capita: USD 27,310

Components of GDP (% of total): Private consumption (48.7), Public

consumption (28.0), Investment (17.2),

Exports (43.3), Imports (-37.2)

Main Sectors of the Economy: Iron and Steel, Equipment (bear-

ings, radio and telephone parts,

armaments), Wood, Pulp and Paper

Products, Processed Foods,

Motor Vehicles

Principal exports (billions of USD): Machinery and transport equipment

(41.1), Wood and paper products (11.3),

Chemicals (9.7), Manufactured goods

(9.4), Total incl. others (81.1)

Principal imports (billions of USD): Machinery and transport equipment

(30.5), Miscellaneous manufactured

goods (14.1), Chemicals (7.9), Mineral

fuels (5.9), Total incl. others (66.5)

Top 5 trading partners + Sweden: 1. Germany, 2. Norway, 3. USA, 4. UK,

5. Denmark, 25. India

Total Trade HistoryUSD bn

0.0

20.0

40.0

60.0

80.0

100.0

120.0

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003

ExportImport

buSINESS CLIMATE

Corporate tax rate: 28%

Employment costs: USD 47,636 (annually)

Number of university students: 320,000

Internet users: 6,700,000 (73.6% of population)

Cell phone users: 8,190,000 (91% of population)

Swedish Exports to India

287

512

295211 221

285359

642

879

1128

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

USD mn

Sweden

(Source: Sweden – India Business Guide 2005-2006)

2� © Project India 2005 2�© Project India 2005

MACRo ECoNoMIC

Population: 1 082 million (2005)

Adult literacy rate: 61.3%

GDP total: USD 510.2 billion

GDP per capita: USD 490

Components of GDP (% of total): Private consumption (64.4), Public

consumption (12.5), Investment (12.5),

Exports (22.8), Imports (-15.2)

Main Sectors of the Economy: Textiles, Chemicals, Food Processing,

Steel, Transportation Equipment,

Cement, Mining, Machinery, Software

Principal exports (billions of USD): Gems and jewellery (8.8), Engineering

goods (8.4), Textiles (5.8), Ready-made

garments (5.4), Chemicals (5.0), Total

incl. others (49.3)

Principal imports (billions of USD): Petroleum products (17.7), Capital

goods (7.7), Gems (6.1), Electronic

goods (5.4), Total incl. others (56.5)

Top 5 trading partners + Sweden: 1. USA, 2. China, 3.UAE, 4. UK,

5. Belgium, 29. Sweden

buSINESS CLIMATE

Corporate tax rate: 30%

Employment costs: 2,167 USD (annually)

Number of university students: 7,078,000

Internet users: 39,200,000 (3.6% of population)

Cell phone users: 41,000,000 (3.8% of population)

India

(Source: Sweden – India Business Guide 2005-2006)

Indian Exports to SwedenUSD mn

199 191 200 189 183205 208 208

268

307

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004

Total Trade history USD bn

0.0

10.0

20.0

30.0

40.0

50.0

60.0

70.0

80.0

1999 2000 2001 2002 2003

ExportImport




The Major Market Segments

Our visits to different companies in India

gave us the opportunity to look at the emerg-

ing market of India. The rapid growth in India

during the last decade is often associated with

the IT sector, and other industries are not

far behind. The agriculture sector, which

corresponds to 23.3% of GDP and 60% of

the population, is also of huge importance

to the country, but will not be dealt with in

this chapter. Some of the rapid growing sec-

tors with high international importance will

be presented. India is well known for its

outsourcing industry. This segment is of such

great importance that we have dedicated a

whole chapter to it. Related market segments

will also be covered briefly.

ECoNoMY


India and China have the highest market

growth in the telecoms sector globally.

Recently, phone connections in India have

passed the 100 million mark, which means

that over 9% of Indians have a phone. The

cell phone penetration in India is today

about 6%, which is relatively low com-

pared with other markets. The market is,

however, growing fast and adding some 2

million new customers per month.

The Indian cell phone industry is expected

to grow from USD 12 to 27 billion in four

years. This will probably come from new dis-

tribution channels and value-added services,

for example, ring tones (Financial Times,

August 22, 2005). By next year, the country

will have a network covering 350,000 vil-

lages and connecting 450 million people (The

Times of India, August 15, 2005). Dayanidhi

Maran, State Minister for Communication

and IT, forecast that India would have 250

million telephones by 2007, which means a

teledensity of about 22%.

When traveling in India, you can clearly

sense that telecoms is a huge industry. Even

in the smallest village there is no doubt that

you can find a cell phone shop and one can

literally see commercials for cell phones

or operators everywhere. Many cell phone

manufacturers are focusing on cheap phones,

especially adapted for the Asian market, in

order to reach a greater part of the public.

Cell Phone Explosion ERICSSoN ARE GETTING INTo NEW oPERATIoNSDuring our visit to Ericsson’s head office in India, located in Gurgaon outside New Delhi, we

were told about the company’s new innovative strategies. Below, you will find the interesting

background to this.

To evaluate a certain operation in a company, one can use Michael Corbett’s core competence

activity test and answer the following questions:

- If starting the operation today, would you do it yourself?

- Would other companies hire you to do the operation for them?

- Will a future CEO come from the department that runs the operation?

If the answer to any of the questions is no, it might be profitable for the company to outsource

this part of the business. It could benefit the company as it then can focus on its core activities,

with increasing revenue, decreasing costs and decreasing risks as a result.

Many cellular operators are struggling to manage their networks optimally. The purchasing of

new base-stations is very costly and the process for running them is difficult. Ericsson is there-

fore not only selling equipment for mobile stations, but they have also started to run their own

mobile networks. Cellular operators can rent Ericsson’s net and thereby focus on the customer

care, marketing, sales and branding. Ericsson believes that it can operate the network better as

it has the knowledge and the possibility of running more then one operator on a platform.

India’s largest operator, Bharti (Airtel), with 26% of the market, is hosting Ericsson’s network. “We

have increased the performance for Bharti, for example, the drop call rate is significantly less

today than previously” (Kjell Casenberg, General Manager).

Cellular subscribers in India(Statistical Outline of India, TATA)

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

2002 2003 2004 2005

2 million new subscribers/month

Telecom Industry

© Project India 2005


In this sector India is one of the most

prominent global players. Technology is the

fastest growing segment of the Indian indus-

try, both in terms of production and exports.

In India, the electronics industry is totally

deregulated, except for aerospace and defense

electronics. As a step in the liberalization

of foreign investments, import-export and

export policies of the entire economy, this

sector is attracting considerable interest not

only as a huge market, but also as a potential

production base for international companies.

Offshoring is often associated with software

development, but it actually ranges from gen-

eral maintenance and other IT-enabled services

like call centers and back-office work.

Developing the systems and solutions of tomorrow, within areassuch as defense, aviation and space, takes advanced knowledge insome of technology’s most sophisticated areas.

Saab is one of a few companies in the world that have what it takes – that’s competence and capabilities in for instance systemsintegration, data fusion, simulation and sensor technology – to meet these challenges at the absolute forefront of technology.

Today we supply leading-edge solutions for air-, land-, and sea applications. We also develop advanced space technology, and weco-operate with the world’s leading aviation industry.

If you’d like to know more,please visit us at www.saab.se

At the forefront of technology.

IND

US

TR

I

SAAB127 Annons KTH 05-09-14 13.55 Sida 1

Visiting Capgemini gave us a great opportunity to look at the consultancy industry and get an insight into the important role India plays for the growth within this sector and how the business culture differs between India and Europe. Capgemini emphasized that one of their aims when they started their outsourcing business in India in 1997 was “rightshoring” – their own term for offshoring. There is a possibility for them to reduce the consultancy and development costs for European and US clients. The growth of Capgemini India became clear to us when we entered the office and met a lot of young people waiting for their first interview. The recruitment process is hard to pass. Out of the 300 people that come to an interview session, 50 pass the theoretical test and go on to an individual interview. 10 people are finally selected.

“Growth is everything for the IT companies.”

Kent Kærby Hansen,Danish Integrator, Capgemini

ECoNoMY

India’s Specialty

IT


Developing the systems and solutions of tomorrow, within areassuch as defense, aviation and space, takes advanced knowledge insome of technology’s most sophisticated areas.

Saab is one of a few companies in the world that have what it takes – that’s competence and capabilities in for instance systemsintegration, data fusion, simulation and sensor technology – to meet these challenges at the absolute forefront of technology.

Today we supply leading-edge solutions for air-, land-, and sea applications. We also develop advanced space technology, and weco-operate with the world’s leading aviation industry.

If you’d like to know more,please visit us at www.saab.se

At the forefront of technology.

IND

US

TR

I

SAAB127 Annons KTH 05-09-14 13.55 Sida 1

�0 © Project India 2005



4.2 Million New Motorcycles a Year

In India, cars are still an extravagance. It

is, however, a luxury that a growing number

of Indians can afford. India is not far away

from being among the top 10 automobile pro-

ducing countries in the world and it is set to

become a global outsourcing hub for the auto

component industry. The industry is expected

to grow five-fold over the next 10 years.

The total automobile sales in India have

grown from 5 million units in the year 2000

to 7.5 million in 2004. Tata is currently

designing a new car for the public that they

will start to manufacture in 2008. The price

will be INR 100,000, which is SEK 18,000.

Motorcycle sales have grown most dramati-

cally with a 100% increase during the same

period - last year 4.2 million motorcycles

were sold (Statistical Outline of India, Tata).

On the streets of the cities and in the coun-

tryside, one can see motorcycles everywhere.

You often notice a man driving, his wife and

a child behind, and yet another child on the

handlebars.

Visiting Volvo in Bangalore, we learned

more about the challenges for a high quality

brand in a very price focused market. Volvo is

the first brand in India that is focusing on high

quality and technically advanced buses and

trucks. This is, in some respects, a challenge:

Volvo faces a market where competitors as

well as customers are fixated with the lowest

price instead of quality. Volvo has therefore

worked hard to change the attitude of its

potential customers. By emphasizing a total

cost perspective when selling the Volvo, cus-

tomers have started to realize the advantages

of cost savings by way of operational reliabil-

ity when investing in a more expensive truck.

Volvo has experienced that its customers in

the Indian market are more loyal than in other

markets. This can be explained by the low

number of customers in the market, and that

they do not have much competition within

the premium customer segment. However, the

dominant manufactures of buses and trucks in

India, Tata and Ashok Leyland, with 99% of

the market, are also learning from Volvo and

starting to produce more advanced vehicles.

Vehicles

“TATA is currently constructing a new car for the price of 18 000 SEK.”

ECoNoMY

�0 © Project India 2005 31© Project India 2005

No SIR, IT’S A VoLVo RICKSHAW

Late in the night after a long dinner, we were tired and eager to get back to our hotel. We were up in Oota, a small village in the mountains south of Bangalore. There we were struggling to find a rickshaw that could drive us to the hotel. Finally, we found one and asked the driver for the price. “120 rupees, Sir”, said the driver, which we knew was an exorbitant price. Sick and tired of always getting “taken for a ride”, but too exhausted to negotiate, we agreed anyway. The rickshaw we now were sitting in had blinkers, new seats and some instruments you normally do not see –a bit more chic than usually. “Well, at least it’s a very fine rickshaw you have, is it new?”, Harald asked the driver. “No Sir, my rickshaw is not new”, the driver answered. He then turned around and smiled proudly. “But it’s a very special rickshaw, Sir, this is a VOLVO rickshaw!”

In India, Volvo is more than just cars, trucks and buses, it has, in fact, become a word meaning “very comfortable vehicle” – a standard for comfort and security.

��© Project India 2005Together we make companies and countries grow.

Swedfund – your ideal investment partner for doing

business in India.

Get in touch with us for an informal discussionabout your business idea.

www.swedfund.seTel. +46 8 725 94 00

��© Project India 2005

The textile industry is an important sec-

tor of the Indian market. Today the industry

employs 8% of the population, which cor-

responds to 88 million people. The value of

India’s exported textiles and ready-made gar-

ments is approximately USD 13 billion, which

makes it one of India’s largest foreign exchange

earners. Moreover, the government expects it

to increase to USD 45 billion by 2010 (Dagens

Industri, February 21, 2005). One reason for

this expected massive growth is that the quota

system that has regulated international textile

trade since the 1960s has been systematically

phased out and India as well as China are

expected to benefit from this.

China is the apparel industry leader, but

India is emerging as the most competitive

actor in the home textile business market.

Moreover, while India is focusing on produc-

ing textiles with patterns, China is usually

focusing more on mass production of cheaper

textiles (Kurt Hellström). In the Indian textile

industry, international ownership is still regu-

lated by the government, but many think that

this will change soon.

SWEDISH INDISKA IN INDIA

Project India 2005 had the opportunity to visit Indiska, the well-known Swedish clothing and furnishing company, in Delhi and in Mumbai.

Indiska has been operating in the textile market for many years. During this time the company has learned the market and knows exactly how to operate in it. We were espe-cially impressed by their supply chain management and distribution system in a market that is difficult to control. As the clothing market is extremely trend sensitive, there is no room for delays or any miscommunication between the suppliers and Indiska. The whole business relationship is based on trust between Indiska’s division in India and the 60 or so suppliers, of which most have done business with Indiska for 15-20 years. The company has a distribution hub in the port of Mumbai where they receive all the goods before shipping them to Sweden. At this hub, Indiska price-mark and sort all items into boxes, specifically containing the orders from every shop in Scandinavia. The idea is that the boxes can be sent to the shops without needing to repack them in Sweden, where the garments can be hung up at once.

We also had the opportunity to see different quality check-up procedures and learn about the different inspections that the suppliers have to pass. The management also told us about different action taken to prevent problems such as child labor and to improve the suppliers’ working environment. Not only are Indiska’s suppliers inspected, but the suppliers’ suppliers as well.

Textile Industry

Together we make companies and countries grow.

Swedfund – your ideal investment partner for doing

business in India.

Get in touch with us for an informal discussionabout your business idea.

www.swedfund.seTel. +46 8 725 94 00

The old Cash Cow

�� © Project India 2005



The engineering industry is a large segment

of the overall Indian industry. Essentially, it

can be divided in two segments – electrical

and non-electrical. The electrical industry is

related to investments in the power industry,

while the non-electrical segment is driven by

general industrial investments.

Overall, there is a demand for engineering

equipment in industries like cement, steel,

power and chemicals. Domestic Indian com-

panies are able to manufacture enough for

most of the Indian customers’ needs. We had

the opportunity to visit India’s biggest engi-

neering company, L&T, and saw their heavy

engineering shop and switcher manufacturing.

Most of L&T’s customers are domestic, but,

in recent years, it has made a successful mark

on the international market. However, the

domestic trade is big enough for most Indian

engineering companies. (See also the chapter

Indian Giants.)

Atlas Copco was one of the first Swedish

companies to enter India. Most of them, for

example, Atlas Copco, Sandvik, SKF and Seco

Tools are located in Pune, outside Mumbai.

Atlas Copco has been operating in India since

the 1950s. Last year, it increased its sales in

the country by 30% and it expects this to

continue.

EngineeringThe Largest Segment in the Indian Industry

A hard working welder in Volvo’s factory in Bangalore.

ECoNoMY

�� © Project India 2005 ��© Project India 2005

THE SWEDISH STREET

In Pune, along the street called Sveanagar, which means “The Swedish street”, Atlas Copco is for historical reasons situated next to companies like Sandvik, Tetra Pak, SKF and Alfa Laval. Atlas Copco has been in India since the 1950s and today Atlas Copco (India) Ltd. has about 1,000 employees and has had a very rapid growth in the last two years. From 2002 to 2004 the turnover in India increased from INR 2.5 billion to INR 4 billion. About 50% of the revenue is generated from compressors, 42% from construction and mining and the rest (8%) is generated when selling industrial tools to the automobile industry. The Managing Director, Phillip M. Davidson at Atlas Copco India, gave us the opportunity to learn more about operations in India, difficulties that may occur while operating in India and also some key success factors. The good English skills of the university educated CAD-design staff were important and made it easy to get a better picture of what it is like to work online for demanding customers on the other side of the world.



�7© Project India 2005

“Biotechnology will be the next IT in

India” (Beng Johansson, Swedish Trade).

The chemical industry is one of the rapidly

growing sectors of the Indian industry. Within

this sector, the pharmaceutical industry is the

fastest growing. In terms of numbers of drug

patent applications, India is second after the

US but ahead of Germany. At a meeting at the

Indian Embassy in Stockholm, we were told

that the Indian economy soon would be just

as much biotech as IT. The two industries are

comparable: both require a high level of well-

educated people in the work force. India’s rich

human capital may be the strongest asset for

the knowledge-based biotech industry. They

have a large English speaking population and

a pool of over 300,000 bioscience and engi-

neering students that graduate each year.

This summer, Kirin Mazumdar-Shaw,

owner of the largest Indian biotech company

Biocon and India’s richest woman visited

Sweden. In India, she is called the “Mother

of Invention”. She started her business in a

cellar in Bangalore. Today, Biocon develops

and makes medicines for cancer, cholesterol

blockers, insulin and other products for clini-

cal tests.

“Biotechnology will be the next IT in India”Bengt Johansson, Swedish trade.

biotech and Chemicals The New IT

ECoNoMY

All pictures from Astra Zeneca’s production plant in Bangalore.

�6 © Project India 2005 �7© Project India 2005

THE bIG SCARY MARKET

TubERCuLoSIS

While visiting Bangalore we had the opportunity to explore Astra Zeneca’s impressive research facility. The unit was estab-lished in an effort to combat a disease affecting about one third of the world’s population. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), tuberculosis (TB) is the single leading cause of death from infectious disease worldwide, with someone in the world being newly infected every second. The disease varies, however, between two distinct modes: one active and one latent: the former being lethal. Every year, about 8 million new cases of active TB are discovered in the world, with India constituting about a third of these figures. In 2003, nearly 1.8 million people died of the disease worldwide, mainly in combina-tion with HIV.

The drug against TB, which was made available over 40 years ago, must be taken for a period of 6 months. The Indian Government has implemented a plan against TB, resulting in free treatment for the population. However, since patients already start to feel better after two months, they tend to abandon the treatment at that point. What is more, the drug supply is unreliable in some regions in the country. In addition to producing a large number of cases of relapse, this is also the main cause of the rising number of new cases of multi-drug resistant TB. Shortening the duration of therapy (to about 4 months) to improve patient compliance is one of the main aims of Astra Zeneca’s research in Bangalore. Eradicating the disease completely, even the latent disease in order to reduce the chances of relapse, is yet another goal in India.

��

HISToRY of ouTSouRCING

India first saw the emergence of outsourc-

ing in the field of IT in the early and mid

1990s. One of the first outsourced services

was medical transcription. The introduction

of the New Telecom Policy in 1999, which

brought about a drastic reduction in telecom-

munication costs in India heralded the golden

era for the BPO industry and ushered in a slew

of inbound/outbound call centres and data

processing centres.

WHY ouTSouRCE To INDIA?

The past few decades have proved that

India is a most reputed and famous country for

outsourcing. 82% of the US companies ranked

India as their first choice for IT outsourcing.

The majority of outsourcing contracts are

moving to India, despite the fact that coun-

tries like China or Russia are offering better

rates. The chief reason is the availability of a

large pool of IT and engineering talent and a

huge skilled workforce, at very competitive

costs. The dollar goes a long way in India and

companies in the USA are saving billions of

dollars by shipping out non-core functions.

“Indians are good at brain works, ana-

lytical, logical and arithmetical skills. The

growing Indian diaspora has been creating

an impression among international commu-

nity that Indians are good at intellect-driven

skills,” said Chandu Nair, president, Scope

e-Knowledge Centre, a Chennai-based KPO

firm.

“The reason behind India emerging as a

world leader in the KPO sector in the next

few years is due to its location attractiveness,

infrastructure, communication, country risk,

foreign direct investment (FDI) incentives,

political environment and time zone attrac-

tiveness”, pointed out Evalueserve.

Other reasons why India is reputed for

outsourcing are that it is a talent-rich country,

exports software to 95 countries around the

world, enjoys the confidence of global corpo-

rations, offers multiple advantages, has state-

of-the-art technologies for total solutions, IT

is a major thrust area for the Government of

India, has a stable government and is one of

the world’s 10 fastest-growing economies.

SERVICES ouTSouRCED IN INDIA

India currently provides outsourcing for

a wide range of services. The major catego-

ries of services offered are: IT Services, Data

Entry, Programming, Call centres, Business

Process Outsourcing (BPO), Back-Office

Operations, Infrastructure, Communications

and Networking, Media and Entertainment,

Web Development Services, Operations,

Relationship Management, Community

Management, Medical Transcription, and

On-site services. The evolution and maturity

of the Indian BPO sector has given birth to yet

another wave in the global outsourcing scene:

KPO or Knowledge Process Outsourcing.

TRENDS IN ouTSouRCING IN INDIA

Outsourcing in India is undergoing a radi-

cal transformation. The constantly growing

BPO industry in the country is changing,

incorporating new ideas and mindsets as well

as opening up new possibilities for global

companies. Some of the new trends in out-

sourcing are: E-governance, Retail Services

Outsourcing, Pharmaceutical Research,

Financial Services, Health Care, and most

important of all, KPO.

Outsourcing trends

ouTSouRCED ARTICLE

��

TuRNoVER of bPo AND KPo IN INDIA

The table below shows the past, current

and forecasted figures of the BPO industry in

India.

According to a report by GlobalSourcing-

Now, the Global Knowledge Process Out-

sourcing industry (KPO) is expected to reach

USD 17 billion by 2010, of which USD 12

billion would be outsourced to India.

Evalueserve, a knowledge services com-

pany providing worldwide business and

market research, data analysis for various sec-

tors say: “India will garner a whopping 71%

of the projected $17 billion KPO market by

2010 i.e. $12 billion”

Many other Asian countries have now

begun to provide outsourcing services to the

world. Countries such as China, Philippines,

Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore,

are some which have emerged in this trade.

REVENuE \ YEAR 2002 200� 200� 200� 2006 2007 CAGR

offSHoRE bPo REVENuE 1,322 1,825 3,017 6,�� 12,563 2�,2�0 78.91

INDIAN bPo REVENuE 912 1,205 1,961 �,�2� 7,412 13,811 6�.��

TOTAL BPO MARKET 110,167 121,687 131,171 143,090 157,033 173,070 �.��

CAGR IN % 2002-07 fIGuRES IN $ MILLIoN SouRCE: GARTNER DATAquEST (MAY 2003)

Brainpower at the KPO company Evalueserve.

ouTSouRCED ARTICLE




How to Outsource Outsourcing

Who wrote the previous article? Not us.

In order to investigate the outsourcing

business, we decided to outsource the

article above to the company Conve-

nient.info based in Sri Lanka. They offer

research and report writing for prices far

lower than in Sweden. We wanted to ex-

amine the following: How complicated is

it to order services from the other side of

the world? What are the drawbacks due

to the distance? Will the result be as one

expects or totally different?

The process was surprisingly simple. First,

we contacted Convenient and opened an

account at their homepage. All contact with

the company takes place over the Internet,

you order services at the homepage and whilst

the work is being done you can correspond

via e-mail if need be. When placing a new

order, one writes a description of the project,

specifies the time the researcher should spend

on the work and finally chooses the format

for the product, e.g., Word document, Power

Point presentation etc.

Outsourcing is not without complications.

Before ordering a service from the other side

of the world, you must be absolutely clear

about how you want the result. Due to the

distance, time differences and sometimes lan-

guage barriers, it is often quite difficult to have

a continuous dialogue with the people doing

the job. Working on a project or product

often means constant development – it may be

unclear how one wants the end result to be.

When outsourcing it is difficult to control this

development process.

We spent a lot of effort describing what the

article should include. To get the feeling that

the text was written by us, we wrote down

some of the experiences we had had in India.

We also attached some interesting articles and

good homepages for the subject. It is not easy

to follow the process. We got one mail from

Zainab, our researcher in Sri Lanka, where

she asked for permission to write a longer

article. About two weeks after we had placed

the order, the work was finished. In the specifi-

cations, we had given the researchers 20 hours

for the work. However, they only needed 10

hours and consequently we just had to pay

575 SEK for the work. We are satisfied with

the result and find the whole experience very

convenient.

A Convinient Way of Work

“However, they only needed 10 hours and consequently we just had to pay 575 SEK for the work.”

ECoNoMY


WHY HAS INDIA THE PoTENTIAL To bE THE ouTSouRCING CouNTRY of THE WoRLD?

Some answers are discussed below.

India has a huge work force; companies can fast employ thousands of

people.

The country has a huge population of well-educated people. Traditionally,

an education is considered as very important.

India has many engineers, of which many specialize in mathematics, IT and

logic.

Language; most people speak good English.

Many Indians have worked abroad and learned the global way of business

thinking.

India’s success in the less capital-intensive business-service-outsourcing

sector, compared to China that has invested more in heavy industry and

manufacturing, is partly a result of India’s economy, which has been less

able to finance investments and accumulate physical capital, including

infrastructure, machinery and buildings (McKinseyQuarterly, 2005).

During our visits to Capgemini, IBM and Evalueserve we had a first-hand look at the outsourcing sector and its highly skilled people. The companies are expanding massively. When walking around at Evalueserve, for example, one sees huge areas with new desks and computers being prepared for new employees. “I offer all of you guys a job or internship here at Evalueserve”, said Ashish Gupta, Country Head and COO, at a meeting. It is rumored that this year IBM is employing around 1,000 new consultants a month in India.

Welcome to the world of Atlas Copco!

Innovation is at the heart of everything we do. It shapes our ideas, it drives our production processes and it has driven us to develop completely new applications and markets. The knowledge and experience we gain from applications around the world is channeled back to our engineering teams who conceptualize, develop and fine-tune products to perfection. Through the years we have taken new and innovative solutions and transformed them into profit-generating business tools, helping our customers to maximize their productivity. Sounds interesting?

Find out more at www.atlascopco.com

AtlasCopco_ad.indd 1 2005-09-22 14:22:49

For Demanding People

Dessa motorer ska till andra

sidan jorden. Du kan komma

ännu längre.

På www.scania.se visar vi Scanias offensiva,

expansiva och globala värld med dess möjligheter

för unga akademiker.

Du kommer bl a att upptäcka att vår affär är

långt mycket större än att utveckla och produ-

cera tunga fordon. Scania är ett högteknologiskt,

utvecklings intensivt och marknads orienterat

företag, som med avancerad ny teknik ständigt

skapar mer kunskapsbaserade fordon, intelligenta

serviceprodukter och fi nansieringslösningar.

Scanias framgång är till stor del resultatet av

ständig utveckling av våra medarbetare, produk-

ter, metoder och marknader. Vi ger dig utmaning-

ar och möjlig heter till personlig utveckling.

Scania är en av världens ledande tillverkare

av lastbilar och bussar för tunga transporter samt

industri- och marinmotorer. En växande del av

verksamheten utgörs av produkter och tjänster

inom service och fi nansiering, som garanterar

Scanias kunder kostnadseffektiva transportlös-

ningar och hög tillgänglighet. Scania är verksamt

i ett hundratal länder och har 30 000 anställda.

Forskning och utveckling är koncentrerad till

Sverige. Tillverkning sker i Europa och Syd-

amerika med möjlighet till globalt utbyte av såväl

komponenter som kompletta fordon. Under 2004

uppgick faktureringen till 56,7 miljarder kronor

och resultatet efter skatt till 4,1 miljarder kronor.




Even if agriculture is extensive in India,

most of the income from export comes

from the industry sector - where textile

and the refining of different types of metal

and mineral represent a large part. In the

industry sector, foreign companies are

making inroads but domestic companies

are still dominating the Indian market.

Some of these companies are truly mas-

sive and tend to operate in nearly every

business sector. For example, Tata, the

largest company in India, manufactures

anything you can imagine: electronics,

cars and trucks, tools and owns more

or less entire villages with schools and

factories. They also operate in nuclear

research, chemistry, energy, mobile net-

works, hotels and IT etc. It is omnipres-

ent!

Another one of these giant companies

that Project India 2005 had the opportunity

to visit in Mumbai was Larsen & Toubro. It

manufactures, for example, aerospace equip-

ment, cement machinery, control and automa-

tion equipment, defense equipment, petrol

pumps, medical equipment, switchers, and

much more.

One may ask why many Indian compa-

nies tend to operate in such wide fields of

operations, when western companies have

a tendency to limit their organization to a

few main activities. The answer might be

found in India’s history. When India became

independent in 1947, there was a small range

of domestic industries. The strategy was

to achieve self-sufficiency and the market

was totally controlled by the government.

Therefore, the social democratic system did

not allow the industry to purchase from

abroad and, consequently, the Indian compa-

nies had to fill all the gaps in the market. “We

were also limited by the policies – we were

not allowed to sell as much as we could have.

So, to be able to expand, we had to get into

new business areas”, explained M. K. Patki,

General Manager at L&T.

Recently, India has put itself on the map

when it comes to software and the IT services

industry. Programming and systems develop-

ment seem to suit the Indian way of thinking.

Larger than Life

The Indian Giants

The big Indian companies have a strategy to be represented in many different markets. Reliance and TATA are two of them.

ECoNoMY


This industry has grown rapidly over the last

years. Infosys, Tata and Wipro are the largest

IT consultancy companies in India and they

have begun to gain market shares in the com-

petition with other global actors.

TATA

The Tata Group comprises 91 operating

companies in seven business sectors: informa-

tion systems and communications; engineer-

ing; materials; services; energy; consumer

products and chemicals. The Tata Group is

one of India’s largest and most respected busi-

ness corporations, with revenues in 2003-04

of USD 14.25 billion, the equivalent of about

2.6 % of the country’s GDP. Tata-owned com-

panies employ together over 220,000 people.

The Group’s 32 publicly listed enterprises

— among them names such as Tata Steel, Tata

Consultancy Services, Tata Motors and Tata

Tea stand out — have the highest combined

market capitalization among Indian busi-

nesses in the private sector. The Tata Group

has operations in more than 40 countries

across six continents, and its companies

export products and services to 140 nations.

Tata Consulting Services (TCS) has currently

120 persons working in Sweden.

INfoSYS

Infosys Technologies Ltd. provides con-

sulting and IT services to clients globally

- as partners for conceptualizing and realizing

technology-driven business transformation

initiatives. They have over 36,000 employees

worldwide.

As one of the pioneers in strategic offshore

outsourcing of software services, Infosys

has “bucked” the global trend of offshore

outsourcing. Although many software out-

sourcing companies are blamed for diverting

global jobs to cheaper offshore outsourcing

destinations like India and China, Infosys was

recently applauded by Wired Magazine for

its unique offshore outsourcing strategy — it

singled out Infosys for turning the outsourc-

ing myth around and bringing jobs back to

the US.

WIPRO

Wipro provides consulting and IT services

as well as product design, employing over

42,000 people worldwide. They represent the

fourth largest company in the world in terms

of market capitalization of IT services. As the

second largest Indian IT consultancy firm in

Sweden, they have identified Scandinavia as

one of the most important markets in order to

establish themselves in Europe.




The Backside of India’s Economic Boom

The famous Indian writer, Arundhati Roy,

warned the world of the consequences

of the economic boom in India in an in-

terview with Reuters. “India’s economic

boom is causing unsustainable environ-

mental damage and is blinding people

to the misery of hundreds of millions of

poor”. Arundhati is a leading environmen-

tal activist in India. She became world fa-

mous in 1997 for her novel “The God of

Small Things”, known in Swedish as “Små

tingens gud”.

India is on everybody’s lips nowadays. All

global companies are considering India as a

potential market and they want a part of the

boom. “It is almost as if the light is shining so

brightly that you do not notice the darkness”,

Arundhati argues. She means that the Indian

environment is seriously threatened – on the

verge of a disaster – caused by pollution from

the big industries and problems with the huge

dumps.

In the past, the ground water was mainly

used by private farmers. Today, much of the

water goes to irrigate thirsty cash crops such

as soybeans, peanuts and sugarcane, which is

unsustainable according to Arundhati. The

lack of water in parts of India has forced

millions of farmers to the brink of economic

collapse. “You have to have a system where

people have access to some amount of water

to grow whatever is sustainable for them to

survive”.

Roy says that the dream of consumption

has been sold to the poor – a dream that is

impossible to deliver economically or environ-

mentally. “Are you going to starve to death

dreaming of a cell phone or are you going to

have control of the resources that are avail-

able to you and have been for generations, but

have been taken away so that someone else

can have a cell phone?” She thinks the idea

of turning one billion people into consumers

is terrifying.

Arundhati Roy’s terrifying thought is one

side of the coin. One may also argue that the

economic development in India has helped the

poor. The percentage of the population below

the poverty line has decreased from 54.9%

in 1974 to 27.1% in 2000. Access to new

technology, such as cell phones, has made it

possible, to a greater extent than before, for

people in rural areas to communicate. Even

though the cell phones and call prices are not

affordable for many people in India, they have

the lowest rates in the world.

ECoNoMY

Last year 4.2 millions motorcycles were traded in India. Picture taken in Bangalore, one of many citys with hectic traffic.

�6 © Project India 2005© Project India 2005

When visiting the big cities in India, the

pollution is obvious and terrifying. Countless

rickshaws, motorcycles and old cars, most

probably without catalytic converters, crowd

the streets. Annually in India, 4.4 million

motorcycles and 820,000 cars are sold. In the

year 2000, the figures were 2.1 million motor-

cycles and 590,000 cars respectively. “Two

years ago, we had only cycles in the employ-

ees’ parking spots. Today, however, there are

many motorcycles and some cars”(Thierry

Cros, Managing Director Seco Tools). This

trend will probably continue. Tata recently

revealed that it soon would be manufacturing

a car for the public that would only cost SEK

18,000.

The impression that we got, when visit-

ing the companies, was that they paid a

lot of attention to environmental issues.

Environmental documents, such as ISO cer-

tificates, are highly valued and important for

the companies’ profile. Unfortunately, some

companies that we met complained about the

corruption surrounding these certificates.

Environmental questions are highly

important for fast developing countries, but

sometimes they tend to be overshadowed by

economic success. We believe that Sweden

could support India in these issues. This is also

an interesting area for Swedish companies,

which can export environmental knowledge

and products, for example, water cleaners.

The fast development has dramatically increased the need for new houses in Mumbai.




“The brain rain over India is like a mon-

soon”, explains Ashish Gupta, Country

Head and COO at Evalueserve.

At its office outside Delhi, thousands

of young graduates from the very best

schools in India work with KPO, knowl-

edge process outsourcing. Intensively,

they collect and analyze information for

strategic decisions for companies in Eu-

rope and America, this for a fraction of

what the service would have cost in the

West.

In Sweden, it is generally held that the

ongoing outsourcing trend is a great threat

to our welfare – companies like Evalueserve

are our enemy. This growing fear could be our

greatest threat as it only results in anxiety and

misgivings about the future.

In India, on the other hand, belief in the

future is stronger than ever. They surf on a

wave of self-confidence. Students and busi-

nessmen know that the country has a great

potential to become an economic power. The

financial boom is not without reason: India

has understood the advantages of globaliza-

tion and knows how to gain from it. Students

are extremely competitive and work harder

India - Threat or Possibility

“For over 15 years, the Swed-ish growth in GDP has been less than in India and most other non-European coun-tries.”

Earlier it was considered that Indian made products were of less quality, but today many companies are starting to be more and more proud of the ”Made In India” signature.

��

ECoNoMY

�� © Project India 2005© Project India 2005

than ever. Universities and institutions have

realized the importance of innovative thinking

and encourage the students to become entre-

preneurs. The outsourcing segment has been

a gateway to the global market for India, as

well as other developing countries, and they

consider it as their market.

Has the pendulum swung? Earlier, we were

interested in investing and making purchases

in India – this was seen as welfare, a way of

helping a vulnerable country. Now, when

India is on the way up, we feel threatened

and recoil. We are worried about what is hap-

pening in Asia and how it will impact on our

welfare.

European conservatism and our skepticism

about globalization are damaging. For over

15 years, Sweden’s GDP growth has been less

than in India and most other non-European

countries. Sweden has many impressive indus-

tries and companies like Ikea, H&M, Atlas

Copco and Ericsson, but, on reflection, all

these companies are old. Our market is totally

dependent on big industries that started a hun-

dred years back. We cannot rely on them sup-

plying the Swedish people with work forever,

and it will not be the case. Sweden must focus

on creating new jobs rather than protecting

the old ones. The “lay-back-and-do-nothing”

mentality in Sweden is set to fail. Instead of

counteracting the natural globalization, we

must learn the dynamics and use it.

By staying a part of the globalization race

and understanding the developing countries’

potential, both Sweden and these countries

will gain – it is a win-win situation. By

outsourcing services, such as patent filing,

accounting or book keeping, Swedish small

and medium-sized companies may focus on

their main activities and develop products

that are globally competitive. Globalization

also opens up a growing market, which also

Swedish manufacturing can benefit from. For

example, 50% of Seco Tools products sold

in India are made in Sweden. Before starting

its factory in Pune, Seco Tools did not sell

anything in the Indian market. Moreover, an

increasing number of decent paid jobs in the

developing countries contribute to the global

purchasing power, which will support Swedish

production.

The outsourcing hysteria is exaggerated.

In an interview with Kurt Hellström, former

CEO of Ericsson, he explained that he is not

worried about China or India taking over the

world. China has a dictatorship, which is a

danger in the future. What will happen if a

revolution comes? Kurt Hellström explained

that the lack of laws against plagiarism also

restricted their research and development

industry, and, In India, the infrastructure and

bureaucracy were a major problem, which

delayed development.

As discussed earlier in this chapter, out-

“For every order Seco Tools delivers we purchase raw material from Sweden. The global expansion is therefore not a threat to Sweden, it is a necessity.”Thierry CrosManaging Director, SECO TOOLS

��



sourcing is a complicated business. Many

companies focus too much on the savings and

forget the importance of close service rela-

tions. It is also important to keep a close link

between production and R&D. Consequently,

a great deal of manufacturing cannot be

relocated. By focusing on the manufacturing

sectors, where salaries mean less but service

and customer adjustments more, Sweden can

continue with a profitable production. Scania,

for example, is a moneymaking company with

a lot of production in Sweden. This may be

the right strategy when there is a low correla-

tion between work costs and product prices.

We must learn from India. The amount of

company owners among the Swedish work-

force is today lower then ever with only 7%.

In spite of deregulation and a rising number

of contracts from the public sector, Sweden

has lost 30,000 companies (net) since 1995

(Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, June 6,

2004). Since the recent downturn in the econ-

omy, many Swedish students are pessimistic

about the future. Many count on being unem-

ployed for a year after graduation. Sweden

has many first class universities. As in India,

they should support and help the students to

become entrepreneurs. The universities and

the private sector should have a closer rela-

tionship – this would help creative students to

turn their ideas into reality. To keep Swedish

research on a globally competitive level,

we must improve our education right from

the first grade, i.e., the first year at primary

school. And India can teach us how children

enjoy learning. We should use our world lead-

ing skills regarding environmental products,

project management and social structures.

But, most of all, we must be more optimistic

about the future; we should surf on a wave of

self-confidence, like in India.

“From India, we can be taught how children enjoy learn-ing.”

“The Swedes are excellent at managing busi-ness, and the Indians are good at manag-ing life. Both can gain from a more intensive collaboration.”Narendra TanejaCorrespondant for the Scandinavian business papers DAGENS INDUSTRI and DAGENS NARINGSLIV

ECoNoMY


START-UPSADVANTAGES AND CHALLENGES

PRojECT INDIA 2005 STARTS A CoMPANY!oTHER SWEDES IN INDIA




Start-Ups

India is one the world’s most promising

markets for technology. The real issue for

the coming decade is not whether Indian

workers will steal our high-tech jobs: it is

whether their high-tech consumers will

still buy our products. People in the West

often consider themselves the world’s

leaders in innovation while developing

countries like India can only aspire to

unglamorous jobs that require less brain-

power or entrepreneurial expertise. Here

lies the main misconception. Many start-

ups can gain a great deal from the innova-

tive forces of today’s Indian market.

In order to really understand the Indian

market, a company needs to realize its advan-

tages, challenges and learn from former suc-

cessful start-ups in this country. Before estab-

lishing operations in this part of the world,

one must truly observe the environment, the

culture and act accordingly. Several compa-

nies have committed genuine mistakes in the

past, as exemplified here in this document. By

sharing these and providing you with tips and

knowledge about entrepreneurship in India,

we hope that this document can help as a

guideline for encouraging a start-up in India.

The first step is therefore to analyze the

opportunities that exist in this vast country.

Then we will proceed by identifying the major

challenges that companies might have to face.

Giving you a practical example of a start-up

in detail will allow you to gain a good under-

standing of what it takes to perform these

kinds of activities. Finally, we will examine

the road to success for several large global

companies who are now well established in

the Indian market.

ADVANTAGES

The major advantage of the Indian mar-

ket is the combination of low labor costs

and high level of education. India produces

over 300,000 new engineers every year. The

fact that these engineers are ready to work

for almost one tenth of the salary paid to an

engineer performing the same job in the West

makes India a very attractive market for relo-

cating production. Cap Gemini, for example,

pays an employee with seven years’ experi-

ence and a Masters degree from a university, a

yearly salary of INR 200,000, which is about

USD 4,200 a year. Differences in the level of

education, however, do exist. Among the new

graduates, only 10% of them demonstrate

excellent skills while 60% are like the average

in Western countries and the rest are at a below

average level (Atlas Copco). This raises the

question as to where and how you might find

the best-qualified personnel. Students graduat-

ing from one of the seven existing IITs (Indian

Institute of Technology) in India or the IIMs

(Indian Institute of Management) are the most

talented. Students from these universities are

“India produces over 300 000 new engineers every year.”

START-UPS

Advantages and Challenges

�2 © Project India 2005 ��© Project India 2005

Mumbai, the center for economics and Bollywood dreams, is often seen as the place where your dreams can be fulfilled.




therefore quickly drafted by companies who

are hiring new staff. There is another element

that differentiates the employees in India from

Europe. In India, they tend to have a more

positive approach to training. Therry Cros,

CEO of SECO Tools India, confirmed this

saying “There is a greater will to learn”, and

pointed out the language skills of his staff.

While visiting the Indian company

Evalueserve in New Delhi, we realized that

their highly motivated staff look upon long

working hours positively. The competitive

atmosphere among the staff was clear and is

probably one of the contributing factors to

these employees being hard working.

“As Silicon Valley developed over time”,

says Mike Moritz, venture capitalist at Sequoia

Capital, “it attracted more skilled people and

then more good things happened. The same

will happen for India”. To further prove this

point, the Silicon Valley Bank, which mainly

lends to high-tech start-ups, has recently

opened a branch in Bangalore.

“Globalization in general is to move pro-

duction where the production costs are the

lowest”, as confirmed by Philip M. Davidson,

the CEO of Atlas Copco India. During our

stay in Bangalore we heard rumors that

IBM, for example, was hiring at a rate of one

thousand new employees per month, which

shows the impact that the market has on

global companies. Further, the rent costs and

the cost of material from local suppliers are

much less. For global companies, however, the

notion of moving production is not enough.

Small companies can use this as an advantage

in order to lower production costs. The global

companies also see India as a new emerging

market. With a population of over one billion

people, India represents a large purchasing

power. For example, there are 2 million new

cell phone subscribers per month - a figure

that cannot be ignored. Knowing this, most

large companies establishing themselves in

India not only produce their products there,

but also sell them to the Indian market. The

“Globalization in general, is to move production to where the production costs are the lowest”Philip M. Davidson, MD Atlas Copco India

A ferry taking people from Wipin Island to Ernakulam city in Kerela.


fact that most Indians can communicate in

English, which is the main business language

globally, is yet another bonus.

Being the world’s largest democracy (as

opposed to China), the Indian Government

allows the start-ups to be independent of an

Indian partner if they wish to proceed in that

way. The possibility of having a fully owned

business gives these companies more control

and power to become involved.

Start-ups in India have yet another pur-

pose. By establishing themselves in India, the

mere presence in this part of the world pro-

vides them with an opening into the rest of

eastern Asia and several new markets.

CHALLENGES

As said before, having a good understand-

ing of the way things work in the Indian

market is crucial in order to have a successful

start-up. Some companies choose a joint ven-

ture; others stay fully owned but hire Indian

staff for administrative purposes (lawyers,

agents). The main advice that almost all the

people interviewed during our trip gave us

was that there is a need to have a local person

or organization who can help, inform and

handle deals with the supplier and bureau-

cratic issues.

The importance of knowing the market

and choosing the right segments is clearly

shown by two examples: Electrolux and

Volvo. Electrolux is seen as the global leader

in home appliances. However, its strategy to

enter the Indian market was not successful.

From 1995 to 2002 the company focused on

a multi-brand strategy, in an effort to reach

different consumer segments. They encoun-

tered numerous problems while signing one

agreement after another with other foreign

companies based in India. They were therefore

not successful in the Indian market. The focus

on brand making is crucial in India. Being a

global giant, you need to prove yourself to be

good value and that your brand is a trusted

“There is a need to have a local person or organisation who can help.”




name. The market demands that you have

more than just sophistication.

Volvo, on the other hand, has succeeded

with its strategy of producing for the high-end

(niche) segment of the market. The commodity

part of the Indian industrial market is nearly

80%. This segment is largely dominated by

Indian or half-Indian companies who have

already well established themselves and made

a name for their brand (Tata and Maruti

Suzuki for example). By targeting their efforts

at the high-end part of the market Volvo is,

for example, today a quality standard for safe

and comfortable buses.

The low production costs in the Indian

market attract numerous companies that wish

to start up. In teeming cities like Bangalore,

where the majority of the IT companies are

located, these new companies pose a problem

for the others. Not knowing what salary levels

are appropriate or which rent prices for pieces

of land are correct, they tend to pay more than

necessary. The price is still much less than in

the West, but they force others companies to

raise their salaries and put up with rent hikes.

Having a proper knowledge of the business

environment helps therefore not only the new

companies wanting to establish themselves,

but even the ones already based there.

Even though the Indian market abandoned

the economic regulations in 1991, the system

is still far from flawless. The first major issue

is corruption. The average time it takes to

register a company is 10 times that of starting

the production. All the large companies we

met during our stay confirmed the fact that

the national government and the state govern-

ments tend to claim some funding in order to

perform the required activities. Another inter-

esting fact is that, when a company wishes to

proceed with a start-up in India, the different

states compete with each other in order to

convince the company to establish itself there;

this is often in the form of tax relief. The

states in India are independent of each other

and have their own laws, especially taxation

laws. Bureaucracy is therefore an important

issue to consider. Patent registration is one of

the fields, where the lack of correctness in the

bureaucratic organization is clearly visible.

Astra Zeneca is one example, among many,

which is struggling to improve the system.

Other companies we met testified to the lack

of security when handling critical informa-

tion. IBM had difficulties in 1972 and left the

Indian market, one reason being technology

leaks.

There are also numerous physical chal-

lenges in India. The infrastructure in India is

far from optimal. This causes a lot of prob-

lems for the companies’ logistic departments.

Another obstacle is the power supply issue.

Power cuts are very frequent in all major cit-

ies, and the federal government has recently

signed several agreements with the US in

“The average time to register a company is 10 times that of starting the production.”

A travel agency in the heart of Bangalore.

START-UPS


order to make some progress in this field.

Environmental issues are improving in India

with, for example, the ISO certifications.

This is despite the fact that during our stay

people attested to the link between corrupted

environmental and safety inspectors and the

certified facilities.

To have knowledge of the Indian culture,

environment, and the way things actually work

in India is crucial for the company’s develop-

ment. Business ethics are also an important

element to consider. Foreigners arriving in

India sometimes encounter communication

problems. Due to cultural differences, this

aspect requires an effort from both sides.

There are also technical challenges to con-

sider. The Internet connections are far from

the high-speed standard, which we are use to

in the West, and the quality of several phone

lines we tried was poor, even in cities like

Bangalore or Mumbai. Yet another interesting

idea in “business India” is that of a win-win

deal, which simply does not exist. Each side

wishes to gain maximal profits from a deal,

even if it means that one side is left with the

negative consequences.

In the West, it is generally felt that goods

manufactured in India are of inferior quality

to those made in Western countries. Atlas

Copco’s set-up for the Indian market was,

for example, primarily the idea that the pro-

duction made here could not be exported.

Products made in India were never regarded as

consumer goods. A large piece of equipment

made in India could never be seen elsewhere.

But due to a good education system, the way

of looking at products manufactured in India

has changed. This notion is also confirmed by

SECO Tools who have recently launched a

“Made in India” campaign with the message

that products made in this country should

not discourage potential buyers but rather

encourage them. These companies share the

opinion that products made in India are the

same, if not better than those manufactured

in the West. The companies need to convince

consumers that the brand is safe, which means

that the product delivered by the company is

the same, irrespective of the location of the

production. If, for example, you are selling a

SECO Tools product then it will be the same

whether found in India or in France. The idea

is to ensure that you are buying the same prod-

uct, what matters is the brand of the product,

not the manufacturing location. Before even

moving production to India, start-ups need

to be well aware of the impact on consumers

when told that the product actually is manu-

factured in India.

A visit at the Atlas Copco facility gave us an insight in the different steps of the production. The level of automated activities in the production chain is low, since manual labor is still preferred, being more cost-efficient.

“Yet another interesting no-tion in business-India is that of win-win; it simply does not exist.”




After a lot of pre studies on companies

in India we wanted to experience on our

own what it is like to start up a business

with Indians. As a study, we have chosen

to start a shirt import company called

“Royal Shirts”.

The business idea of Royal Shirts is to

import high quality shirts from India, tailor-

made to the customer’s unique measurements

and for a price of EUR 30 per shirt (including

shipping and delivery costs). Our target group

is mainly students that need to expand their

wardrobe while starting a business career. To

recruit new customers the company will focus

on being present at student events, where a

tailor will take the measurements and the shirt

models/fabrics will be displayed. We do not

believe that the Internet is the right medium

for attracting new customers, but we will use

a web page to handle further orders and client

contacts. The company will be launched at

our project day, the 12th October.

Project India 2005 Starts a Company!A Small Step Closer to understanding the Indian business Culture

START-UPS


ouR ExPERIENCE

The language difficulties started to become

a problem when we continued our communi-

cation by phone and e-mail from Sweden. On

one occasion when our contact was asked to

write down an e-mail address, he answered:

“Sorry Sir, I can’t write. It is totally dark here,

power failure”. Also, apart from the electricity

problems, the different pronunciations make it

hard to share important information over the

phone. A simple thing such as exchanging dif-

ficult e-mail addresses through text messages

was of much help. The tailor also e-mailed us

pictures of different fabrics, which were used

in the selection process of the first samples. To

reduce the problem of the envelope sizes being

too large, we tried to package the shirt in a

plastic cover and then used a vacuum cleaner

to suck out the air. This process made the

package thin and stiff like a normal letter. The

real problem was communicating this idea to

the tailor in India. E-mail and phone are good

for information but when it comes to convinc-

ing people, one has to actually be there.

Our company name could have been some-

thing like “Royal Indian Shirts” but the com-

mon Swedish perception of India as a nation

that makes quality products is weak. Maybe

in a few years this will change. Considering

the situation today, our company does not

benefit from a name with an association with

India.

Our overall experience is that India is

closer than we thought; a time difference of

3.5 hours simply gives us some extra hours

in the morning for work. We find our Indian

partner to be enthusiastic, helpful and trust-

worthy. A face-to-face meeting is, however, a

necessity when starting up.

FIVE STEPS TO A START-UP

First, we located a tailor in Bangalore who we trusted and thought had the right skills. At this stage we felt it essential to actually be there and try the products and test the collaboration process, which we had the opportunity to do. The good English skills of the Indians clearly simplified this process.

We contacted the Swedish Trade Council to find out the exact custom fees. One phone call and a quick look at their complex web site was enough to find the custom taxes: 9-12 % depending on the origin of the fabrics. Also an additional value-added tax of 25 % has to be paid on imported goods. Since there might be certain restrictions regarding imported fabrics from Asia, a call to the Swedish National Board of Trade was also necessary.

We then checked out different shipping alternatives. UPS and other similar shipping companies concentrate on expensive short delivery times. The cost of a box (45x30x30cm) weighing 5 kg is approximately EUR 150, with a delivery time of six days. A part of a boat con-tainer, the size of one square meter and weighing 1000 kg, costs EUR 2500, if a four-week delivery time is selected. All these alternatives were much too expensive for our business so we tried to use the regular postal delivery system. We sent some envelopes containing shirts to our tailor and he returned them, and the result was satisfactory. With a delivery time of less than two weeks as well as all packages surviving the trip, this encouraged us to continue. If we send it by mail, the Swedish mail company will impose a tax and will charge about EUR 10 for each package.

We started a test session for volunteers and registered the business with the Swedish Patent and Registration Office.

The final test will be launched at our project day at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) on 12th October.

1

2

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Other Swedes in India

Sweden has exported products to India

for a long time, starting with an Ericsson

switchboard in 1905. Some Swedish com-

panies left the Indian market after huge

failures and some are still waiting for the

right time to enter the market. There now

follows a few examples of successful

Swedish companies that have struggled

to understand and benefit from a start-up

in India.

ATLAS CoPCo

Atlas Copco has been present in India since

1947, entering the market through a joint

venture as several other Swedish companies

did at that time. In the late 1950s, the trend

was to ditch the collaboration strategy and

instead look for your own land.

Atlas Copco’s set-up was primarily for the

Indian market. The attitude was that the pro-

duction made in India could not be exported.

Products made in India were never seen as

consumer goods. Through a good education

system in India, the new engineers changed

this perception however. Atlas Coco has today

fully expanded its business in India - 14 out

of the 15 business segments are now repre-

sented. The future for Atlas Coco in India is

bright due to the industrial development, the

increased investment in the infrastructure and

the growing construction business. The two

main areas are compressor techniques, which

represent 50% and construction and mining

technologies with 48% of the business.

There are examples inside the Atlas Copco

organization of how Swedish factories are

unable to compete with the lower production

costs in India. An air filter made in Sweden

was said to be too complicated and high-tech

to be produced in India. Managing Director,

Phillip M. Davidson, explains how this was an

absurd statement, which the Swedish factory

claimed right to the very end. Atlas Copco is

now about to launch an air filter production

facility in Bangalore only for female workers

with managerial potential.

Atlas Copco Rides on Development

This Atlas Copco worker explains that he has clearly noticed the industrial develop-ment. The amount of work has increased but the salary is still the same.

START-UPS


Managing Director Phillip M. Davidson explains the compressor technique, one of the core segments of Atlas Copco India.

Today Atlas Copco India has about 1,000 employees and has had a very rapid growth in the past two years. From 2002 to 2004 the turnover in India increased from INR 2.5 billion to INR 4 billion.

Our half-Indian member Viveka, used her skills in Marathi to com-municate with the rarely English speaking operators and mount-ing staff on the factory floor. The discussion gave us some new insights into how the workers have experienced the fast develop-ing industry.

By tradition, no women are working at the factory floor but this is changing. Atlas Copco’s new Air Filter production facility is designed to give women with leadership potential all the necessary experience in production.

The CAD– designers at Atlas Copco are working for global customers with high-tech components. This would not be possible without a good working In-ternet connection. All the drawings are sent by mail and further communication is done by phone.



Ericsson works as a provider of network

solutions and services for the Indian telecoms

operators. Ericsson has 43% of the GSM

market and 34% of the wireless market. The

cell phone industry is growing rapidly and the

young population is driving the development.

The pre-paid cards have made it easier to

become a subscriber and a cell phone is now

used in all segments. Today, wireless subscrib-

ers eclipse wire line subscribers in India.

The main operator Bharti, which buys

services from Ericsson, has today 12 million

subscribers and a yearly growth rate of 100%.

India has today a cell phone penetration of

6% and Ericsson forecasts an increase to 500

million subscribers by the year 2015. But the

key element in development is the 3G system

that will be launched in late 2006.

Ericsson established itself in India in 1977

and for the first 15 years the company did not

make any profit in India. Today the investment

has paid off and for a global company such as

Ericsson it is a necessity to be a part of this

future market. Ericsson has established a large

production site for base stations in Jaipur in

the north of India. The main reason for choos-

ing Jaipur was that the state of Rajasthan

(where Jaipur is the capital) gave Ericsson

tax reliefs. The competitiveness between the

different states in India often leads to special

treatment if companies can promise future

investments.

“If we would have chosen a place today,

we would probably have established ourselves

in Bangalore or closer to New Delhi where

all the other IT companies are located”,

explained Kjell Casenberg, General Manager

of Ericsson’s production plant in Jaipur.

Ericsson has a good position in the Indian

telecom network business but the easy acces-

sible areas for building network stations will

soon be exploited. The next step is to expand

their network to areas with a low level of

infrastructure and often without power

networks. This will require new technology

such as smarter communications solutions

for directly connecting calls and automated

network stations.

Other Swedes in IndiaEricsson Connects with India

In the Ericsson boardroom the HR man-ager described the importance of arrang-ing activities for their staff. This is done by reward-programs and activities involving the families of the employees.

“The India school system has got more interaction between students and teachers than the Swedish. After my studies at the S3 department at KTH in 2003, I experienced that it was all about the exams, and not wether you attended the classes or not. I also thought it was strange that no companies were interested in recruiting students, but the economic situation in a de-velop country like India is not fare to compare with”, explains Pankaj Mukhija.

START-UPS

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Volvo Aims for the Stars

Volvo established itself outside Bangalore

in 1997. Its business strategy is aimed at the

top segment of the truck and bus market

with regards the technology, quality and

safety. Its forecast for 1997 was to sell 4,000

trucks in the year 2004. The price sensitive

Indian market has, however, slowed down

its development and it now makes a profit by

selling 340 trucks and 300 busses per year.

The huge Indian truck market with 140,000

sold items in the year 2004 is obviously a

huge market with potential. Volvo has a hard

time competing with domestic companies like

TATA and Ashok Leyland who sold nearly

140,000 trucks in the year 2004, when price

is a factor.

The strategy is to only produce high-end

trucks and buses, which the competitors are

so far unable to build. This has made Volvo

famous: Volvo is not a brand in India, it is a

concept symbolizing luxury travel, and even

some three-wheel rickshaws have Volvo stick-

ers on the back. There are two main threats

to Volvo’s development. The first one is that

foreign competitors like Mercedes are entering

the market next year and the second is that

TATA has started to buy high-end technology

from other more developed competitors.

The infrastructure is a big issue for Volvo,

both affecting the production and the full use

of the potential of their products. For example,

all boat deliveries from Sweden to India have

to be reloaded two times because of the small

dimensions of Chennai harbor. The average

speed on the Indian roads is 30 km/h and a

normal Indian truck with a 9,000 kg load has

an engine capacity of 130 hp.

Volvo’s strategy is to find more local

suppliers and continuously customize their

products for the Indian market. But the most

important thing for Volvo’s future success is

to convince the Indian truck buyers that a

one-off big investment can generate profits if

the operational costs are reduced.


The Volvo factory and Head Office outside Bangalore is a large facility, still it is 20 times smaller than the TATA facilities in Pune.

START-UPS


Rajesh D. and Anantha Valli S. are two of the Indian CAD designers that cus-tomize Volvo products for the Indian market. For example, the aluminum fuel tanks are replaced by cheaper steel tanks since corrosion is a minor problem in this climate.

The truck cabins are imported in segments from Sweden and then mounted at the factory in Bangalore. This procedure saves space and money in the expensive shipping process. To compete on the price sensitive Indian market, Vovlo is aiming to produce as much as possible in India.

A test driver analyzes the performance of a newly built Volvo bus. The good comfort and high power engines, compared to the Indian competitors, has made the Volvo brand a synonym for a luxury coach bus. This is an impressive accomplishment if you compare to Volvo’s small market share in India.

Truck and bus tires are delivered from a local producer. A glimpse of the old truck fleet inside the organized Volvo facilities.



Seco Tools & Trapcode


START-UPS

SECo TooLS

Seco Tools manufactures carbide cutting

tools and started in India in 1997 by purchas-

ing shares in an existing Indian company. The

collaboration led to a fast start-up, but also

to a two-year court battle, when Seco Tools

had different expansion plans than its Indian

partner. These kinds of problems are common

among numerous small non-Indian compa-

nies that collaborate with locally established

Indian organizations. Several Managing

Directors that we met strongly recommended

avoiding this strategy. Seco Tools’ choice for

establishing itself was Pune since it is close to

the financial center Mumbai. Pune also offers

good industrial environments with a lot of

Swedish companies as neighbors.

Seco Tools in India is today a profitable

company with a bright future. Its products

are produced for the global market and the

quality of products has proven to be of an

international standard. Seco Tools earlier

avoided showing the “Made in India” logo

on its global products since they have noticed

that customers can make wrong presumptions

about the quality when told of the location of

the production facility. But now days the logo

is clearly visible.

TRAPCoDE

Trapcode, a Swedish company interna-

tionally known for its groundbreaking video

effects, has recently started outsourcing to

a company in Pune that develops programs.

The outsourced project is to build up a new

database web page for a web-centered user

community.

Overall, the experience of having out-

sourced is good “...but one has to give exact

specifications of what you want, it is not obvi-

ous that you share the same idea of what is

good”, as the Trapcode C.E.O. Peder Norrby

explains.

The costs has been ten times less than in

Sweden, but Trapcode will continue to develop

the company’s core products in Sweden, at

least for a few more years.


INfRASTRuCTuREMISSIoN IMPoSSIbLE

THE MoNSooNbANGALoRE 2030




The biggest challenge for India and busi-

nesses in India is the infrastructure. The

poor quality of the roads is shocking and

the amount of vehicles, people and ani-

mals on the roads is beyond belief. What

is India doing about it?

Although India’s infrastructure is improv-

ing, it is not keeping pace with the rapid

industrial growth. According to CNN/Money,

India’s position as the world’s “outsourcing

king” is slipping and their outsourcing hon-

eymoon may soon be over, all because of the

lack of good infrastructure. Some of the infra-

structure problems include the bad quality of

the Indian roads, the power supplies and the

daily power cuts, ineffective water systems,

and the sanitary facilities that only cover

50% of the urban population. If the Indian

economy wishes to keep its growth, the infra-

structure issues need to be resolved, and fast!

Mission ImpossibleInfrastructure is the Key to Success

“The infrastructure is the greatest threat to fast growing industrial development in India.” Paulraj EdwinProject Manager, Volvo

INfRASTRuCTuRE


The representatives from all the businesses

we met during our visit in India have spoken

of the infrastructure issues as being a major

challenge.

THE GoLDEN quADRILATERAL

There are three rules that need to be fol-

lowed while driving in India: you need: “good

brakes, a good horn, and especially some good

luck”. This Indian joke reflects the reality very

well. When you are traveling on the Indian

roads you are in for a very bumpy, noisy and

dangerous ride. It does not matter if you are

in a rickshaw in down town New Delhi or in

a minibus on the highway between Cochin

and Bangalore: the roads and the traffic are

essential problems and represent the main

challenges for every business in India.

The Indian Government is well aware

of the chaotic situation regarding the infra-

structure and in 1999 the National Highway

Authority of India started the Golden

Quadrilateral Project. The aim is to con-

nect four of the major cities in India: Delhi,

Kolkata, Chennai, and Mumbai, by way of a

four/six lane expressway. With a new highly

developed expressway network the Indian

Government wishes to gain many advantages

such as faster and more comfortable journeys,

reduced fuel consumption, safer journeys and

reduced maintenance costs. A high quality

expressway will also open up a new market

for many companies, especially for the ones

manufacturing cars and trucks, like Volvo for

example. Today, a Volvo truck costs consider-

ably more than the domestic brands, but what

Volvo is trying to sell is a high-end truck that

can travel faster, safer, more cost efficient and

more conveniently. For Volvo to be able to sell

such a truck, the roads need to be improved

so that the vehicle can be used to its full

potential and with projects such as the Golden

Quadrilateral this can become a reality.

Paulraj EdwinProject Manager, Volvo

“While driving in India you need three things: a good horn, good brakes and most important of all good luck.”

LENGTH:

5800 km

CONNECTING:

Delhi-Kolkata-Chennai-Mumbai

(Source: Wikipedia, 2005)

Schedule for completion:

December 2006

In August 2005, 92 % of the total length was completed.

The Golden quadrilateralDELHI-MuMbAI-KoLKATA-CHENNAI

According to the India Infrastructure

Summit 2005, the investment require-

ments of the economy for infrastruc-

ture are huge. The Prime Minister

has indicated that the country needs

to invest USD 150 billion in the infra-

structure over the next five years.

Delhi

Mumbai

Kolkata

Chennai

Delhi

Mumbai

Kolkata

Chennai

The Golden Quadrilateral

North-South Corridor and East-West Corridor


NOTICETHERE’S

SPACE HERE FOR

YOU?

AND THISIS THE

LEADINGCOMPANYWITHIN IT

LET’S ASSUME THIS IS THE

FAST MOVING WORLD OF TELECOMS

www.ericsson.com


WHAT’S HAPPENING oN THE INDIAN RoADS?

Even though the quality of the roads will

improve, the problem regarding traffic sense

will remain. The roads are today packed with

people walking, sleeping and practically liv-

ing there. Moreover, there are cows and dogs

patiently standing at the roadside waiting

for their turn to cross, or their turn to just

lie down and relax. If you need to buy some

snacks, flags, tooth brushes or a book, then

there is no need to get out of your car: one

of the temporary shops will come right up to

you, maybe not with the actual things you

need, but they are at your service. When trav-

eling on an Indian highway it is not unusual

for the vehicles to be on the wrong side of the

road if there is less traffic there, or if someone

needs to make a u-turn, they will make a u-

turn. Because of the amount of people, the

traffic culture, and the condition of the roads,

the average speed is about 30 km/h. Still, a

car journey through India feels heart-rending,

exhilarating and terrifying.

The future of India’s growth is highly

dependent on the infrastructure of the road

network. Even though the roads will be

improved, and the Golden Quadrilateral

Project is one step in the right direction, the

culture on the roads will remain and will still

be among the many challenges left to be faced

and dealt with.

“It is hard to sell high power engines to a truck market with an average speed of 30 km/h. Even if the roads are improving the amount of high-way entrances and cows will remain.” Eric Leblanc, Managing Director, Volvo India

PILGRIMS MAKE THE jouRNEY INTERESTING

The distance between New Delhi and Rishikesh is about 200 km and, according

to our Indian driver, it would take about 4-5 hours to get there. It actually took 9

hours. What the driver and us had failed to anticipate was not only the amount of

traffic and people on the roads, but also the pilgrimages walk with thousands of

“saints” carrying water from Ganga back to their homes. Some parts of the road

were closed and other parts were just packed with pilgrims dressed in orange.

It was a long but interesting journey.

Traffic in India: Notice who is wearing a helmet in the picture below.




PoWER CuTS AND CELL PHoNES

For the members of Project India 2005 the

traffic problems and the road infrastructure

became highly visible and were noticed by all

of the businesses that were visited. But there

are other infrastructure problems that also

need to be highlighted. One of these issues

is the electrical supply infrastructure, which

contributes to the daily power cuts and which

has forced all the major businesses to acquire

their own backup generators. But it is not all

about the power cuts; another problem is that

there is not enough power generated, and that

the power losses are too high.

One progressing infrastructure issue is

the cell phone network. Every month 1 to

2 million new cell phone subscriptions are

registered in India and there are a total of 56

million subscriptions (June 2005). To handle

all the new customers and their needs, the

network is steadily growing. The cell phone

network business has become a huge market.

Even though there are 56 million people using

cell phones, there are still several hundreds of

millions of Indians left who have not signed up

to a new subscription. For a global company

such as Ericsson, failing to enter the Indian

market would be a significant mistake since it

offers great opportunities.

“Our main challenge is the infrastructure and the power supply is the most important issue.”Phillip M. Davidson, Atlas Copco India

CoST IN INDIA VS CoST IN SWEDENEight members of Project India 2005 purchased pre-paid Indian cell phone cards, of

which 5 stopped working during the project and some did not work as we had been

promised. This was a very irritating downside to the expanding cell phone network. On

the positive side, we found it to be not that expensive, at least not in comparison with

Sweden, to buy a pre-paid card or to actually use it.

India Sweden

Pre-paid card, activation fee: 20 SEK 100 SEK

Minute cost, local: 0.20 SEK 0.88 SEK

Minute cost, other: 0.40 SEK 0.88 SEK

SMS (local): 0.10 SEK 0.77 SEK

CoMPARISoN of THE CELL PHoNE MARKET Sweden India

Population: 9 million 1 billion (CIA)

% with cell phones: 90% 6% (PTS, 2005)

INfRASTRuCTuRE

72 © Project India 2005 7�© Project India 2005

bACK To THE fuTuRE

The first impression of the recently built subway in New Delhi was the huge contrast with the outside world. No cows, no traffic and no exotic smells, basically a normal calm subway station with nice clean open architecture. The high-tech magnetic travel token (2 SEK) was impressively smart. Once we had figured out how to use it, the ride could then begin. The atmosphere inside the carriage was calm, no other foreigners, just us and a peaceful crowd of Indians feeling grateful not to be a part of the hectic traffic above. But the overwhelming experience of feeling the atmosphere of a future India made us forget our destination. After a little confusing help from one of the station employees, and a chat with two young and proud floor cleaners, we found our way back to the city centre and entered the real world outside the subway gates.




THE MoNSooN IN MuMbAI AND PRojECT AIR INDIA

India is a land full of surprises and sometimes even a yearly event such as a monsoon comes as a big surprise. This summer’s monsoon was expected, as every other year. The tragedy that ensued was, however, not predicted. Normally the monsoon waters and nourishes the soil, giving life to the exotic plants as well as to the people, and not the opposite. But nature can be unpredictable.

On 26th July Mumbai received 65cm of rain - the heaviest rainfall recorded in India’s history, causing havoc in a city known for its inadequate infrastructure. Many people lost their homes and their loved ones. Even though this tragedy cannot be compared with our tame experience of the catastrophe, we would like to share our experience of the monsoon in Mumbai and how it affected us.

Three members of Project India 2005 left Stockholm Arlanda on Friday 29th July heading for Frankfurt’s International Airport in order to catch the connecting flight to Mumbai. As we had heard about the flooding situation and the possibility of getting stuck in Frankfurt we asked a female member of the cabin crew at Arlanda about our chances of reaching India. We were told we could go to Frankfurt at our own risk. Being as brave as Vikings should be, we decided to take the risk and challenge Mother Nature.

A few hours later in Frankfurt everything seemed fine. According to the Air India personnel, the flight would leave as planned, which was a huge relief to us, as we had no desire to wait another day in order to get to India. But the faces of the other travelers told another story than the one given to us by the airport crew. When we arrived at the gate a crowd of nervous people were already waiting, ready to fight over a boarding pass. Worried faces were staring at each other; clearly stating, “I was here first!” The air was thick and the atmosphere tense.

The plane arrived from Los Angeles. When it landed in Frankfurt someone heard that the plane was already full. As the rumor spread through the crowd, the mood turned to anger and resignation. What the airport personnel had forgotten to tell us was that there were already several hundred people waiting for a flight to India, both in the United States and in Frankfurt. They had been in the same situation as we were now. At this point we were the ones having to put our names on a waiting list for a seat to India: a list that later appeared not to exist. It had just been a trick to get rid of people struggling to obtain a boarding pass on an already overbooked flight to Mumbai.

We were now trapped in Frankfurt. We did not know if there would be a flight to Mumbai the next day, and even if there was a flight, would we be the winning trio who would get seats on it? We seriously considered renaming our project Project Air India.

Fortunately, there was a flight leaving for Mumbai the next day and we were lucky to get seats on it. The next problem was the computer network in Mumbai, which was down due to the flooding. Air India could not tell which seats were available on the flight. Consequently, none of the passengers were any longer guaranteed a seat. The chaotic boarding procedure turned into something that looked like the Pamplona Bull Run, except for one thing - the bulls running around were not raging bulls of the four-legged kind, they were a hundred furious Indians as well as three exhausted Swedes.

Luckily we got on the flight and even obtained seats next to each other. When the plane reached Mumbai, it was raining so heavily that we could not land. The pilot circled above the city for half an hour before deciding to fly elsewhere. Ok, no Mumbai, we could gladly accept that, considering the “no-water-no-food” situation, which we had heard about. As our final destination for the journey was New Delhi, we were the only people on the plane screaming for joy when the pilot announced that the new destination would be New Delhi. Finally some good luck!

“The infrastructure in the city has collapsed but people have a very short memory. We seem to forget and forgive and do not come up with a constructive plan”

John Josy, a resident of Mumbai talking about the monsoon

INfRASTRuCTuRE



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bANGALoRE YEAR 2030 AN oRDINARY DAY IN THE LIfE of RAjEEV

It is early Monday morning and the year is 2030. The IT capital of the world, Bangalore, is slowly waking up.

Rajeev’s old 5G cell phone makes a loud buzzing sound, but he is already awake and ready to get up for work. Rajeev is one of IBM’s 700,000 Indian IT-consultants and he is now working on a huge business project in the field of nuclear power. Even though he works until 12 p.m. every night he always gets up very early, eager to go to work.

When he got his job right after graduating from IIT Bombay the salaries were very low, even by Indian standards, so a promotion or switching company is the best way to get a higher salary. Every year, India produces 7,000,000 IT engineers so the companies can really keep the salaries at an all-time low. Rajeev is, however, not worried. He is smart and really hard working so the future looks promising.

He grew up outside Bangalore in a very simple family. They were not very poor, but had limited finances. Thanks to his interest in mathematics and his ambitious spirit he managed to win a scholarship. This gave him the chance to go to one of the best colleges in India and at that time he knew that his future was bright. Even though the middle class has been growing now for many years, poverty is still a huge issue in India and ever since his childhood Rajeev has been grateful for not being very poor.

A picture of a young Rajeev and his sister, Bangalore 2005.



Now Rajeev lives in central Bangalore. His office is in one of the suburbs, so getting to work is a tricky business. There is no use trying to drive on the roads, they are already packed with trucks and solar-powered rickshaws. The metro is the fastest way to get there and Rajeev is lucky to have metro stations both near to his home and his workplace. He owns a nice Indo-Chinese car, but he only uses it when there is no other option. The government is encouraging everyone to use the metro and Rajeev is very concerned about the environment and therefore follows the government’s advice.

Looking at the roads of Bangalore he thinks that, even though the traffic is less now after the opening of the city metro, Indians still need to learn how to drive. He came to this conclusion while visiting his brother in the United States last year.

Rajeev’s office is in one of IBM’s 20 skyscrapers, soon to be 25, and when he gets there at 6.30 a.m., many of his co-workers have already started working on today’s tasks. He sits down at his desk to look at today’s schedule, and he realizes that he probably will not get home before midnight today either. He is a little bit tired and for a few seconds he wants to go home. He reminds himself, however, of how lucky he is to have a job at IBM and continues therefore working with a happy smile.

After a long working day, Rajeev returns home to his wife Sahana and their 2-year-old son Chandan. The apartment is quiet; Chandan is asleep and Sahana is working on her doctoral thesis. She is always studying at night because in the daytime she works as a medical doctor and in the afternoon she takes care of Chandan. Sahana means “patience” and Rajeev thinks that, if there is one quality his wife possesses, it is patience.

Rajeev sits down on the sofa, he drinks a Coca Cola and dreams about the vacation the family will have in Europe in a few years from now.

INfRASTRuCTuRE

Night in Bangalore 2005.


CuLTuRECuLTuRAL DIffERENCES

POVERTyEDuCATIoN




When a country is one-third the size of

Europe and is home to over a billion peo-

ple, it is bound to have interesting culture

diversity. During our visit, we encountered

cultures that both amazed and annoyed

us. We noticed several differences from

Western cultures, but also diversity within

the country. In this chapter we will em-

phasize some of the cultural differences

we reacted to.

GEoGRAPHICAL DIffERENCES

Indian people do not all derive from the

same place. In northeastern India the people

are descendents of the Mongolians, in the

northwest the people are of Indo-Aryan

descent and in the south people are darker

as a result of African immigration. The

ethnic diversity is reflected in the variety of

languages and dialects spoken in India - 17

major languages and 900 dialects or closely

related subsidiary languages. The way people

act varies between the different parts of the

country and one explanation for this is the

country’s history. In the past, when India had

been invaded, the attacks had always come

from the north. Once the invaders advanced

further south, geographical obstacles stopped

them. Therefore, those living in the south are

considered to be more peaceful and calmer

than those in the north. Another effect of the

threats in the north was that the people there

worried about not getting enough food. The

food they ate consisted therefore of more fat

than in the south, something that is true even

today. Another difference in the food is that it

Cultural Differences

A hectic day in Old Delhi, near the Red Fort. Here one meets Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists and Christians among others.

CuLTuRE


is spicy in the south and rice is a common side

dish, while in the north the food is milder and

wheat is more common than rice. Traditionally,

a lot of Indians eat vegetarian food because of

their religion. Due to influences from the rest

of the world, chicken and lamb are, however,

fairly easy to find nowadays.

THE HARDWoRKING NATIoN

Because of the different kinds of Indian

people, it is not possible to generalize whether

the entire nation is hard working or not.

However, as we traveled around the country,

we saw two extremes.

On the one hand, we saw what you read

about in the newspapers: the hard working,

efficient and highly qualified people working

for a fraction of the cost of an employee in

the West. At Capgemini in Mumbai we had

the opportunity to meet with Nirav Shah,

who started a year ago immediately after his

studies at the university. He told us about the

training he had done when he joined the com-

pany. He had worked day and night without

any free time, but he still believed it was the

best time of his life because he had learnt a

great deal. Being this eager to learn definitely

has a positive effect on the company but Nirav

also explained the down sides it brings with

it - a very competitive working environment.

This results in colleagues not sharing informa-

tion with each other because they are afraid

that another colleague will take credit for it.

Another example of motivation and dedica-

tion comes from the sprawling slum areas in

Mumbai, where there are a growing number

of underprivileged children. Slum areas are

selected randomly and the children staying

there are given the opportunity to attend

Akanksha (in total 2,000 children out of 2 mil-

lion). Akanksha is an extracurricular school

that aims to help children achieve higher edu-

cation and find their way to a better life. Thirty

of the most talented children get to join the

top class where the days are longer and they

receive extra lessons every day. In Sweden,

Social Initiative is one of the companies that

have partnerships with Akanksha and have

made it possible for employees at Carnegie

in Sweden to support projects for the poor

in India. The children attending Akanksha

The Akanksha School arranges education for talented children with less means. A typical day starts at 5 a.m. to bring water for the family, and ends at 12 in the night finishing their home works. The children had clear ambitions. “I want to become a leader” a 10 year old boy said and one girl explained “I will be a doctor and make medicine for cancer”.

“Thirty of the most tal-ented children get to join the top class where the days are longer and they receive extra lessons ev-ery day.”

An employee in the port of Mumbai




have a positive attitude to hard work because

they really want to get somewhere and make

a better life for themselves and their families.

Many of the children start at 5 a.m., when

they fetch water for their families and then

they study until late in the evening. Although

they have extremely long days, they still want

to take time to help other children who have

not had the chance to go to school. The people

mentioned in these examples are not unhappy

with their workload; it seems rather that they

find themselves privileged to have come as

far as they have. This is understandable in a

country, where the competition is extremely

tough due to the huge population.

On the other hand, we gained another per-

spective when travelling around, namely, that

of bureaucracy and a lack of structure in some

places. Since salaries in India are very low,

many people are employed for the same tasks

which may results in inefficiency. However,

it is important to remember that this, on one

hand, is a social responsibility that the compa-

nies take. By hiring many people they decrease

the high unemployment and thereby gain the

social well fare.

INDIAN GENERoSITY

It is our experience that Indians are very

generous and always offer their help in every

situation. Our first encounter with Indian hos-

pitality occurred at the airport in Frankfurt

where some of us got stuck because of the

flooding in Mumbai. Even if people were

desperate and affected in different ways by

the catastrophe, one man still took the time

to explain how we should find our way when

arriving in India and gave us his number to

call if we needed any help on arrival.

The representatives of the different com-

panies we visited were more than welcoming

and really wanted to guide us and help us find

things to do, not only during our visits to the

companies, but also after office hours. Indiska,

Atlas Copco and Evalueserve all arranged eve-

ning activities for us.

YES, YES, No PRobLEM

In India, “yes, no problem” is a phrase

that cannot always be trusted. We sometimes

experienced that we could not get a straight

answer because the people were so eager to

please us. Often a person will say “yes” when

you ask him something, even though he him-

self knows that he is unable to help you. For

instance, it is quite common that, if you ask

someone for directions, whether they know

the way or not, they do not want to disap-

point you, so they will go ahead and give you

directions anyway.

Communication problems are a frequently

occurring obstacle when different cultures

meet. As an example Kent Karby Hansen at

Capgemini is working on bridging the com-

munication gap between the Danish and

Indian colleagues by trying to find a common

way of communicating. However, it is not

only the different languages that vary, but also

the way we talk as well as our body language.

Anybody who visits India will notice the dif-

“After a few years in Belgium, my ex-perienced is that Indian employees are ready to work more than double as hard as the European engineers.”

Sachin Chava, CAD - Engineer, Atlas Copco India

A happy man in a bus in New Delhi.

CuLTuRE


ference in the way Indians nod their heads.

In India, shaking the head from side to side

means that you understand what the other

person is saying and usually that you agree

with them. Therefore, often what we consider

as being a “no” is, in fact, a “yes”. Once you

understand the difference, it is quite clear what

they mean. In spite of this, we encountered a

misunderstanding while visiting Seco Tools in

Pune, when we thought that two people had

different opinions when they, in fact, were

nodding in agreement.

FAMILy TIES

Family ties are very strong in India. There

is a strong culture of taking care of the elderly

and children often work in the family busi-

ness. When we visited Indiska we got to know

Sailesh Nair who is working together with his

father at the office and living together with

THE INDIAN WAY

In Bangalore when we were going to visit Volvo we had ordered two cars with drivers to pick us up at the hotel at 7 a.m. and drive us to the office. At the appointed time only one car showed up and we asked therefore where the other car was. The present driver told us that he was on his way and would arrive within five minutes.

After 25 minutes we asked him again, slightly more annoyed this time, and he assured us once again that the other car was on its way “Yes, yes, no problem just one minuet “. Finally we were truly irritated and explained to the driver how deadly important our student tour at Volvo was. This time he told us that the other car had to be cleaned and that it would arrive in 45 minutes.

He probably knew this all along but didn’t tell us. Boiling with rage we all squeezed into one car and the problem was solved the Indian way.



him at home. More than one generation liv-

ing together is very common. Usually when a

woman gets married, she moves in with her

husband and his family. As a result of the

strong family ties a lot of people, who go

abroad to work or to study, return home after

a couple of years to be with their families.

CASTE

When thinking of India you cannot help

but wonder about the caste system and how

it affects life today. Whenever you ask some-

body about this you get the same answer: the

caste system no longer exists. Discrimination

due to caste is against the law. We talked

about this when visiting Atlas Copco and we

learned that all their managers are Brahmins,

i.e., of the highest caste. Is this a coincidence?

Caste ranking and caste-based interaction

have occurred for centuries and will probably

continue to do so in the future. This notion

is, however, more common in the countryside

than in the cities and in such relationships like

marriage than in less personal interactions.

”Caste biases is a non is-sue in the business world but there are strong community links.” Phillip M. Davidson Managing Director, Atlas Copco India

We met this farmer family in Aurangabad. Harald asked if he could take their photo. “Yes, Yes, please do so, only 20 rupees”. The agriculture employs 60% of India’s population. After school the children often help their parents on the field.

CuLTuRE


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research, development and manufacture

of commercial vehicles. We make trucks,

buses, construction machines and engines

for marine and industrial drive systems,

as well as aircraft engines and spacecraft

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range of challenging and stimulating jobs

within our organization and business.

Read more about your career options at:

www.volvo.com

Accept a challenge!




Despite the fact that India has one of the

fastest growing economies in the world

poverty is still a huge problem. This was

one of the first things that hit us when we

arrived in India. Along roadsides in the cit-

ies, people are living in sheds and on the

ground. One can see whole families with

young children and babies sleeping in the

badly polluted air, on the soil between the

lines of the jam-packed highways. The

contrast from the nice business environ-

ment is striking. The main challenge for

India today is to reduce poverty.

The Indian financial system is one of the

fastest growing in the world. The economy is

booming and the middle class has increased

to over 250 million people. Despite this, one

third of India’s population is living in extreme

poverty - they have less than USD 1 to spend

daily. Moreover, two thirds of India’s 1.1 bil-

lion citizens have just USD 2 to spend on a

daily basis. Worldwide, one fourth of the poor

people in the world are Indians.

There is a clear correlation between the

vulnerable groups of Indian society and social

identities, such as caste, sex and ethnic groups.

Also, the development between states and

regions differs. Consequently, the injustices

are huge, especially concerning education,

health care and economic capabilities. During

recent years, poverty has tended to be more

and more geographically concentrated. Half

of India’s poor population lives in the northern

states, of which some seem to be not a part of

the economic development whatsoever. Those

states can be compared to some of the poorest

countries in the world. On the other hand, the

wealthier states have reached an economic

standard and social level, which one may not

find in other developing countries.

Countless children in India live in the most

difficult of conditions. At least 20% of the

children in the world that do not have the

opportunity to go to school and 25% of the

children that die before reaching the age of

five are Indian. After South Africa, India has

the highest rate of HIV and Aids among the

populations in the world. This is a great threat

to the future social and economic development

of the country. Many argue that the recent eco-

nomic growth is having a negative impact on

the environment. This also affects the poorer

population, for example, as it might result in a

lack of water. You can read about this in “The

Backside of India’s Economic Boom”.

According to a report from UNDP’s Human Devel-

opment Report 2005, over 2.5 million children die

in India every year, accounting for one in five child

deaths in the world. Girls are 50 per cent more likely

to die than boys. The report states that if India can

close the gender gap between boys and girls in the

age of 1-5 year, 130 000 lives will be saved and the

child mortality rate would decrease by 5 per cent.

The report also states that the life expectancy is

63.3 years to be compared to 79.4 years, which is

the life expectancy in Norway.

(Source: The Times of India Sept. 05)

Poverty

The total amount of people living under extreme poverty is still the same as earlier. The difference is that India’s population has grown rapidly during the same period.

CuLTuRE

Population below poverty line

(Statistical Outline of India, TATA)

010

2030

4050

60

%

1973 - 74 1987 - 88 1993 - 94 1999 - 00 2007 f

Less than 1 US$ to spend daily

Less than 2 US$ to spend daily

More than 2 US$ to spend daily


However, there is a lot more to India than

just poverty and disaster. The growth in IT

and other service sectors is impressive and

is one of the reasons why the middle class

has tripled to 250 million individuals. India

is also a dynamic country with an organized

social structure. The country has many differ-

ent religions and cultures, sometimes causing

conflicts. India seems, however, to be able to

solve those troubles within the laws of democ-

racy. The government elected in 2004 is, more

than ever before, focusing on poverty and is

putting more effort into solving the country’s

social and economic inequalities. Many com-

panies also assume a great responsibility with

regards human care programs, both for their

employees and other citizens. For example,

IBM is working on an accessibility project

with Victoria Memorial School for the Blind in

Mumbai. Another example is Indiska, which

since the year 2000 has been helping to launch

a school in Karur. The aim is to improve the

living conditions of ex-child labor, equip rural

youths living in areas, where child labor is

rife, for better prospects of employment and

help these children to understand the modern

professional world.

Clearly, India is a country consisting of

two worlds. One where you can see the posi-

tive development, changes and innovations

ultimately resulting in increased economic and

social conditions. The economic boom has

definitely had a positive affect on the social

standard of living, especially in the cities with

huge contrasts in living conditions. In the

other world, however, extreme poverty tends

to last. Numerous people require their human

rights and are excluded from the dynamic

development because of their sex, religion or

caste.

A strong memory is when we entered Mumbai from the highway express that leads from Pune to Mumbai, which is one of the best and most modern highways in India.

Coming from such a modern construction we were not prepared for the sight of the slum areas that met us, a number of people sharing a small living area consisting of nothing but mud walls and a tarpaulin as a roof, no toilet, kitchen or water.

Small children lying naked on the sideways looking at us with empty eyes is very hard to get used to.

“Many Indian companies also take big responsibility in human care programs.”




Education

“India is not a sporting nation, it is an edu-

cation nation”. This is a general thought

that reflects the attitude to education in

India; an attitude that can lead India to-

wards becoming a great economic power

and can make India a strong competitor

alongside other countries in the world.

While comparing Indian and Swedish kids

it is easy to understand why India is develop-

ing so rapidly. Even though sports are becom-

ing more and more popular, children tend

to focus more on their education. The most

important thing for an Indian child it not so

much winning the cricket game but rather

to get the best marks in school. The respect

for learning and the happiness of having

the opportunity to go to school are evident

among Indian youngsters from well-educated

families. Living their lives close to poverty

makes them realize how lucky they are and

that is what probably gives them the eagerness

to learn. Mats Agervi, IBM, confirms this with

the statement: “Why are the students working

so hard in India? The answer is that here is the

real world. No one takes care of you; you have

to take care of yourself, through education”.

Even though Swedish students go to univer-

sity for free and have access to student grants

and loans, there is no such sign of gratitude or

happiness among them.

bECoMING A GREAT ECoNoMIC POWER

India has some of the highest ranked

technical universities in the world. The most

popular schools for engineering are the Indian

Institute of Technologies, IIT, founded in

1950 by the central government. Their quality

of education has acquired them the status of

being listed among the top technical schools

in the world. To get into the Indian universi-

ties the students must pass entrance exams

and those with the highest scores often choose

the IIT. The rest apply to either the regional

engineering colleges, which come next in the

rankings, or end up in the private engineering

colleges. It is extremely hard to get admitted

to an IIT, but those who succeed almost cer-

tainly get a well-paid job in the future.

In the past, a significant number of gradu-

ate students from the IIT left India to live out

the myth of the dream life in Europe and in

the United States. Fortunately for India the

trend is changing. Indians are starting to see

the potential of their home market and are

proud of the label “Made in India”.

The newly gained confidence and a great

spirit of entrepreneurship are helping India

to become a great economic power. An

example of the faith in entrepreneurship is

that the IIT are encouraging entrepreneurship

by helping students who want to start up a

company. Students can apply for assistance

by presenting their idea and the best students

get workrooms for free for a certain period of

time as well as help from professionals. One

of the former students that we met at IIT was

very young and he had already started up four

companies. Furthermore, most of the students

that had started up companies were in the age

group 20-25. “The aim is that the students

shouldn’t have to search for a job when they

get out of IIT, the aim is that they will create

the jobs instead”, says Professor Deepak B.

Phatak. With this interest in entrepreneurship,

the Indian economy will definitely continue to

grow with a speed that is impossible for most

other countries to keep up with.

A winning attitude?

“India is not a sports nation, it is an edu-cation nation.”

CuLTuRE


THE DRAWbACKS WITH AMbITIoN

For the Indian economy, it is clearly profit-

able to have a well-educated middle class, but

what are the drawbacks?

Is it too much stress for a six-year-old

child to go to admissions interviews at the

best schools? Will India meet the same fate as

Japan where the rate of suicides is high due

to excessive stress? Have the Indians realized

that they need to focus on their quality of life

as well? To some extent, they have. They have

started to go on vacation to other countries

and sports are becoming more popular. But

does the six-year-old child, who is anxious

about the interview, need more time to play?

Despite the fact that the middle class is very

well educated, some say that there is a lack of

highly qualified engineers - that only the best

universities are good enough. The number of

universities has increased rapidly in India. In

1950, there were 27 universities and today

the number has reached 304. Is the average

quality of education increasing or merely the

quantity? Companies like Volvo and Atlas

11-year-old Rohini goes to school six hours a day and, furthermore, she studies three hours at home every evening. Sometimes she has no homework on Saturdays, but she often dedicates her free time to getting prepared for the big exams. She goes to an English school and her handwriting is perfect. In addition to speaking English, Marathi and Hindi, she has been studying Sanskrit for a few years.

Rohini is a typical middle class Indian girl. She comes from a well-educated family and both she and her family put a lot of effort into making a good student out of her. Rohini has been studying hard since she started going to school. Her eagerness to learn new things is astonishing and her dedication and ambition are far beyond those of a normal Swedish 11- year-old.

Like Rohini, most Indian middle class children start their schooling with kindergarten classes at the age of three. Even for the first years of schooling many children go to interviews hoping to get into the best schools. After being admitted to a school the student has about 14 years of education to look forward to and specializes in the field, which he or she opts to take as his or her career during the last two years of schooling.

It is common among middle class children to go to English schools. Their English skills are often very good. Rohini can, for instance, switch from Marathi to English without any effort. The excellent English skills along with the fact that India has a very highly respected education system probably constitute the major reasons for Indian doctors and engineers being highly regarded abroad.

11-YEAR-oLD RoHINI

“India’s youth are its greatest opportunity as well as threat. If they are not provided proper edu-cation and jobs the nation will be lost.” Outgoing vice-chairman and CEO of Bangalore-based IT company Wipro Technologies.



Copco hardly have a hard time finding good

engineers, but might that be due to the fact

that highly regarded international companies

attract the best engineers?

The economic development is rapid, the

number of universities is increasing and the

Indian middle class can look to a bright future,

but what about the millions of children who

do not have the opportunity to go to school?

Even though there are publicly financed

schools for less fortunate children, not many

of these children can devote sufficient time.

Poor children need to work to support their

families and they do not have much time

left for studying. As a consequence, only the

brightest poor children have the possibility of

succeeding. Furthermore, some people have

doubts about the quality of publicly financed

education in India.

However, for the poor children, progress

is being made. One example is the Akanksha

School in Mumbai. There are 2 million poor

children in Mumbai and Akanksha operates

44 centers, in total giving 2,000 students an

opportunity to increase their chances. Most of

the children live in shelters in the slum that

can easily be seen from the road. In Sweden,

Social Initiative is one of the companies

that have a partnership with Akanksha. It

is through them that Carnegie employees in

Sweden, for instance, support projects for the

poor in India. It is very common that Indian

companies support schools. For instance,

TATA takes an active role within this area.

Hopefully, foreign companies that enter the

Indian market will also assume responsibility

and support initiatives for the poor people.

It should be a matter for foreign companies

to be sponsors since this is an opportunity

to give something back to the country that

they are utilizing and to contribute to a better

future in India.

“Students shouldn’t have to search for a job when they get out of IIT, the aim is that they will create the jobs instead.” Deepak B. PhatakProfessor, IIT Mumbai

Although the most popular sport in India is cricket, some also play soccer as you can see in the picture above.

CuLTuRE


THE ENDCoNCLuSIoN

PRojECT MEMbERSACKNoWLEDGEMENTS




THE END

Conclusion

Prior to our visit to India as well as dur-

ing our journey we had the opportunity to

meet numerous individuals who shared

their thoughts with us about India. We

have shown you the country from our per-

spective, characterized, above all, by the

experiences that the journey brought with

it, and somewhat influenced, however, by

the common opinions of the people we

met.

Through this project we set out to identify

the potential of the Indian market. India is

in the process of claiming its position among

the main actors of the global economy. Yet,

several challenges lay ahead. Our experience

and analysis of the country tell us that the

opportunities that the market presents mean

that India will overcome these challenges.

The principal force behind India’s emerging

economy is the country’s highly educated

and motivated brain pool. This, combined

with the enormous purchasing force of the

market, attracts global companies and their

investments. There is therefore no doubt in

our minds that we will most certainly find

ourselves coming into contact with the Indian

market again in our future careers. We must,

however, point out that not all of us in the

group can envisage ourselves working in this

environment today under the current circum-

stances. The cultural differences with our

lifestyle, the extreme competitive spirit of the

Indians spreading to all fields of business and

the overall challenges described in this report

(poverty, infrastructure etc.) present a much

too great an obstacle for us to tackle.

In addition to the country’s bright economic

future, one must not forget the importance of

the country’s culture, dating back to 3000

B.C. Throughout our journey to the diverse

regions of India, we came across nearly all

major religions of the world. We noticed that

there exists a certain harmony between the

different cultures in the country, no matter the

religion or the caste. Tolerance and peaceful-

ness constitute the greatness of Indian culture

and the mentality of its inhabitants. Due to

these cultural differences as well as geographi-

cal ones, India must not be seen as simply a

country but as a whole continent.

The lesson learned through this project is

that India cannot be seen merely as a source

of labor. It presents great potential in several

fields, research and development being one of

the most important. Most of the companies

we visited during our trip had moved parts of

their R&D activities to India.

An opinion shared by the managers of

the foreign companies we visited was that

in order to be successful when establishing

yourself in this nation you need to have an

Indian representative in the local market. It is

crucial to be able to work and communicate

with a person who knows the market and its

conditions very well. This represents a great

advantage. In order to enter the market suc-

cessfully, global companies need to preserve

their core activities while transforming their

business segments in order to adapt their

strategy to the Indian market.

Furthermore, we realized that the com-

panies we visited were eager to contribute to

Indian society and that environmental issues

were prioritized. They were also very keen to

make sure that their employees were working

in good conditions. This is one of the factors

that motivates a large number of Indians to

start working for foreign companies in India.

Since the companies take good care of them,

we noticed a high degree of motivation among

these employees. We can conclude, however,

that back in Sweden there is a certain lack of

this energy.





Project Members

THE END

Per Wennerström, [email protected] Manager

“India never stands still. The pulse and move-ment into a new society is striking. Yet, it is a country grounded on ancient traditions and culture that will remain unchanged. One unfor-gettable memory was when we travelled from the busy industrial city of Coimbatore to the calm mountain village Ooty. We came there by an old noisy steam train and climbing up the mountains surrounded by tea fields. This was a journey from the new India to the untouched India.”

Robert Lagerström, [email protected]

“The memory that will stay with me the longest is when we arrived in Rishikesh, a small mountain town at the foot of the Himalayas, where there was a pilgrim festival. Apparently meeting a party of eight Swedes was the most exciting thing that had happened to them, a large group of Indian pilgrims were following us where ever we went, no matter if we were shopping, eating or just sight-seeing.”

Sam Rahbar, [email protected]

“I am grateful to have received an insight into the business culture of India and the strategies adopted by global companies when entering the Indian market. While travelling across the country, one can literally feel the potential and the motivated spirit of this nation. The greatest memory of our journey remains that of the cricket game while visiting a small village in southern India; a game we did not fully master, much to the crowd’s amusement.”

Sofia Groth, [email protected]

“This picture is from Tah Mahal. After admire-ing the magnificant building we sat down to await the sunset. Suddenly we were the objects of investigation. In one minute we were surrounded by Indians who unashamed exam-ined our peculiar skin and odd haircolour.”

Malin Olin, [email protected]

“For me, visiting Akanksha School in Mumbai was a rewarding experience; the children attending the school impressed me greatly with their positive attitude although they have longer days than any of us. I cannot describe India in one way, however when I think of India I remember the colours, the smells and the taste of mouth freshener.”


Harald Knape, [email protected]

“One among all of the photos from this journey brings me a very special memory. An early morning in the beautiful Kerala, I took a picture of what I thought was a peaceful fisher-man philosophizing at the idyllic beach.Later when I examined the picture everything took a different turn, I had offended the fisher-man by taking a photo of his private morning toilet session.”

Fabian Bonnier, [email protected]

“Everyday in India gives you memories for life. One among many was riding an elephant through the jungle. The excitement of climbing up, the horror of sitting there and then feeling the back hair of the elephant cutting into my flesh as needles is surely a memory for life.”

Marie Håkanson, marie7�@kth.se

“It was amazing to come close to the huge extremes of India. Next to the slum areas and the streets full of cows and goats, one can find high buildings rising which gives an indication of the new India and its growing potential. The entusiastic poor children in the schools, the spontaneous invitatation to a familiy’s home in Aurangabad and the friendly rickshaw driver who let me drive his Rickshaw on the streets in Bangalore are just a few examples of pictures I will keep in my mind.”

Pernilla Emenius, [email protected] Manager

“India with its friendly and dedicated people along with the good food, crowded streets and persistent salesmen has had a large impact on me. But one of my best memories is the drive from Aurangabad to Mumbai travelling through the beautiful landscape. Driving on bumpy roads passing villages and open fields with colours so intense it amazed me, the thought of it still makes me happy.”

Viveka Andersson, [email protected]

“Since my childhood I have frequently visited India, my mother’s native country. I have always loved this country; the friendliness and the hospitality. This time I was happy to see how fast India is moving forward and how Indians are getting proud of what they have achieved. I hope and believe that India will meet an even brighter future.”




Acknowledgements

A.J. Satoskar, Larsen & Toubro

Abhijeet Kelkar

Abhishek Johnson, Evalueserve

Ajit Chaphalkar

Anantha Valli, Volvo

Anders Flodström, KTH

Anders Thambert , Indiska

Anil Trigunayat, Indian Embassy

Anjali Chandavarkar, AstraZeneca

Anna Kinberg Batra, Author

Anne Höglund, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

Annika Bengtsson, ÅF

Anoop Kumar P.K., Larsen & Toubro

Ashish Gupta, Evalueserve

Ashok Nehru, Swedfund

Axel Widmark

B.D Markad, Seco Tools

Bengt Johansson, Swedish Trade

Bicky Chakraborty, Elite Hotels

Britt Larsson, Realtryck

Camilla Larsen, AstraZeneca

Caroline Cederlöf, Social Initiative

Catrine Larsson, Capgemini

Christina Baines, Indiska

Claes Ahrengart, Atlas Copco

Clarence d’Souza, Volvo

David Ståhl

Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa, Indian Ambassador

Deepak Phatak, IIT Bombay

Denise Johannisson, Orrefors

Ewa Webb, SAAB Baracuda

Fredrika Ornbrant, Ministry of Foreign Affairs

G. S. Nawathey, Larsen & Toubro

Gautam Bhattacharyya, Swedish Embassy New Delhi

Girish Johar, Ericsson

Gunnar Benediktsson, KTH

Helen Hellströmer, Europeiska Reseförsäkringar

Jaydeep Deshpande

Jeffrey Jeyaraj, Indiska

Joakim Hjerpe, Volvo

Johan Karlander, Evalueserve

Johanna Grönkvist, ÅF

Jonas Wiström, ÅF

K.P. Ramachandran Nair, Indiska

Karin Hedén, Scania

Karl Jonasson, ÅF

Keenan Pereira, Capgemini

Kennet Åhbrink, SAAB

Kent Kærby Hansen, Capgemini

Kjell Casenberg, Ericsson

Kjell G. Andersson, Volvo

Kristina Andersson, Vagabond

Kurt Hellström

Lars Walan, AstraZeneca

Lena Höglund, Elekta

Lotta Bynke, Atlas Copco

M.K. Patki, Larsen & Toubro

Magnus Chröisty, ManCo Mode

Magnus Gyllenhammar, Photografer

Mamta Tyagi, Evalueserve

Mansoor Ahmed, Volvo

Maria Lanner, Swedfund

Marianne Persson-Söderlind, KTH

Marina Högland, Markkontoret

Mats Agervi, IBM

Merl Iyer, Time Out Mumbai

Mikael Kyander, Scania

Mikael Valier, MIFAB

Narendra Taneja, Journalist Dagens Industri

Niclas Trouvé, Swedish Embassy New Delhi

Nitin Seth, Mobiance

Pankaj Mukhija, Ericsson

Paulraj Edwin, Volvo

Per Norell, Seco Tools

Pernilla Bard, Social Initiative

Per-Olof Björk, Ericsson

Phillip M. Davidson, Atlas Copco

Prajeet Patel, Evalueserve

Puneet Kumar, Ericsson

Pär- Anders Pehrson, Ericsson

R.G. Khatri, Larsen & Toubro

Rakesh Mathur, Webaroo

Ramon Wyss, KTH

Ranjeet Jagtap

Robin Sukia, SIBC

Sachin Chavan, Atlas Copco

Sailesh Nair, Indiska

Sandeep Pal, Ericsson

Sanjay Mangrulkar, Seco Tools

Satheesh Karanth, AstraZeneca

Sebastian Lourdudoss, KTH

Seema Dueland, Convenient.info

Seshadri Seetharaman, KTH

Simon Moores

Sirinivasan Muralidhar, Volvo

Smiti Ruia, Time Out Mumbai

Srinivasan Muralidhar, Volvo

Stefan Folkesson, SBL Vaccine

Thierry Cros, Seco Tools

Tina Vajpeyi, Akanksha school

Ulf Hjalmarsson, SIBC

Ulf Nordqvist, Volvo

Waldemar Tevnell, Puls Biznesus

Viktor Svensson, ÅF

Vishal Pandit

THE END


Project Partners

MAIN SPoNSoRS:

PARTNERS:

ADVERTISERS:

PRoDuCT SPoNSoRS:

Elekta was founded in 1972 and

has today approximately 1,700

employees in 20 offices worldwide.

Elekta’s corporate headquarters

are located in Stockholm, Sweden

and the company is listed on the

Stockholm Stock Exchange.

For more information please

visit www.elekta.com

Fighting serious disease

Elekta is a world-leading medical-technology Group, providing meaningful clinical solutions, compre-

hensive information systems and services for improved cancer care and management of brain disorders.

All of Elekta’s solutions employ non-invasive or minimally invasive techniques and are therefore

clinically effective, gentle on the patient and cost-effective.

Elekta’s systems and solutions, including Leksell Gamma Knife® for non-invasive treatment of brain

disorders, Elekta Synergy® for image guided radiation therapy (IGRT) and IMPAC oncology management

software, are used at over 3,000 hospitals around the world.

Fighting serious disease www.elekta.com

� Stereotactic Neurosurgery � Gamma Knife® surgery � Functional Mapping � Precision Radiation Therapy � Image Guided Radiation Therapy � Stereotactic Radiation Therapy


PRojECT INDIA 2005 - THE END

For all students at KTH. Sign up for next years project! [email protected]


www.projectindia2005.com

Documents

INDIA - KTH · Project India 2005 is a one-year journey through culture, political and business issues in India. The