Indore by: Tim

Week 2

This week we travel to Indore the commercial capital of Madhya Pradesh. It is a bustling city of 2.5 million people. Indore has twice the amount of villages, as compared to Bhopal, at around 700. India’s economy grew at about 7% in 2008 and was kept safe, mostly, from the global recession due to their strict government regulations on the commercial sectors. Their middle class is booming with IT professionals, software engineers, business professionals, competitive MBA programs, as well as a booming educational market. There are many universities in Indore. The most renown MBA university in India, The Indian Institute of Management, recently established a campus in Indore. We can compare this university to the Wharton School of Business or Harvard’s MBA program.

India’s university structure is a bit different then ours. It is more common to see universities established for a specific school of study. For example, MBA programs in the US are apart of an entire university, such as Harvard’s MBA program is still at their school of business. It cost about $10k a year for students to receive their MBA (2 year program) from the top university in the country. This university, India Institute of Management, is 100% funded by the central government. Not only does a potential student have to take the typical standardized national test they must take a test developed by the school, as well, before they can be considered.

Universities are an abundant resource in India, as mentioned earlier. MBA programs are popping up everywhere as the increase in well-educated and qualified personnel continues to be in high demand with the growing economy.

To put the growing middle class in perspective; in Indore there is a 21km stretch of bypass road that has 150 townships being developed. We would understand these townships as gated communities on steroids. Not only do these townships have amenities such as golf and tennis, but also they include shopping centers, schools, clinics, etc. The average home cost in these townships is $105,000 or 51 lakhs. One lakh is $2,050. The income range targeted for these homes is 8-10 lakhs, which is $16,000 - $20,000/year. When we were at an MBA university, Indore-Indira, we were told the average salary for their students when they venture into the work force is 2-6 lakhs, or $4,000 - $12,000.

I went to see Chandi Chowk Goes to China last night at an Indian cinema.  Even though I did not understand but two words the whole movie Namaste and acha (which means hello and okay respectively) I still enjoyed it throughly.  I must tell you it was the nicest movie theater I have ever been in. The screen was about twice the size of any theater I have been in. The food was great!! There were samosas, potato puffs, and tomato cheese popcorn just to name a few. And the best thing of all is that they had waiters and assigned seats!!!

Tomorrow we are going to a sports meet sponsored by Rotary where I will be trying my hand at table-tennis and badminton. I have not played ping-pong in quite some time. Probably not since Jamaica two summers ago, and I cannot even remember the last time I played badminton!!

Wish us luck!!