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Study Abroad India

Incredible India

The trip to India was certainly incredible and it will have a lasting impact on me for the rest of my life.
XIME was great, they were extremely hospitable and the lectures were very informative. We had the opportunity to have discussions with the other students about India, China, and the US economies. We also had lots of tea breaks between lectures, the tea tasted great and helped to reenergize us.
The company visits were also great, they were very hospitable to us and let us in to almost every part of their facilities. Of my favorite were the visits to Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospital and Infosys. Both had huge facilities located on huge plots of land. They were like mini towns.

My favorite sightseeing was the jungle in Coorg at the coffee plantation and white water rafting. The road leading to Coorg was the bumpiest, windiest, and longest road I have ever driven on. It was impossible to sleep because every new bump would jar me awake. The scenery was lush and green with trees and plants indigenous to India.We saw a little bit of wild life on the way there like an elephant and its baby and some white spotted deer. We had chicken biryani- a blend of spices, chicken, sauce and rice. Apparently it is quite labor intensive to make, it cooks for like half a day, and that is what makes the chicken so tender. It was delicious. White water rafting was one of the most fun things I’ve done and the scenery of tea plants surrounding our river was truly a beautiful sight. As Jessica mentioned, we all worked as a team very well to overtake the rapids.

The Taj Mahal in Agra was my second favorite sight. Agra was hotter than Bangalore and there seemed to be more poverty there on the streets than in Bangalore. It is also home to the Agra Fort and Fatehpur Sikri fort built by the Great Mughal Emperor Akbar, and the Agra Fort later finished by his successors. The Taj Mahal is truly a sight worth seeing. We went on a morning visit around 6:30am and the marble of the palace appeared normally white. When we finished the tour, the marble looked a little more white, this is because the marble is translucent and appears different depending on the exposure from the sun. It was built by Emperor Shah Jahan for his wife Mumtaz. The building has no paint, the decoration on the walls are made of in-laid semi-precious stones, creating a pattern. It is almost like a mosaic, but instead of grout between each piece, it is the marble itself. The entire structure is symmetric, except for the tomb of the deceased emperor next to the tomb of his wife inside. The emperor did not have plans for himself to be buried there, he built it out of love for his wife. However, his son had him buried there when Shah Jahan died. After our tour, we were taken to the place where the marble and semi-precious stone inlay is still made by the ancestors of the artists who worked on the Taj itself. A couple of us bought some octagonal-shaped slabs of marble with designs on them constructed of the semi-precious stones, and we were each given a complementary marble elephant.

Most of the food was delicious in India, I think I prefer the southern Indian food over the Northern, but there are some dishes that are the same for both areas like dal makhana, paneer, and naan. I really enjoyed tandoori chicken, the naan, chinese noodles, dal makhana, paneer, and a sweet called jalabi. Surprisingly, I didn’t get sick at all while on the trip, but after I returned home, that is a different story…

Adjusting to the culture I did not find an extremely hard challenge. However, we had guides and Dr. Vijay right alongside us advising us what to do and what not to. We attracted many stares, but it didn’t bother me very much. I knew they were curious, and I was staring around at them too. Most educated Indians were also unaffected by our differences, they have been exposed to so much American culture that it doesn’t surprise them to see us in their country.

One thing that really stuck out to me about India was the coexistence of life. Cars, bikes, people, cows, elephants, camels, and dogs all share the road together, with hardly any rules governing traffic. Everyone looks out for each other and all life forms are respected. There also didn’t seem to be any hostility, anger, or violence any place that we visited and everyone was very welcoming and happy. This was definitely a great experience and taught me to have more patience and gave me a different perspective on my life, the US, and our place in the world.

 

 

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Study Abroad India

Overall Experience in India

The lectures at XIME were very interesting. One thing that distinguishes India from the U.S. is that there are electrical outages every day sometimes for a few seconds to a few minutes. It’s just something that students and professors can expect.

Driving in India is CRAZY. It’s like there are no rules for cars or motorcycles. Driving in traffic is like rush hour in Cleveland without laws on stopping. Turn signals aren’t usually used, instead people use their horn. The motorcycles make their way to the front of the traffic by squeezing through the tight spaces between the cars and big transportation buses. We were amazed to see four people on one motorcycle. The funniest thing was when there was a cow laying right in the road and people were driving past it like it was nothing. Along with all these vehicles on the road there are dogs, cows, goats, donkeys, and people all walking alongside or on the road. Sadly, poor adults and children would come up to our car and knock on our windows when we were stopped begging for money or for us to buy what they were selling.  Another thing that amazed me was that people do not get out of the way for emergency vehicles like ambulances. They get stuck in the traffic just like everyone else. They are treated like any other car.

The food was amazing. I loved the Indian style barbecue.  The naan and different types of bread were also very good. The spices are what makes the food.

The weather was pretty nice in India. Delhi is much hotter than Bangalore. Bangalore was in the 70s and was windy and raining a few days. Dubai, however was 115 degrees with really dry air. While we were in Dubai, Ramadan was taking place so many places were not open until sun set.

On the buildings and in cars there were pictures and statues of the gods. The carvings were incredible on top of the buildings. Many buildings were also very colorful, in pink, blue, yellow, or orange.

I loved the wild life. In Delhi there were camels walking down the streets. We saw a person riding an elephant down the road. Between the roads there were pigs. When we were walking back from Taj Mahal there was a family of moneys playing in the grass and trees.  When we were driving to Coorg we drove through the jungle and saw a lot of deer and two big elephants with a baby one.

At the coffee plantation we relaxed for the day. It was so quiet and peaceful. It rained most of the time we were there. The next day we went white water rafting and it was so much fun. No one fell out but we flew to the opposite parts of the raft during the rapids. We showed great teamwork and the guy who was with us told us our team was very good at it.

The forts, palaces, and Taj Mahal were beautiful. It’s amazing how they were built and with so much creativity and filled with art.

Shopping was really fun too! Amanda, Bethanie, and I got to try on sarees which were so pretty. We also went to local shops where we could buy wooden craved boxes, little glass elephants and other types of Indian souvenirs.

This was a great experience!

 

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Study Abroad India

Random

Going to the jungle and visiting the coffee plantation was amazing. In the jungle we saw a wild elephant family, which I’ve heard can charge at cars if they get too close. We also saw deer, goats, and boar. The plants are so wild that they seem to take over everything. Although we were safe in our bus, it felt very intimidating to be out in the middle of a jungle where a tiger could pop out and grab you at any moment.

The coffee plantation was so beautiful. The owner and his wife were especially friendly, and made our stay a thousand times more pleasant than any regular hotel. Not only did they socialize with us, but they cooked homemade meals and gave us coffe grounds from their own coffee beans. The coffee they served to us was smoothe and not as bitter as the coffe in the USA. They own around 120 acres of coffee plants, which can live to be up to 200 years old. He inherited the land and plants from his father when he turned 25, but it’s hard to get help in January when they harvest the beans.

White water rafting was indescribable. There were three rapids, called Morning Coffee, Grasshopper, and Nose Dive. After the first rapids we all jumped into the 15′ deep water and swam for a bit, which I think surprised Dr. Vijay and his brother when they saw us. They must have thought we capsized in the calmest water of the river. The last one was the biggest, and we all got knocked around and water in our noses. I will definitely be doing that again sometime!

The rides through the towns were interesting too. Many people carry objects such as big bags or piles of plants on their heads. Cows and bulls roam the streets, as do chickens, roosters, dogs, goats, etc. The local people seem to be as interested in us as we are in them. Most towns seem to have stores to but the essentials and food items.

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Study Abroad India

Culture and Society

August 4, 2011

 Today Mr. Chiranjiv Singh spoke to us about culture and society of India. This is a vast subject, but he did well educating us about the basics in Indian culture. He began by telling us that India has the oldest continuous surviving culture, which is approximately 6-7 thousand years old. Western inluence has threatened to influence the culture so much that it remains to be seen whether the culture will be strengthened or become something new altogether.

Mr Singh spoke to us about the caste society, which has five different levels for which to separate Indian people into. It has been challenged in the past by the Jain, Buddhist, Islamic, and Sikhist religions, but remains strong today even though it was outlawed. It will most likely take several generations for the system to change. This has influenced the culture in such a way that hierarchy is a natural part of people’s work, family, school, etc. lives. For instance, Mr. Sikh explained that teachers and professors are thought to be “guru’s” in India, and students are not free to question them or engage in discussions because they are God-like. People who teach are essentially bringing the student out of darkness (ignorance) into the light (awareness).

One of the most interesting things that Mr. Sikh said was that most Indians believe in “therma,” or thebelief that one has an innate nature to fulfill in life. For example, fire’s therma is to burn. This allows India to have order despite all of the disorder.

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Study Abroad India

Infosys Campus- 8/5/11

Infosys ‘s corporate headquarters is located in Bangalore and is the second largest IT company in India. It was started in 1983 by seven entrepreneurs – N. R. Narayana Murthy, Nandan Nilekani, Kris Gopalakrishnan, S. D. Shibulal, K. Dinesh, Ashok Arora, and N. S. Raghavan, with only $250 USD. The first product produced was banking software for Data Basics Corporation in New York. Infosys went public in 1993, started the Infosys Foundation, dealing with healthcare and social issues, in 1996, and was listed on the NASDAQ in 1999. Throughout the ‘90’s many global Infosys offices were opened, including sites in California and Europe. In 2004, the business model was realigned and revenue reached $1 Billion. Shortly after, in 2005, the Infosys Global Education Center was opened on the Mysore campus. Infosys is now home to over 130,000 employees and makes around $6 Billion in revenue.
On Friday, we all travelled to Mysore to visit Infosys’s training campus. The training campus is the largest corporate training hub in the world and has 11,000 rooms on campus to accommodate the trainees. It has a capacity to hold 14,000 people, with the help of the second Global Education Center opened in 2009. In addition, 5,000 employees work on-site in production, actually dealing with clients. Undergraduate students from India, mostly in the engineering and computer science fields, are recruited to train at the training campus for 23 weeks, this ensures that they are software engineers by the end of their stay. They go through a rigorous training course M-F, beginning with general training and then going into specialized technical training. After completion of the 23 weeks, they are randomly placed around the company sites into specific projects like Java and dotnet, based on company requirements. If the student performs poorly in the training course, they have to leave the campus. The percentage of poor performers is now between 3-5%. American graduates are also accepted, but they are not trained as long.
Living as a trainee at the Infosys training campus is like staying at a hotel resort. It is a 350 acre campus with 400 facilities, of which seven spell out “Infosys” if looked at from an aerial view, 7 food courts, and the largest corporate library in the world. The campus also provides 2 gyms, an outdoor swimming pool, several outdoor sport facilities including soccer, field and track, cricket, tennis, and badminton. There is also an indoor bowling alley and a table tennis room. There is a 24-hour employee care center with counselors to help keep employees and trainees in the best mental and physical shape so that they can perform their work at optimal level. The campus also boasts a large 4-screen movie theater, where it screens new releases on the weekends for the students.
I was blown away by how spectacular this training campus was and made me want to be recruited to work for Infosys. They really seem to care about their employees and make sure that they receive the best training possible to be able to perform their job, this is apparent in the fact that it spends $12,000 to train each trainee.

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Study Abroad India

Indian IT Industry- 8/3/11

Mr. Rajogopal Kishore from Capgemini Financial Services visited us to discuss the Indian IT industry. Mr. Kishore had several years of experience within the IT field, including working at Infosys. He briefed us on the timeline of the IT industry in India, which began in the 1980’s. During this time, India was in a major budget deficit and needed to seek out a way to propel its economy. Indians traveled to America offering programming services to companies, for a fraction of the price they were paying in-house. The Indians made improvements to the software and began to offer maintenance, enhancement, and creation of new software. They then began to offer many more technological services like design of software, development requirements, architecture, and customer support. Now, Indian IT companies take care of the entire back office maintenance for American companies. In 2002, India started consulting and researching and looking into other countries to do IT services for, which led to a clash of cultures. Presently, a lot of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and outsourcing of call centers is actually done in Manila, Philippines because they speak much better English and have knowledge of the IT industry. India is then able to focus on Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) instead. Another point he made is that the IT industry will start to flat line in the future, rather than incline due to employees staying longer within the company.

Mr. Kishore also spoke of clouds and the IT sector. Company applications can be put onto a cloud and can be run from anywhere, and the company can also more easily and efficiently host their CRM applications in the cloud. He states that clouds will positively affect the industry and that some government regulation is needed to help with security and privacy issues. However, he remains that creative destruction is needed to bring about change in the right direction.

Some advice that Mr. Kishore gave us as international students traveling back the United States is that we as a generation should fully embrace collaborating with India. India greatly looks up to America and sees us as positive, energetic, and innovative, but we do not embrace them as freely. Our job is to learn how to do business better with India and to bring about understanding of their business styles. For instance, they are generally afraid to express themselves because they do not disagree with their elders, therefore we need to be clear about what we want them to do and the deadlines we want them to meet. If they express any doubt, we need to find a way for them to realistically meet deadlines, rather than them telling us they can and then approaching us on the day it is due and telling us they can’t. We also need to communicate well with them, over communicate actually, and have sessions to discuss how integral their job is to American business. We should also praise their good work and make them feel like they are worthwhile, because then collaboration in the future between the two nations can be an even more grand thing.

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Study Abroad India

Hospital Visit

8/4/11

Today we visited Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospital which is known around the world for one of India’s largest medical tourism hospitals. Medical tourism shifted from the U.S. and Europe to Asia. Global healthcare and wellness is a $4.5 trillion market. This hospital specializes in cardiac and cancer. This hospital will accept anyone around the world with or without money. They do not turn anyone away. The reason it started was because there are so many poor people in India and their children were not getting proper treatment.The thing that makes this hospital and many other hospitals in India and Asian countries unique is that they provide life saving procedures. The reason many international people come to these hospitals is that there is a high cost for treatment, long waiting periods, and non-insured patients. For Africa, the main reason is because there isn’t available medical care.

There are many things that make Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospital stand out. First, India is home to the largest number of doctors, nurses, and medical technicians in the world. It is the most affordable treatment center in the world. The hospital has world class facilities and the latest technology. India’s healthcare industry is expected to be $2.3 B by 2012 and it is growing by 30%! Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospital is the largest and most respected hospital in India. It has 55 hospitals and clinics with 5000 beds. We visited Bangalore city hospital. This hospital has 3000 functioning beds. There are 40 heart surgeries done per day which is the maximum number in the world! It is also the largest post operative intensive care unit with 80 beds. Patients from 75 different countries come to Narayana Hrudayalaya Hospital. They also specialize in tele-med and have saved over 100000 lives! This hospital is also a joint commission (USA) accredited hospital. The doctors here are 10 times more experienced than U.S. doctors and the machines are exactly the same.

There are huge plans for the future. They are in the process of building hospitals in the Cayman Island, Malayasia, and Slovania. Within the next 7 years their 5000 bed facilities will be 30000 beds! There will be 5 health cities across India. Dr. Devi Shetty is the founder of this wonderful hospital. We had the pleasure of meeting with him and speaking to him about healthcare. His plan is the India will be the first country in the world to dissociate healthcare from affluence. His target is to get a heart surgery from $1800 to $800 which is already cheap. In his opinion, you can provide quality healthcare without money and he is defiantly doing it! We asked him how he is able to do all this and he responded, “we have to help ourselves”. As we learned the Indian government only spends 1% of the GDP on healthcare. It is amazing what this hospital has done for the locals, people in Africa, and all over the world.

-Jessica

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Study Abroad India

Security & Technology/ Bangalore Old & New

Today we listened to Mr. Rangan Mohan speak about security and Technology issues in India. Indian IT first began in 1991. In 1996 India started to provide a lot of IT services to the U.S. The first phase began in 1996 which was driven mostly by the low cost to do IT in India. Next from 2001-2006 a lot of IT was driven by productivity.  After this by Innovation from 2006-2009. He also explained organizations like NASSCOM which is the National Association for software and services in India. Some of the most important data from the U.S. like healthcare is sent to India for processing, but it is thoroughly encrypted so no one can take it. Overall his discussion I think really covered the security and technology issues most companies face in India and the U.S. today.

After we were done with this lecture we had probably one of the most interesting lectures we’ve had so far! The lecture was called Bangalore old & New and it was led by a well know Indian art historian named Suresh Jairam. We found out Bangalore used to be called the Bean Town City for its boiled beans. The main business in Bangalore is driven by Biotechnology and IT. Some call Bangalore the Silicon Valley of India because of its IT sector. Bangalore also has a large horticulture market because of its fantastic weather! What is very interesting is that Bangalore has some of the very first breweries in India and it was the first place for the Kingfisher beer brand to be brewed! ! Also I was very interested to find out Bangalore has a Pub Crawl which starts early in the afternoon and ends round eleven in the evening. Bangalore was also the first city in Asia to have electricity in 1906 and many of the architecture is mainly based off British influences in the city.

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Study Abroad India

Culture and Society

August 4, 2011

Today Mr. Chiranjiv Singh, who is the Former Additional Sectretary from Karnataka, spoke to us about the culture and society of India. This is a very broad category to speak on, but he did a good job covering some of the basi

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Study Abroad India

Recap of 8/3/11

Today we had Professor Atish Dasgupta speak to us about emerging trends in human resource management in India. Prof Dasgupta worked in manufacturing and construction for many years.  He also spent 26 years in the IT industry where he was a software manager, writer, in sales, and finally HR. He started with some facts about India. Namaste which is a greeting for hello means “I bow to you”. The flag’s colors stand for many things. Orange or saffron stands for courage and sacrifice, while white stands for purity and truth. The green means faith, fertility, and chivalry. The wheel in the middle stands for each hour of the day, an endless circle of life.

As he stated there are many challenges in the service center, especially IT. This is because the industry is so large.  Some of the challenges faced are attracting the right talent, developing talent in-house, and retaining talent. In India, a company may pick a candidate and everything will be on track but within the last days before the candidate starts work he/she will back out. There isn’t a contract the candidate signs because in Prof Dasgupta’s opinion it would scare people and they would have an even harder time finding the right candidate. Therefore, “romancing the candidate” plays a big role in making the candidate feel welcomed and needed. During this process the employer and candidate will get to know each other, the employer will reassure the candidate, and they will set goals for what is expected.

One part of HR in India that needs improvement is the recruitment process. Recruiters need to work on finding quality. The recruiters feel short on time so they rush the process and focus on the number of people instead of people who will be quality to the company. When recruiters get a lot of people they feel their job is complete even though the candidates may not have the necessary background or be right for the company.

There is a performance improvement plan for low performers that’s used by HR managers.  The employer will work with the employees so they can improve. This will usually last around 3 months. Afterwards the employer will look at those who didn’t improve and figure out what to do with them. This could be rerunning the PIP for another 3 months or getting rid of the low performers.

When staffing a company resumes seek strong educational backgrounds. Employee referrals, which is learned from the U.S., is also looked at. There is succession planning and employee tests for entry level candidates related to the job. E-recruitment is also popular. www.naukri.com is India’s first e-portal which was established in 1998. Naukri means job. This would be like monster which is used in the U.S..  Newspapers are used to get candidates. This is different in the U.S. though because it will specify the age and gender for the job. During the interview, personal questions will be asked, such as marital status and family plans. This can hinder whether one will become employed. On paper it will not state the real reason, but the interviewer will find another reason on paper to not hire someone.  Even U.S. companies that are here in India will ask these questions. Pictures are also taken because there have been interviews that were fraud, like telephone interviews.

Performance appraisals are also done. Cultural dimensions of collectivism and power distance make appraisals a challenge.  Indians feel you are a part of a family, in turn creating a relationship. Loyalty is just as important as performance. Ratings are inflated due to personal relationships.  Also, employment at will does not exist and termination carries a strong social stigma.

Compensation and benefits are also a little different. An employee will get rent, medical, and travel allowances for example. These benefits are a part of the total salary. Vacation time is also given which includes: 7 days of sick leave, 7 days of casual leave with a minimum of 2 days at a time with prior permission from boss, 3 weeks annual leave after 1 year of employment, and about 15-20 days for federal and state holidays. However, these benefits are becoming less.

Attrition is a huge challenge in the IT industry. About 14-20% of people quit within one year in a company. This counter plays collectivism. As explained by Prof Dasgupta, India has learned individualism from the U.S. so it also plays a role. High attrition creates a bench mark; people who aren’t working will replace those who quit.

Our other lecture was given by Mr. Hubert Reilard. He is from Germany and works for a company that specializes in induction heating. Induction heating is much more efficient than using a furnace since you do not need to heat all the space surrounding the metal. In Germany there are many medium businesses that are very good at one particular field. 80% of Germany’s GDP is from these businesses because these companies are world leaders in their field. They have double the patents than large businesses. Medium businesses have employed 1 million people within the last 10 years which is the complete opposite of large companies. Medium companies depend on the engagement of employees. They value their employees even when the economy is bad. Instead of laying off employees during low economic times they will find alternative ways to save money.  These companies have a different set of values and roles.

Many companies started coming to India for cheap labor. However this is changing. Companies didn’t realize the different expenses needed to sustain a company here. For example the electric goes out a lot, as we have learned, so companies needed to buy generators. They also needed to invest in busses because the drive for some Indians was too long and the roads are very congested. Now, many companies are starting research centers. Indians are better at mathematics and theoretical thinking. In Mr. Reilard’s experience, the best way to work with business partners in India is to respect one another and not to look down on each other.  To be a global company means having willingness to cooperate and not force culture on everybody.  Moreover, it is better to play an active role in globalization than sit back and watch companies grow around you.

Some challenges in having a business in India is the infrastructure.  Cars are not a solution to the transportation problem. Some people have to drive 3 ½ hours a day to go to work.  Corruption, especially in the industrial field is also a challenge. From Mr. Reilard’s experience it is very easy to do business in Bangalore.  You just need a product that sells. It does take time to solve issues but you just need to do it.  Patience and having patient Indian colleagues is required. At first Mr. Reilard’s company had issues getting parts through customes because the numbers were different on documents. Now they know what is expected and have prepared documents the way customs like and they have no problem. There are 1000 German companies in India!

During the evening we spent some time talking to the representatives for the different majors at XIME.  We learned that they put on activities for the juniors and it’s a way for the juniors to learn what they are good at so it’s easier for them to pick a field. Besides the difference between the sizes of our schools, the organizations are about the same. Afterwards, 3 of the students did some convincing and took us out to eat for dinner at a restaurant they usually hang out at. We tried chicken lollypops and a lot of other Indian foods. Afterwards, they insisted we try pawn which is beetle seeds and some spices wrapped in a beetle leaf. It tasted pretty minty and turns your tongue red. I think I can say for all of us, it is the most memorable experience so far.

-Jessica