British businessmen heading to India are encouraged to take etiquette lessons to avoid embarrassing gaffes. read more»
From the UK India Business Council:
UKIBC to launch ‘Indian etiquette’ classes in London
28 July 2008
The cultural gap stares you in the face the moment you cross the English Channel. Further out in India, many UK businessmen and professionals find the going fraught with cultural misadventures and confusion. To prepare young professionals and businessmen flying off to India, the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) is launching “Cultural Briefing” sessions under its Insight India banner.
Speaking about the project, Sharon Bamford, CEO, UKIBC said, “India has a rich and diverse cultural landscape; a land of huge opportunities. UK India Business Council exists to ensure that UK business is ready and able to capitalise on these opportunities. Helping business succeed in India is our priority, and integral to doing business in India is an understanding of its religions, politics and etiquette. We are launching the Insight India series to addressing these issues.”
India is witnessing a wholesale migration of intellectual capital from the UK, with Indian companies recruiting Britons at all levels from new graduate to senior management. According to the British Council, there are already over 32,000 Britons who reside in India and the number is growing steadily. While UKIBC has taken up the mantle of education on Indian etiquette, many Indian companies are training young graduates about British culture and mannerisms.
For its first session, UKIBC has invited noted culture expert, David Solomons, CEO, CultureSmart!Consulting who will talk about understanding cross-cultural framework, key cultural differences and being conscious about the differences in values and attitudes in the UK and India. He will address stereotypes and generalisations, and outline three ingredients for successful communication.
The next session on Cultural Briefing will held in September
UKIBC Indian business etiquette
·Greet with a smile, handshake and small talk
·Saying ‘Namaste’ with a slight bow and palms together, will be appreciated
·With women, only shake hands if they offer it. Do not kiss them in greeting or goodbye.
·Dress conservatively and formally
·Always address colleagues with title followed by surname eg Mr Patel. Using a first name is seen as being very familiar and disrespectful.
·Don’t open gifts until the giver has left the room. Don’t seem to eager to open gifts.
·Indians are not always punctual. So be patient and flexible.
·They may call on weekends for discussing business. Don’t be offended.
·Standing with hands on hips is considered rude
·Do not talk down or patronisingly to Indian colleagues and business partners.
Article about Global Giving that I have been supporting from some years now:
Big news from GlobalGiving. This is hot off the New York Times presses:
GlobalGiving, the online system through which garden-variety donors can give money to support international charitable projects, is going green.
As always, GlobalGiving provides innovative, locally-run projects for you to choose from. But this time, as the Times reported Friday, there's a twist:
Why give green? Because the developing world faces a double burden. Climate change threatens poor communities with economic devastation in the form of floods, droughts and ruined harvests. But traditionally, many of the very solutions that fight poverty have also contributed to climate change.
GlobalGiving Green is a brand new way for you to help solve that dilemma. Using a unique scientific evaluation system, we've carefully pre-screened initiatives that offer win-win solutions — helping people while protecting the planet.
This is so strange, sis sent it to me this morning... unbelievable!
So what does it mean? It means letting the fish nibble on the dead skin of your feet as part of the healing process. The Kenko Reflexology & Fish Spa at the Pavilion Shopping Mall in Kuala Lumpur offers this “spa experience like no other” with prices starting at RM30 (Rs. 600).
Politicians are special, last night on the Daily Show Jon Stewart had an awesome game 'republican or rapper', it was really funny how much both of them have in common with each other.
I've had a good feeling about newly minted Daily Show correspondent Wyatt Cenac, whose vaguely-louche-yet-endearing charm has been on display ever since he joined the show. But after last night's hilarious "Rappers or Republicans?" segment, which had me stabbing at my rewind about nine times, none would dare suggest he hasn't arrived.
Aping the format of classic game shows, Cenac puts Jon Stewart through the paces, pointing out how difficult it is to tell the difference between a rapper or a member of the GOP:
CENAC: "They both love money, they love guns, gay people scare the shit out of them...every other word out of their mouths is n****r."
Indian politician sacrifices 200 goats to mark win
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
GAUHATI, India -- A lawmaker said he sacrificed more than 200 goats and four buffaloes at a temple in northeastern India to thank a goddess for delivering victory to the prime minister's government last week.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Congress party survived the July 22 confidence vote after weeks of political uncertainty that nearly toppled the government.
The last-minute support of Kishor Samrite's Samajwadi party, a one-time opponent, was key to the victory.
And since Sunday, Samrite has been participating in rituals at the 16th-century Kamakhya temple in Gauhati, the capital of the northeastern state of Assam.
Animal sacrifices are traditional rituals at the hilltop temple, a famous Hindu pilgrimage destination.
Behind the numbers To determine the U.S. cities where the cost of living is highest, the London office of Mercer, an American human-resources consulting company, measured the prices of the same basket of goods in 253 of the world's cities. The basket is composed of more than 200 products, representative of executive spending patterns and including everything from rent for a luxury apartment to the cost of a fast-food hamburger.
Location has a lot to do with why New York and Los Angeles top the list of U.S. cities.
In New York, the need for more homes has been increasing since the mid-1970s, says Edward Glaeser, an economist at Harvard University.
"Before 1970," he says, "workers in some sense were paid a premium to live in New York." This, Glaeser says, was due to its reputation for crime and dirtiness. "Now, people pay a premium to live there."
The change happened when the city began to experience robust economic growth that's still occurring, despite some hiccups along the way. Even though business is increasingly global, New York is a center for industries that produce ideas, such as finance and publishing, Glaeser notes.
"You don't see anyone relocating to South Dakota," he says. "The idea now is that you become smart by hanging around other smart people, which New York has in abundance. That's why it's been able to thrive."
Yes, I am back in HNL and its been a really crazy week at work with the big kick off and first couple Validation Sessions. Now we have 2 weeks downtime and then another 2 weeks of validation sessions..
Anyways, its my weekend to recuperate before I travel again next weekend.
I got back to Aquas Caliente yesterday after a really difficult 4 day hiking in the Andes to Machu Piccu. we walked on an average 8 to 10 km every day, up hill and down hill...
Day ¨1: Mostly flat land, some up hill. Started around 10 and ended at 4. They give us Coca tea everyday, made from coca leaves - very tasty. The cook makes awesome food, lunch and dinner is zopas or soups´- always vegetarian. Lunch normally has some salad and dinner some hot entree.
My friends sang Happy birthday at Lunch, Tea and Dinner. The crew heard this and prepared a surprise cake for me, which was an awesome treat.
Day 2: Hardest day by far, climbed to ``Dead Womans Pass`` which was about 4000 m or 14000 ft hike, I almost died doing that, luckily my friend Pritam kept pushing me little by little and I managed it... I am still amazed that I survived that day. The camping area was very cold that night so I pretty much wore eveything I carried. The days are normally 80-85 F and nights about 30-40 F.
Had to take advil for the fatigue, tums and pepto for the heart burn that night.
They have chemical toilets here which are pretty dighusting buyt its still better than having to use the outside forest in the middle of the night. My silk thermals and head lamps are a great help. Wish I had bought some hiking tshirts which breathe and some hiking pants. The shoes are also very helpful.
Day 3; Longest day because we walked about 15 km, 1000 uphill and 3000 downhill. Downhill really kills your calves and knees. Luckily I bought a stick on day 1 for 5 soles and that was very helpful in hiking down. We walked through the cloud forests and this hike was very beautiful but also very tiring. ¨Saw couple of inca sites, my entire trail was discovered in 1960´s which was the original INCA trail which they used to transport stuff from Cusco (their capital, in quecha means bellybutton of the world) to Machu Piccu.
Heart burn got worse and also had some faint diherrea, so took some tigermat and ammodium which solved that issue. Took 2 advils in the day and 2 at night. Was really exhausted by the end of this one.
Day 4¨: We left early for our final hike, first to the Intipata on a very cloudy morning which made this convex terraces and the view from them look absolutely heavenly. We could see mountain outlines and it reminded me to heaven depiction where I was expecting to see Brahma appear to give boon any moment! It was for me, the best part of the entire trip because it was so unexpected.
Some crazy steep steps after that to get to the sun temple, they call that area the Purgatory because its so difficult. Go through and go to Machu Picchu at noon, this place is very beautiful again, something quite mounmental and mysterious. No one really knows the real purpose of this hugh amount of organic architecture with temples and quarters and industrial areas and gathering places... it could be Inca University, it could be a summer palace or it could be just another temple area... lots and lots of theories floating around. Spent most of the day there and finally got to Aquas Caliente for hot showers in the evening.
I got a massage last night and then some pizza, I am so tired of Peruvian food... and Quinva, they make everything from that grain around here, its insane. I have only seen a little bag of those grains in trader joes, here they make soups, juice, cereal, pancakes, dessert from it.
Day 5; Was supposed to go back to machu piccu but I decided against it. Just walking around this little town, which is very clean. I also skipped the hot springs this morning and got up late. Probably going to walk around the marketplace and then catch the train to Cusco later on today.
I leave for Lima tomorrow morning and back to HI tomorrow night... Its been a real test of endurance and have been amazed at how well my body has survived.
The strange part is that both my summer trips over the last two years have been to places with a mysterious history. Though Mongols never built a single thing and Incas built a lot (They have irrigation technology, architecture, math, weapons all mapped out!) both of them left no traces. No one knows what Pachakutic or Genghis Khan really looked liked. Incas as no written word so there is real account of how they lived or why they disappeared. Perhaps thats what makes it more interesting to study!
Spent 9 hours last weekend at the PCC, that place is huge - representing all polynesian islands ... have cultural presentations from everywhere.. and then tour of the Mormon Temple and Bigham Young University... its definitely worth looking at if you has spending more than a week in Oahu.
Democracies are peaceful, representative—and terrible at boosting an economy. Or at least that’s the conventional wisdom in Asia, where for years growth in India’s sprawling democracy has been humbled by China’s efficient, state-led boom. But India’s newfound economic success flips that notion on its head. Could it be that democracy is good for growth after all? If so, China better watch its back.
Consider the experiences of the following two Asian countries. In 1990, Country A had a per capita GDP of $317; Country B’s stood at $461. By 2006, Country A, though 31 percent poorer than Country B only 16 years earlier, had caught up: It enjoyed a per capita GDP of $634, compared with Country B’s $635. So, if you had to guess, which of these two Asian countries would you assume is a democracy?
You might be tempted to conclude that the better-performing country is authoritarian China and the laggard is democratic India. In reality, the faster-growing country is India, and the laggard is the occasionally autocratic Pakistan. This fact certainly belies the commonly held notion that—especially among Asian countries—authoritarian states have an advantage in growing an economy compared with their democratic counterparts, who are forced to reckon with such pesky trappings as labor standards and political compromises.
But surely, the familiar China-India comparison would support an authoritarian edge, right? The conclusion seems so obvious: China is authoritarian, and it has grown faster; India is democratic, and it has grown more slowly. For years, Indians have defended their democracy with a sheepish apology—“Yes, our growth rate is terrible, but low growth rates are an acceptable price to pay to govern a democracy as large and as diverse as India.”
There is no need to apologize now. India has ended the infamous 2 to 3 percent annual “Hindu rate” of growth and begun its own economic takeoff. Recent Indian success is not only impressive in terms of its speed—growing at the “East Asian rate” of 8 to 9 percent a year—but also in terms of its depth and breadth. The Indian miracle is no longer confined to the much vaunted information-technology sector; its manufacturing is taking off. Even the historically lackluster agricultural sector is beginning to grow.
So where does this leave the “authoritarian edge” that China’s economy has supposedly enjoyed for years? The emerging Indian miracle should debunk—hopefully permanently—the entirely specious notion that democracy is bad for growth. And the emerging Indian miracle holds substantial implications for China’s political future. As Chinese political elites mark the 30th anniversary of economic reforms this year, they should reflect on the Indian experience deeply and absorb the real reason behind their own miracle.
PRAGATI: THE INDIAN NATIONAL INTEREST REVIEW, JULY 2008
FOREIGN POLICY: “Adamant for drift, solid for fluidity”
India needs leadership and a renaissance in its foreign policy
HARSH V PANT
AS THE United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government completes its four years in office, there is a whiff of fragility and under-confidence in the air, as if at any moment the entire facade of India as a rising power might simply blink out like a bad idea.
The absolute control of the Communists on all realms of policy-making, the single point agenda of the Congress party to stay in power as long as possible and the insistence of the Bharatiya Janata Party upon destroying its credibility as a national party—all have ensured that Indian foreign policy continues to drift without any real sense of direction.
The seemingly never ending debate on the USIndia nuclear deal has made it clear that today India stands divided on fundamental foreign policy choices facing the nation.
What Walter Lipmann wrote on US foreign policy in 1943 applies equally to the Indian landscape of today. He had warned that the divisive partisanship that prevents the finding of a settled and generally accepted foreign policy is a grave threat to the nation. "For when a people is divided within itself about the conduct of its foreign relations, it is unable to agree on the determination of its true interest. It is unable to prepare adequately for war or to safeguard successfully its peace."
In the absence of a coherent national grand strategy, India is in the danger of losing its ability to safeguard its long-term peace and prosperity.
As India’s weight has grown in the international system in recent years, there’s a perception that India is on the cusp of achieving ’great power’ status. It is repeated ad nauseum in the media, and India is already being asked to behave like one. There is just one problem: Indian policy-makers themselves are not clear as to what this status of a great power entails. At a time when the Indian foreign policy establishment should be vigourously debating the nature and scope of India’s engagement with the world, it is disappointingly silent. This intellectual vacuum has allowed Indian foreign policy to drift without any sense of direction and the result is that as the world is looking to India to shape the emerging international order, India has little to offer except some platitudinous rhetoric that does great disservice to India’s rising global stature.
Outils 
Aide
