Weekend Reading: 12 Apr, 2009
India’s Underground & Hinterland seem to be the topics du jour :-)
In the Wall Street Journal, Peter Wonacott says India Defies Slump, Powered by Growth in Poor Rural States.
Rama Lakshmi of the Washington Post said as much last month: Vast Rural India Sparkles As an Expanding Market
About 72 percent of India’s billion-plus people live in rural areas. For years, the poverty of rural India was seen as reining in the country’s economic growth. But today, analysts say, rural India is a critical audience for marketers because it has been relatively insulated from the crippling blow of the global slowdown.
India’s rural destiny still depends on good monsoon rains and robust agricultural production, but four years of bumper crops and heavy government investment in rural infrastructure have given birth to what some analysts call an emerging economy within India.
Last month, Patrick Barta of the Wall Street Journal called it The Rise of the Underground.
Given this, it’s not entirely coincidental that The American, the journal of the American Enterprise Institute wonders how Lalu Yadav managed to turn around the Indian Railways, the world’s 2nd largest employer (the Chinese Army is #1) and in doing so, morph from Huey Long to Jack Welch — The Indian Railway King
First of all, I am so happy to find the site accessible once again. The few times that I tried recently, the site would not load. I had completely given up on one of my favorite blogs – until now!
Secondly, Lalu’s amazing accomplishments at the IR confirm one of the few, very few valuable lessons I have learned in my 32 years in business. Huge upsides in business are often caused by just a few right decisions, and one of them is hiring the right people. Way to go, Sudhir!
Comment by Floridian — April 16, 2009 @ 4:52 am
India’s rural destiny still depends on good monsoon rains and robust agricultural production, but four years of bumper crops and heavy government investment in rural infrastructure have given birth to what some analysts call an emerging economy within India.
Comment by topspeeds — September 22, 2009 @ 2:21 am