The history of the Indian automotive manufacturing industry begins with Ashok Leyland. Raghunandan Saran founded this company in 1948 at the urging of India’s first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Early in its history, Ashok Leyland produced cars for British car company Austin but slow growth in India and the license raj forced the company to pursue production of commercial vehicles such as, work trucks, buses, and agricultural equipment. It would not be until the 1990’s, through economic liberalization and the weakening of the license raj that the Indian automotive industry could grow. Even during this time of growth, most Indian cars shared most of their components with foreign automakers. It would not be until 2002 that the first Indian car is produced completely in-house, the Tata Indigo.

Despite the slow start, the Indian auto industry has matured quickly. Over 2.3 million cars were produced in India in 2008, making India the ninth largest passenger car producer in the world. Of the vehicles produced, one million were exported, making India one of the largest exporters of vehicles in the world. The majority of these exports are from foreign car companies such as Volkswagen, Toyota, and GM utilizing India’s low cost but high quality manufacturing processes. However, a few Indian automotive companies have broken out of their home market.

Probably the most well known among these companies is Tata Motors. The largest automotive company in India - Tata Motors accounts for 60% of domestic passenger car sales in India. The company is also a major player in the commercial vehicle industry, accounting for 70% of the domestic market. Combined, their sales at home and abroad reached $15.5 billion worldwide, making Tata Motors the 19^th largest automotive company in the world. Although they are famous for the Nano, the world’s cheapest car, they have a wide range of vehicles, from limos to sports cars.

Despite its variety of vehicles and size in India, Tata Motors is still a small company compared to other automotive manufacturers. The company’s acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover have helped increase Tata Motors sales overseas, but it has done so primarily through these companies’ vehicles produced in Britain, not exports from India. Most of Tata Motors current vehicles are designed for the Indian market and are not very competitive with other car companies. However, Tata does have the advantage of lower labor costs in India and has the ability to utilize cutting-edge technology from the British acquisitions in its Indian built cars.

Based on this, is Tata Motors ready to become a major player in the world automotive landscape? If the company is able to break into the major automotive markets (Europe, US, China), does it make sense for Tata Motors to compete in the same markets that are dominated by GM, Toyota, and Volkswagen?

-Matthew Perez

The river Ganges flows from an ancient Himalayan glacier and runs over 1500 miles through the country of India until it empties into the Bay of Bengal. It is considered holy to Hindus, and on its banks resides the city of Varanasi, which many consider to be the holiest place for Hindus; not to mention, it supports one of the highest population densities in the world.

However, due to massive amounts of human and chemical waste, it is one of the most polluted rivers on earth. Two days ago, the World Bank agreed to loan India $1 billion to help clean up the Ganges River, an estimated $3.5 billion project. To me, the success or failure of this undertaking will signify whether or not India can truly become one of the great developed countries on the world stage.

Does India have the ability to temper the powerful religious undercurrent that flows through the Ganges? Millions of people go on a pilgrimage to its banks every year to bathe, pray, and sometimes leave the dead bodies of their beloved in the waters. In order to clean up, and keep this holy watershed clean, the Indian government must be willing to not only put its foot down on the religious and political agendas but convince the 350 million people in India that live in its watershed, and the hundreds of millions of other Indians that feel religiously connected to the river to stop bathing in it. Consider the task of convincing the entire population of the U.S. to agree on anything, much less when it involves religious rights versus protecting the environment.

Unfortunately the U.S. has not done a very good job leading by example. If India can pull off this feat, they will truly be a world leader.

-Chase Janvrin

One of my favorite activities during my leisure time is to go see movies at the theater. I love movies for their visual, emotional, and artistic impact. The main sources of movies I have seen come from Hollywood, California. Hollywood has been the center of the movie world since the “Golden Age of Hollywood” from 1927 to the late 1950’s, which has persisted to this day. However, Hollywood is not only recognized for its glitz and glamour, it’s also recognized for the financial impact it has on the world economy. The Hollywood Film Industry churns out on average 520 movies a year, with growth of 1.8% per year. The domestic box office returns in 2008 reached $9.8 billion, at a growth rate of 1.7% from 2007. The international box office returns of 2008, which accounted for 65% of total revenue, reached an all time high of $28.1 billion, rising 5.2% from 2007. Hollywood is not only the heart of the American film industry; it is the center for home movie and television production as well. When you incorporate home movie and television production with the film industry, this Hollywood giant contributes close to $80 billion to the U.S. economy.

Recently, another player in the world film industry has stepped up to challenge Hollywood for a share of the world cinema market. This film industry, which is located in India, is known as Bollywood. Bollywood is known for its theatrical productions that include music, dancing, and singing. This movie hub releases close to 1000 movies per year, double that of Hollywood. However, Bollywood movies have been plagued by poor funding, stagnant story lines, and complacent producers and directors. Starting in 2006, a revolution has taken place to create better movies, which includes a shift in business ideology from a cash-flow to profit-loss. Directors and producers were solely worried about the money they could get from their next film, whether or not their current project flopped. Once the industry began looking at movies from a profit-loss perspective, the standard of movie making in Bollywood began to rise. With the Indian economy growing greatly, more and more Indian businesses are entering the movie market by funding higher priced films. These budget increases allow film makers to spend more time in pre-production, cast better actors and actresses, pay them accordingly, and to film higher quality movies.

With the increase in Bollywood’s quality over the last few years, Hollywood has taken notice of the new competition. Hollywood recognizes that Bollywood is a growing force, so much so that some movie houses are creating joint ventures in order to gain capital funding and to work on bigger and better project. One of the most notable collaborations to date has been the merging of DreamWorks, run by Steven Spielberg and Stacey Snider, with one of India’s largest entertainment conglomerates, the Reliance ADA Group. With this cooperation between Hollywood and Bollywood, how much growth can the two movie giants sustain? What will be the impact of these international mergers on the U.S. and Indian film industries? Will Bollywood take jobs (especially post-production) away from the Hollywood due to lower costs in India? These are all the questions to consider. For more information please refer to:

· Newsweek

· Wall Street Journal

· Motion Picture Association of America

- Jason Silver

Initially, I wanted to comment on the other post about the possibility of Major League Baseball being the next big thing in India. I decided to post on the blog instead, as I would also like to introduce the new developments in Cricket along with the reasons for my argument. My title will probably raise some eyebrows. But, unfortunately it is true, and probably reflects the ground reality. Let me give you reasons why Major League Baseball might not be able to penetrate the Indian market.

The news about the two people picked to play Baseball from India is not even a footnote in Indian news, the reason being, cricket is not a sport. It is a religion over there. I am sure that once you go there, you will realize what I am talking about. Pick any Indian guy here in America or in India, and ask them if there is a possibility of future for Baseball in India? Better still, ask Dr. Jay Singh. You will get the same answer.

The fact of the matter is there is no culture of baseball in India. Two similar sports cannot coexist if one of them is steeped and ingrained into the culture. It is difficult to envision elbowroom for the new sport as it is likely to be considered an imitation of the former, essentially to be a substitute product to the consumer preference. NFL Europa failed, as it was perceived to be a poor substitute for Rugby(Click Here). There is this concept in Microeconomics called the ‘Marginal Rate of Substitution’, which means a consumer’s willingness to substitute one product for another while maintaining the same level of satisfaction. The question is whether Major League Baseball can overcome the steep marginal rate of substitution? May be, it can market the MLB brand as a complement rather than a substitute. It is a hard sell though considering the similarity of the sports. Think about it this way – how many Americans play cricket here? Simply put, there is no culture of cricket here in America even though it is similar to baseball in some ways. Only, the people from the Indian subcontinent or, expatriates from Australia, England or the Caribbean, play cricket here in US.

MLB could possibly get bigger in India, if and only if cricket shoots itself in its foot (in terms of popularity), and declines precipitously as the consumer preference. There are many indications to the contrary. For instance, a new product of cricket, 20-20 (basically 20 x 6 =120 pitches thrown per inning matches) has caught on with the imagination of the Indian public, and it is played for the same duration as a baseball game (roughly 3 hours). In fact, a new 20-20 league called Indian Premier League (IPL) was created in 2008 on the lines of Soccer’s English Premier League. An auction was conducted for the sale of eight city franchises. While the total base price for the auction was US $400 million, the auction fetched US $723.3 million. Later another auction was conducted to buy cricket players with their base prices ranging from $250,000 to $1.5M. This presented an opportunity for a cricketer to earn $1.5 M for 45 days of cricket in a calendar year(Click Here). Believe it or not, because of this league, cricket made the Forbes’ top ten highest paid sports list (less endorsements) in 2009 (Click Here). In 2009, top ten cricket players earned in the range of $2.5M to $10 million and all of them made the top 50 highest earning athletes (Click Here).

Another factor that will play a role in determining a change in preference of sport is the demographic shift. There are more Indians in US than the number of Americans in India. So, I would argue that cricket will get bigger in the USA than the other way round. Do you guys know that USACA is mulling a cricket match between India and Pakistan in Florida? (Click Here)

I also found an article about projected earnings of IPL players, come 2010 (Click Here). My fellow MBA students, jump onto the 20-20 bandwagon, I dare say. Here is your opportunity to market a revolutionary product. I have more to talk but, it will go on and on. Please let me know your thoughts on the issue. What other factors might tilt the balance in favor of baseball or cricket? If you want to disagree, feel free to disagree.

I have listed some topics that any of the enthusiasts might select for a blog post. Potentially you could use concepts in Managerial Economics like Market Structure & Competition, game theory and strategy to delve into the following issues, and make Dr.Zambrano proud.

1. How IPL took the concept from ICL (Indian Cricket League), leveraged its clout both in the BCCI (Indian Cricket Board) and the administration, and destroyed the ICL?

2. IPL 2009, conducted in South Africa owing to security situation (Can you imagine moving all the MLB games to Japan or any other country, and still have a successful tournament?).

3. Biggest brand name in India (Sachin Tendulkar), and his evolution as the biggest brand

4. IPL’s Revenue generating model

-Hemanth Kundeti

A major concern for India over the last several decades has been the migration of India’s most talented and knowledgeable citizens overseas. One needs just a visit to places like Hong Kong, Tokyo, Singapore, and most especially California’s Silicon Valley to see the effects of this migration and the success that Indian talent has found outside their motherland.

An examination of the Bay area’s Indian population clearly illustrates this phenomenon:

· The median income in the Bay Area’s ethnic Indian community is more than $107,000 a year.

· Almost 75 percent of Bay Area ethnic Indian adults have a bachelor’s degree.

· Nearly 70 percent are in management or professional positions.

· Roughly 50 percent are homeowners.

· More than 40 Bay Area venture firms have Indian leadership.

These numbers seem especially ironic considering, almost a third of the world’s most impoverished people reside in India. So what caused so many of the India’s best and the brightest to leave?

An obvious answer is the Indian economy which was relatively closed up until even the 2000’s, with high tariffs and laws against joint ventures. With India’s over-population and growing amount of young professionals, the opportunities inside India seemed small and worthless compared to the prospects of the west. In fact, by 1986, nearly 60% of Indian Institute of Technology engineering graduates migrated principally to the Bay Area. Indian technology firms and their clients solution to the countries restrictions was to ‘export’ Indian engineers and programmers to work in the US at client sites.

But things are starting to change dramatically and many expatriate Indians are increasingly going back to their roots. With the economic downturn in the US and the rising economic growth in India in recent years, many young professionals are deciding that opportunities are actually becoming more plentiful in India. Many established Indian professionals are giving up their green cards for a more luxurious life in India and a reunion with their culture. Some of the people returning to India weren’t even born in India and are offspring of the brain-drain generation of the 70’s and 80’s but have found a home away from home.

So, is America now at a risk of brain drain as the unemployment rate rises and the economy faces hard times?

-Phil Hamer

Back in college, I was dropped from all of my elective classes, and in a desperate attempt to fill up my schedule, I decided to take a class on ethnomusicology - the music of Africa and the Middle East. The class started out with descriptions of the music of Africa, however, the professor, an expert in Indian and Iranian music, quickly began to focus on the sounds, styles and instruments of the Middle East. I learned that the musical styles of the Arab world, North Africa, and the adjoining countries all share similar stylistic and instrumental roots with an emphasis on improvisation, handheld drums and stringed instruments. Despite my initial skepticism, I began to really get into it, listening to live performances in town and on campus. Now, I really enjoy listening to music with the distinctive and exotic sounds of the east. I decided to investigate the origins and characteristics of Indian music.

Middle Eastern music, including that of India has its’ roots in the same Vedic traditions of the Indo-Aryan culture. It has its’ origins in a region extending from South-eastern Europe in the west, the Caucasus and the “Stan” countries, regions surrounding the Black and Caspian seas in the north, and Mesopotamia in the south, extending down along the coast of Persian Gulf to the Indus river. According to recent mitochondrial genetic mapping studies, this was one of the first cradles of humanity as people migrated from their original home in sub-Saharan Africa. Needless to say, all this happened thousands of years ago. Evidence of these cultures goes back to the 15^th century BC, and even the Vedas themselves along with the Yasna Zoroastrian texts date back to around 1000 BC.

In the Vedas, particularly the Samaveda, you can find the origins of the modern classical Indian music. It contains rules and melodies called ragas that correspond to the different chakras used in meditation and religious hymn chanting, similar to the western musical concept of the mode. Each raga contains a selection of the seven notes of the Indian Swara or scale around which a melody may be structured(SA RE GA MA PA DA NI SA).

It creates the framework for musical composition in Indian music, particularly improvisation with stringed instruments and the voice. The vocal solos sound very similar to the Arab maqam, using the same nasal, resonant tones and complex, ornamental syllables improvised over a droning instrumental accompaniment. The structure of the music itself is very much similar to that of the Arab world because, both share common Indo-Aryan origins. Even the instruments are similar.

Indian instruments fall into several categories: drums, bowed and plucked string instruments, flutes, and reed instruments. The drums are played largely by hand or with wooden hammers or mallets, and may be one or two sided. The stringed instruments like the ektara or the sitar, which Pandit Ravi Shankar brought to fame among western audiences, make use of a resonating body, or even sympathetic non-played strings to produce a unique resonant sound much like the Arab oud or rebab. The flutes and reed instruments have very similar shapes, particularly the algoza and the Arab ney, which look like clarinets and provide a classic Indian sound in modern Bhangra music along with the ektar and the dhol, two-headed drum.

Bhangra is a fusion of classic Indian and modern electronic sounds performed by artists like Punjabi MC and Malkit Singh. Music with Indo-Aryan origins can be found over a vast portion of the world, influencing the instrumentation, style, and performance of virtually all cultures except those in Australia and the new world. In fact, all stringed and reed woodwind instruments can be traced back to that culture. To hear what this music sounds like, you need only watch Slumdog Millionaire or make a trip to Youtube or Pandora (Samples -Track 1, Track 2, Track 3, Track 4).

I have loved the sound of music like this ever since that first class back in college and look forward to hearing more live in India.

What do you think of the fusion of east and west in today’s music? Do you think Indian artists will develop a following worldwide? Do you agree that Indian music shares its roots with a lot of other cultural music? Will the sharing of pop culture and music in today’s global society have any impact on India’s rise to power as a nation?