In the last few weeks, Jason and Kirk were working hard to set up a video conference with some MET University MBA students whom we are going to meet in June. Last Thursday it was finally happening.

The evening started at 7:00pm with some fine Indian food prepared by Dr. Singh’s wife. After eating (a lot), we started the video conference with the MET students. The meeting was very interesting in terms of seeing the differences between the curricula of the programs, the off-campus life and the attitude of the students. Besides the content of the meeting, I think it was also very valuable to practise the use of video conferencing equipment. Since, we will most likely use this at the workplace in the future, this was a great “low risk dry run”.

A major difference between CalPoly and MET is how interconnected MET is with companies. It seems like the students over there start working closely with potential future employers from day one. Class projects are conducted in conjunction with industry partners. The geographical location of CalPoly might make such a high level of integration a bit more difficult but I think this is definitely something we should look into doing more than we currently do.

In terms of differences in students’ life, I found it to be very interesting. Apparently most of the Indian students still live with their parents. I feel like it is a major part of the college experience in the US (and as a matter of fact, in Europe too) to move away from your parents for the first time and learn to become independent. I am really curious to talk about this in more detail when I’m over there.

All in all, the MET students seemed like an awesome crowd and I am really looking forward to meeting them in June … ofcourse, we are also going to kick their butts in a game of cricket!!

Last but not the least, I want to use this chance to thank Jason and Kirk for their continuing effort to make events like this happen! I hope everyone understands how much value they add to the program and how much of their free time they are spending for us!!

-Vitus Holzner

It was 4:00 am and I couldn’t sleep. Naturally I started to think about our India trip and logged on to our India blog site. Since the beginning of this year I feel like I have learned a lot about Indian food, culture, people, history, business, etc. But like everything else in life, the more I learn the more I realize how much more there is to learn. So, I started to think about what I really want to know and what I really should know before stepping off the plane in New Delhi in just over 3 months. That’s when it hit me, I don’t know much about New Delhi! Though I am interested in learning all about the city, for the purposes of our trip, I feel that it is prudent to understand the composition of the population and the business environment over there. I did a little research to familiarize myself with these aspects of the Capital of India.

Population

New Delhi takes up a whopping 573 square miles in Central Northern India. It is estimated that Delhi proper is home to more than 16.5 million people (Article 1), most of whom speak English, Punjabi, Hindi, and/or Urdu (Article 3). Just as in most of India, multiple religions are practiced widely throughout Delhi, including Hinduism, Christianity, Islam, and Sikhism. This makes for a truly diverse population that for the most part peacefully co-exists to make this modern metropolis.

The people in Delhi are fairly well educated with a literacy rate of about 82% vs. the Indian average of about 66%. This makes sense seeing why Delhi is considered to be the ‘gateway into India’ and that better educated people tend to flock to capital cities all over the globe. The people of Delhi also have a relatively high per-capita income of approximately Rs 51,000 (rupees) when compared to the national average of about Rs 23,000 (Article 4). At almost 2 times the national average wage, people are doing pretty well in New Delhi. If I lived in India, this would definitely be one of my top choice cities.

Business

Delhi makes up a huge thriving economy that has a GDP of about $10.5 billion (478 billion INR) (Article 2). About 33% of the population of New Delhi is in the workforce, which adds up to about 5.5 million people (Article 5). The unemployment rate in New Delhi is around 5% (Article 5), which is lower than the national rate of about 6.8% (Article 6). People in New Delhi want to work and there are jobs available. Obviously New Delhi is a good place to do business.

The major industries in New Delhi are information technology, banking, media, hotels and tourism (Article 5). The large skilled labor pool in New Delhi attracts foreign investment which in turn spurs growth in manufacturing and production. This investment triggers new construction, power and telecommunication needs, and real estate sales, which account for a large portion of New Delhi’s economy. New Delhi’s economy has new infrastructure as its backbone and is fleshed out by the industries listed above.

In addition to having a large skilled labor pool, New Delhi has a huge consumer market in Delhi (16.5 million people), that retail businesses can potentially tap into. As mentioned above, this consumer market is on average better educated and has more money than the national average in India.

Conclusion

I know that this is an incredibly quick and superficial look at the people of New Delhi and its business environment. I encourage everyone to add to these facts (or correct them if needed) so that we all can have a better understanding of where we are going to be this summer. The next city on my list is Bangalore.

References:

1. http://www.prb.org/Articles/2007/delhi.aspx

2. http://www.delhicapital.com/about-delhi/fast-facts.html

3. http://delhi.clickindia.com/general/facts.html

4. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Average-Delhiite-earns-Rs-54K/articleshow/1789927.cms

5. http://www.mapsofindia.com/delhi/industries-in-delhi.html

6. http://www.indexmundi.com/india/unemployment_rate.html