The last stop on our Indian MBA adventure is Bangalore, also known as Benguluru. Located in the southern part of India, it is the capital of the state of Karnataka. Bangalore has the third largest population of any city and India with about 5.8 million people. As we all should know by now, Bangalore is the hub of IT activity in India and is commonly referred to as the Silicon Valley of India. Much of the economy in Bangalore is made of up of call centers and other back office and IT services that are exported to the US and other countries around the world. Major companies such as Wipro and Infosys have headquarters in Bangalore, which has helped to spur fast economic growth in Bangalore and attract many rich Indians. In fact, Bangalore has the third largest population of ‘rich’ and ‘super rich’ individuals in the country.

Another fact that we should all be aware of by now is that we will be hitting the streets of Bangalore just before the beginning of the monsoon season. The hottest month in Bangalore is April. The average temperatures in June, when we will be there, range from 68-86 degrees. This does not sound too hot, but we got to keep in mind that it will also likely be cloudy, humid, and rainy.

Enough about all of that, let’s talk about eating in Bangalore. There are many popular breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack items in Bangalore that sound incredible. I will list some of the items by meal below and go into further detail on a couple that sound the best to me. Keep in mind these are abbreviated lists.

Breakfast:

- Idlis – steamed rice and lentil cakes

- Chutney – spicy dip

- Uddina Vade – fried doughnut shaped lentil and rice patty

- Poori – fried dough

- Akki Roti – flat bread

Finally, the best sounding dish to me is Dosas. A Dosa is a pancake/crepe make from rice and lentils and a variety of spices and other ingredients. The batter is typically fried in oil or ghee (clarified butter) on a hot griddle. Dosas can be prepared in a variety of ways including stuffed with cheese stuffed with spiced potatoes (Masala dosa), and stuffed with mint chutney and vegetables (Green dosa). I like this item because of the sheer number of variations and it is one of the few items that I have already tried. It will be great to get a few dosas for breakfast in India.

Lunch and Dinner:

- Huli/Sambhar – lentil soup with or without vegetables

- Palya – a dry vegetable side dish usually eaten with rice

- Vangi Bath – spicy eggplant mixed with rice

- Chithranna – spiced lemon rice

- Mavinakayanna – mango rice

- Ragi Mudde – ragi (millet) balls

And what sounds the best to me? Bisi Bele Bath, which means hot dahl rice. Aside from a great sounding name, this dish is full of lentils, rice, vegetables, beans, and a ton of spices. Typical spices found in Bisi Bele Bath include fenugreek, coriander, dry chilies, cloves, cardamom, and cinnamon, curry leaves, etc. The dish is basically a big casserole that sounds incredibly flavorful. This is definitely on my list of must try items.

Alright that brings this post to an end. What did I miss or leave out? What are your favorite dishes from southern India? What foods do we need to try in Bangalore?

- Tim Lynds

Referenced websites

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangalore

2. http://wikitravel.org/en/Bangalore

3. http://www.virtualbangalore.com/BF/index.php

4. http://www.discoverbangalore.com/food.htm

5. http://www.trueknowledge.com/q/population_of_bangalore_in_2010

Submitted by: Josh Hickman

For those of you who have not chosen Khanna’s Billions of Entrepreneurs for your read this quarter, I would like to bring to your attention a segment in the book in which I felt could break new ground in the practice of medicine in developing countries, as well as our own fifty states. The chapter titled “Barefoot Doctors and Medical Tourists” discusses what both China and India have going for their hospital system as well as where they fall short. China, whose hospitals are described as “clean, free of crowds, and well run” which is a stark contrast to a hospital in Mumbai which is filled with “hundreds of people demanding surgical attention with paint flaking off the walls and unsanitary conditions” (Khanna, 213). The story of Dr. Devi Shetty touched me, an entrepreneurial heart surgeon who once cared for Mother Teresa in his career, has provided affordable and reliable health care for people even in the poorest of India’s slums. Dr. Shetty runs a private hospital in Bangalore (Narayana Hrudayalaya) that can provide medical services for the equivalent of a few cents to people, and will not turn away anyone who cannot pay for service (some government subsidies help make this possible). Shetty won the entrepreneur of the year award at the 2006 World Economic Forum for building “Healh City”, a network of different hospitals and medical departments to house five thousand hospital beds and maximize the use of their medical equipment to cut down costs even more.

Seeing this success with privatization of health care, why do we still see medical costs in the U.S. for thousands of dollar per day? And what happens if someone does not have medical insurance? Some catastrophic illness could also mean the end of your financial future which would be devoted to paying off these medical costs. I have a very close friend whose mother had an unexpected brain tumor last year and was near death (thankfully she is alive now and rehabilitating), and her hospital bills were well over a million dollars for a two month stay. If the family had not had any insurance, they would be in a very scary financial situation right now.

So would privatization of health care and hospitals in the U.S. be an answer to our problems? Shetty has plans to expand to Mexico (see here for a short article about the project) as well as other cities in India including Hyderabad. This brings up an issue of whether it is fair to be providing free health care from our tax dollars to people who maybe are unemployed, or not contributing their part to federal or state taxes. However, by utilizing medical equipment and personnel more efficiently and effectively, driving the overall cost down for everyone could help the issue without having to resort to heavily subsidized programs. Dr. Shetty is an example of someone who thinks outside the box, not only to benefit him, but in order to revolutionize the model of hospitals and make changes in how a country operates.