India hits the jackpot Globalisation Conference 4 July 2008

Dr Simon Oakes

Bancroft’s School &

RGS-IBG resource writer

simonoakes1@btinternet.com

India hits the jackpot

India in the new Geography A-level Specifications

Economic globalisation and India

Hi-tech India (BBC outsourcing & quaternary)

‘Two-speed’ India (billionaire ‘winners’ and

poverty-ridden ‘losers’)

Developing India – social change for the better?

Anglo-Indian cultural geographies (Bollywood,

McDonald’s and Disney)

India and the current Geography

A-level SpecificationsCurrent teaching across a range of topics can benefit from up-to-date case study knowledge of India (after all, around one sixth of the world’s population lives here)

Demography (rising affluence, births & deaths)

Economic systems (divisions of labour, call-centre out-sourcing)

Urbanisation & Migration (megacity growth in Mumbai)

Development (signs of change underway in India; issues pertaining to ‘two-speed’ development, with both billionaire wealth and extreme poverty increasingly found in cities like Mumbai)

Globalisation and India

After independence, India became an attractive site for Transnational Corporations (TNCs) to set up factories and, more recently, offices (call centres). As Indians get richer, the same foreign companies are now starting to also see the country as a mighty new market for their goods and services, and not just a place where things can be made cheaply.

In addition to the arrival of foreign firms, more and more native-born Indian entrepreneurs are learning to make globalisation work to their advantage. India’s own companies are now establishing bases in other countries.

For instance, the Indian firm Tata recently bought Corus, the leading steel manufacturer in the UK. This is a clear sign that the previously dependent relationship that India had with the UK is perhaps starting to evolve into an even more mutually-beneficial economic partnership.

Globalisation and India

Indians are becoming major consumers of Scotch whisky

Tariff barriers have recently been softened in India, reflecting

the drink’s rising popularity amongst Indian middle-classes

Record volumes of over one billion bottles were shipped

from Scotland in 2006, with 90% destined for overseas

Can Scotch manufacturers meet rising demand in India?

Hi-tech India

Tertiary back-offices are found in India as

part of the new international division of labour

And quaternary functions moving off-shore

too – medical research, multimedia

India is not simply a passive recipient of FDI -

but is a dynamic innovator and major global

hi-tech investor

Hi-tech India(1) The BBC has out-soured

some accounting and financing

services to Indian firm Xansa in a

move that will save £20m a year.

(2) Indian news television

network NDTV - New Delhi

Television – is seeking a bigger

share of the global media &

entertainment industry estimated

to be worth £770bn in 2005 and

set to reach £1 trillion by 2009.

‘Basically everything behind the

camera can be outsourced,’ says

NDTV CEO Prannoy Roy. ‘We

are looking at getting work from

all the big players - ITV, BBC,

broadcasters in the US and

Canada and Australia.’

Hi-tech IndiaBBC children's series Freefonix has been animated in

India. The ‘Bollywood-BBC tie-up’ on Freefonix is the

first of many, according to the series' UK-based

producers Cinnamon Entertainment. Managing director

Anthony Bouchier says: "We saw that there were

opportunities not only to outsource but to actually get

investment for animation out of India… The BBC are

involved in some very exciting projects and the majority

of those are financed out of India. India is coming to the

rescue of BBC animation."

The scripts were written in the United States and UK, the

voices were recorded in the UK, the music and general

production work was done in the UK and the Isle of Man

and then a team in Paris modelled the characters and

backgrounds. The whole thing was then sent to

Trivandrum in Kerala, southern India, where it was

animated. The final post-production was done in

Ireland. (The Guardian, 02 January 2008).

http://www.freefonix.com/

Hi-tech India

New innovations – India takes an increasingly active, not passive, role in shaping global patterns of consumption

‘Two-speed’ India

India is home to 23 billionaires

Yet 500 million live below the poverty line

Should the UK continue to provide aid, or should the new billionaires foot the bill for India’s poor?

Indian billionaires complicate the class-room analysis of ‘winners and losers’ – we cannot just think about rich and poor nations(Brandt Line)

If globalisation makes 1% of the population one hundred times richer – and halves the wages of the remaining 90% - is this an economic “success story”?

‘Two-speed’ India

‘Two-speed’ India

‘Two-speed’ India

‘Two-speed’ India

The poor of India were visible during the monsoon season of August 2007. They suffered the worst effects of the torrential rains and, for a while, were in the global media spotlight.

It is thought that at least 1500 people died, with millions more left homeless, including some of India’s very poorest people.

‘Two-speed’ India

The situation is further

complicated in India by

the Hindu Caste

system. Hindu society

consists of five social

groupings, each with

different status. For

those born into the

lowest group, the

achuta (which literally

mean ‘untouchable’),

poverty is especially

hard to escape.

Developing India: social changes

‘What are the consequences of economic

development?’

A wide range of demographic social and

cultural changes are now underway

Especially in urban areas

Sweat shops and Bhopal – is development

a ‘mixed blessing’ / ‘poison chalice’?

Good opportunities for critical thinking

Developing India: social changes

Ultrasound scans –

which allow pregnant

women to discover the

gender of their foetus –

have resulted in as

many as 10 million girls

being lost over the past

20 years, following

(illegal) abortions.

The male: female birth

ratio in one recent

Indian census is

100:88, which is far

from natural.

Developing India: social changes

Developing India: social changes

The move precedes Delhi becoming host to the 2010 Commonwealth

Games. Authorities are keen that foreign visitors do not get food

poisoning – known as ‘Delhi Belly’ – which might interfere with attempts

to position Delhi as a modern world city and attract further foreign

investment. Food poisoning can sometimes be very serious, as impure

water used by the unregulated stalls may carry typhoid and hepatitis B.

Developing India: social changes

The Indian government

recently acted to further

restrict the use of child

labour. Amending the

existing Child Labour Act, the

new legislation outlaws the

use of children as serving

staff in restaurants and for

private households (as

servants). As the Times of

India explained, ‘India has

made rapid strides in

changing its economic

destiny but it will not be able

to sustain its growth if so

many children stay out of

school and instead start

working in menial jobs from a

young age.’

Developing India: social changes

Developing India: social changes

Life expectancy in India has risen from 37 to 63 since 1950

At the same time, total population has grown from 340 million to 1.1 billion

The death rate has fallen from 26 per 1000 per year to 9 per 1000 per year

India’s literacy rate has risen to 61%

However, around one fifth of the population still live in poverty (or perhaps as many as one third, according to some accounts)

Anglo-Indian cultural geographies

Long history linking the two nations

Flow of Indian migrants to the UK, bringing cultural artefacts

Flows of ‘creative industries’ investment to India from UK and US

Role of Transnational Corporations (McDonalds, Disney, Marvel etc.)

Hybridity and ‘cyborg’ geographies as a result

Glocalisation (both the production and consumption aspects to consider)

Anglo-Indian cultural

geographies

Anglo-Indian cultural

geographies

Anglo-Indian cultural

geographies

Anglo-Indian cultural geographies

Bollywood comes to Britain

The International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) Awards are the Indian film industry’s answer to the Oscars. Worth $10 billion a year and sometimes dubbed ‘Bollywood’, Indian films are big business. In 2007, the IIFA Awards were staged in Sheffield. The Guardian newspaper (09 June 2007) reported that ‘Yorkshire has gone Bollywood mad’.

Anglo-Indian cultural

geographies

98 per cent of McDonald’s India ingredients and paper products are sourced from within India

McDonald's India employs around 1,500 people in Delhi and Bombay. In Bombay alone, its team comprises a 100-member management and 800-strong crew

In Mumbai, Hardcastle Restaurants Private Limited, holds a 50 per cent stake in the joint venture with McDonald's (US)

Anglo-Indian cultural

geographiesThe McDonald’s India product development team has generated innovative items like the popular McAloo Tikki burger and the Chicken Kabab burger.

McDonalds’ India CEO: "We have to keep our ears to the ground to know what the customer desires. If there is this indication, we put on our thinking caps and brief the product development team. Depending on the feedback, we introduce the item in one outlet, and after gauging customer response, launch it in other outlets as well."

“So much for McDonalising. The company is also keen on Indianising.” (India Abroad news)

(Source: India Abroad / Rediff India)

Further reading

http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0705/feature3/multimedia.html

Mumbai films & multimedia

National Geographic 2007

http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0705/feature3/index.html

Mumbai text article

National Geographic 2007

http://www.newstatesman.com/200708020025

India: an unlikely nation

New Statesman 2007

http://www.newstatesman.com/200708020027

India: minority report

New Statesman 2007

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/08/14/windia114.xml

Rural poverty in India

Daily Telegraph 2007

http://www.guardian.co.uk/naturaldisasters/story/0,,2146672,00.html

Asian Monsoon hits the poor

The Guardian 2007

Further reading

http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,,2136618,00.html

Foetuses aborted and dumped

The Guardian 2007

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,2059455,00.html

Delhi Belly

The Guardian 2007

http://e-paper.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article1642714.ece

Delhi Belly

The Times 2007

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20070201/ai_n17163643

Indian economy overtaking UK and US

Independent 2007

http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,,2091716,00.html

Mumbai slums demolished

The Guardian 2007

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2062890,00.html

Indian sweat shop

The Observer 2007

http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,,2101541,00.html

Global elite move to India for work

The Guardian 2007

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/film/2007/06/imagine_you_are_in_charge.html

Bollywood comes to Yorkshire

The Guardian 2007

Further reading

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1928156,00.html

Indian steel takes over UK steel

The Observer 2006

http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,,1928053,00.html

New wealth in India

The Guardian 2006

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1849466.cms

India bans child labour

Times of India 2006

http://www.newstatesman.com/200601300015

India: a new sort of superpower

New Statesman 2006

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4737153.stm

Mumbai’s looming ecological disaster

BBC 2005

http://www.newstatesman.com/200409060017

Jon Pilger essay on two-speed India

New Statesman 2004

http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0306/feature1/index.html?fs=www7.nationalgeographic.com

‘Untouchables’ and Caste

National Geographic 2003 http://www.disneychannel-asia.com/DisneyChannel/index.html

http://www.miramax.com/bride/