Wed 5 Jul 2006
Today governments in India are building software export zone and special economic zones to encourage trade and exports. The Biggest problem with these is even if to does manage to attract foreign companies to setup up shops, it does nothing to encourage them to move their people.
When organisations setup shops in India, the primarily objective is to reduce cost. They manage to reduce costs but are just not able to entirely replicate their businesses here. Organisations is about people and when the organisation setup shops, the most difficult thing for them is to displace their key people from their home country. Even if the people are willing to move, they find it difficult to adjust to the culture and lifestyle as they are used to a certain way of living and any change is painful. The end result is that the key person may get de-motivated and would want to return back orr you may not always get the best people to move. This results in Limited success and limits the growth of their business in India.
A solution to this is to build theme cities in collaboration with respective countries. For example a mega city can be build in India in collaboration with USA. India can offer land (which is in abundance), and freedom to build it the way they want it. The land can be offered in places where there is no development at all or is underdeveloped. If the US can convert a barren desert to beautiful city Las Vegas (a popular tourist destination and a huge economy in itsef) I am sure they can do the same to an undeveloped region in India.
Imagine a US like city being setup in India. This would borrow it name from a US region. Example Silicon Valley 2.0! It would have the Wallmarts, McDonalds, Pizza Huts and even the Hard Rock Cafe. It would have the roads and all the infrastructure such an airport similar to the ones in the US. It would have an international airport too so that a flight from the US can directly fly in here. It would have the apartments and perhaps its own little Disney land.
It would offer the partner country to have its own laws, rules and regulations. For example US companies may like their own labor laws. So even if they hire Indians, they may want to get their own managers easily (without having too much hassle for work permits) and may want a capitalist friendly labour laws.
This should be looked upon not only to attract investments but also as a tourist destination. Once this is successful, we can have other theme cities. How about collaborating with Japan, Germany, UK, France and even China? It would be interesting as Indians can experience other countries without even visiting them!
and they need to learn this.
