Access to Asia: Your Multicultural Guide to Building Trust, Inspiring Respect, and Creating Long-Lasting Business Relationships

Chapter 7India

Logic and emotion, individuality and social feeling, poverty and affluence, life and lifestyle, value and indulgence, and the past and the future simultaneously coexist in India. All these paradoxes converge to make India what it is.

—It Happened in India,¹ Kishore Biyani

Introduction

Impressions of India, especially for those who have not yet visited the country, often come from watching movies like Slumdog Millionaire, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, and A Passage to India. Although each portrayal captures some aspects, what makes this country so fascinating is the extent to which India defies categorization.

Is India's population largely impoverished? That depends on your criteria. A quarter of the population is considered to be middle-class, according to a survey conducted by the Asian Development Bank, the majority of whom exist on $2 to $4 a day.² McKinsey's Global Institute projects that by 2025, India's middle class will have swollen to more than 580 million people and will represent the world's fifth-largest consumer market.

Is India successfully nurturing and keeping entrepreneurs rather than losing them to places like Silicon Valley? Yes and no. Most Indian parents still prefer to see their offspring adopt careers in engineering, the law, or medicine. In traditional families, an Indian man's marriage prospects are detrimentally impacted if he's not ...