Archive for the 'Business (US and International)' Category
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Russia climbed to No. 3 in country rankings with 53 billionaires, two less than Germany, which has long held the runner-up spot in the billionaire stakes behind the United States.
But the total worth of the Russians surpassed the Germans, at $282 billion versus $245 billion, Forbes said. The average age of Russia’s billionaires was 46.
In Asia, India had the highest number of billionaires, overtaking Japan, which for two decades had held the region’s top spot.
India had 36 billionaires worth a total $191 billion while Japan’s 24 billionaires were worth $64 billion, the magazine said.
Source
From what I read, Russia has a number of economical and political problems, yet Russia is the third biggest home to billionaires. From what I understand, the country was in a crisis in the mid 90s and the whole country was falling apart including its business sector. But in that environment, quite a few businessmen learned to how to maneuver around; in other words, they became super crisis experts. They essentially manage to create (financial) wealth from thin air today, and some of them are billionaires.
While India didn’t make a big headline in early 90s, India’s economical and political environment has not been as stable as developed countries’ economic and political environments; Russia made the headline because Russia or the former Soviet Union played a very significant role in the internal economy and politics while India only played a small part in early 90s.
What I’m getting at this; there are also many super crisis experts in India, not just in Russia. I don’t agree with most of the things that Thomas Friedman wrote in “The World is Flat”, but I agree one thing. Many Indian nationals are ready for the globalized economical and political environment in the 21st century.
I’ve been dealing with a certain banking problem for the last couple of months as I formed a company in India, transferred a certain fund from my US company as it’s a 100% subsidiary of the company and have been trying to get a required approval from RBI (Reserve Bank of India). To me, dealing with the problem is a big deal, but it’s not to most Indian people. That’s a big difference between me and them; to flatter many Indian people, while I am finally getting ready for the globalized economical and political environment in the 21st century, they are already ready. So, I guess that this is one of reasons why so many Indian nationals are so successful globally today.
India, Business (India), Business (US and International) | 10.03.2007 7:23 | No Comments
Ok, so it’s official; it costs more money to form a company in India. I’d get into more details later, but, to make a long story short, there is too much paperwork to be done to form a company in India and get various required approvals, permits and identification numbers. In principle, each of these doesn’t cost much. Especially to those who are from developed countries like US(?), UK, Germany, Japan, etc., the cost is small. However, …
1) You need to bribe a public official every time you file a paper.
2) You cannot do this on your own if you are not from India because you don’t really know how to bribe; you probably have to hire a consultant to assist you and that costs money.
2.1) The consultant does not charge $100.00 an hour, but even if he/she only asks one tenth of it, you need to ask him to spend many hours; this adds up over time.
2.2) To make a long story short, the whole process takes a long time, and thus, your consultant needs to spend many hours for you. The Indian consultant may charge only one tenth of what a typical commercial lawyer in US charges if you just look at two hourly rates; however, if the Indian consultant ends up spending twenty times as much time as the lawyer in US spends to get all paperwork done to form a company in US, then there is no difference between two total costs.
It literally takes 10 minuses to incorporate a C-Corporation in US. You should really take time to create various documents and you should ideally hire a commercial lawyer to create those documents for you, but you can really do this on your own; this is no rocket science. Forming a Private Limited Company (or Public Limited Company), which is the equivalent of C-Corporation in US, in India, is a different matter. While I understand that those who operate in India need to make adjustments, this is a very simple fact; it takes a much longer time to form a company in India than in US, and thus, it costs more money.
India, Business (India), Business (US and International) | 1.03.2007 23:36 | No Comments
Indian people generally assume that they speak and write in British English, but there are inherent differences between Indian (British) English and British English. It actually takes a little while for one to recognize this, but Indian (British) English is a distinct version of English.
A couple of weeks ago, I was contacted by a businessman in UK. He runs an internet business and he creates a number of content websites to run advertisement on; his business generates a handsome income from this. He started taking on a new project several weeks ago, and he plans to set up close to one hundred websites over time. Given the size of the project, it will cost him a fair amount of money to pay for copywriters to create the content for these websites. He knew that I have some contacts in India as I operate in India (my US company has a whole subsidiary in India) and he and I assumed that Indian people speak and write in British English. He apparently spent a fair amount of time looking for copywriters on the internet, and I also worked with a couple of people to get ready to become copywriters; I tried to provide a copywriting service to him. After we spent a couple of weeks respectively, we came to conclude that there are inherent differences between Indian (British) English and British English and that it is actually a big challenge for one to train Indian people to become copywriters if their writing needs to read just like native British English speakers (or writers).
This businessman in UK read Indian copywriters’ profiles, picked ones who had good profiles and chatted online to find out more about them. Though a fair number of Indian copywriters write well, he found that their writing looks funny. I actually went farther, sat with a couple of Indian people and spent time together to go over this particular copywriting work. I found that Indian English’s spellings and grammar are compatible with British English, and it was exactly what I was looking for. However, I also found a couple of subtle differences between Indian English and British English. Since I was trained in American English, it was not easy to observe Indian English’s whole language structure and British English’s whole language structure, compare the two and find differences, but I did find clear differences. For example, Indian people used words found in British English yet British people do not commonly use. Brinjal is a very popular vegetable in India and Indian people call it “brinjal”; the word is an English word, and it should probably be considered to be a British English word (Brinjal is called “eggplant” in American English). However, British people actually call the same vegetable “aubergine.” There is nothing incorrect about using the word “brinjal”, but if a sentence uses the word “brinjal” instead of “aubergine”, it does not exactly sound British.
This businessman in UK continued looking for Indian copywriters; he found competent copywriters, but he could not find (Indian) copywriters who write like British. While I knew that he was having a difficulty finding Indian copywriters, I found one Indian copywriter who, I can honestly say, is one of the best in India; he has a Master’s degree and he spends a fair amount of time reading publications in English everyday. He has solid language skills in English. I asked him to create a sample for us and I sent it to the man in UK, and he and I had a chat online to discuss about the potential future collaboration with regard to this work. I was fairly confident about my Indian copywriter’s language skills, but the man in UK decided to not use his service or any other Indian copywriter’s service. He actually read articles written about Indian English and he learned that Indian English is actually a distinct version of English, although its spellings and grammar are compatible with British English. He shared the knowledge with me, and there was not much I could say after that. While I am not a linguistics scholar, I personally observed that Indian English has its own flavor. Also I imagine how difficult it would be for me to write just like British people; it would be very difficult and I guessed that it would take a lot of training for me to do that. My guess is that all Indian copywriters need a lot of training also if they are required to write like British people. At this point, we basically decided that my Indian copywriter is not going to provide his service to the man in UK. I have to admit that I felt a bit disappointed, but it was a logical decision not only for the man in UK but also for me and my contractor.
There are actually a number of publications on the subject of differences between British English and Indian (British) English, so I do not repeat scholastic aspects of the subject; I am here to tell my personal experience. I find that a fair number of Indian people have very solid language skills in English. Also given the fact that the today’s education system in India puts so much emphasis on English, it is fair to guess that Indian people, in particular, those who are educated, are going to have much stronger language skills in English. However, the fact remains that there are inherent differences between Indian (British) English and British English. One takes some training to become a good copywriter, but one Indian person takes even more training to become a good copywriter for British if he/she is required to write just like British people.
Written by J. Watanabe
India, Business (India), Business (US and International) | 24.02.2007 9:15 | 11 Comments