India hits the jackpot Globalisation Conference 4 July 2008

India hits the jackpot
Globalisation Conference 4 July 2008
Dr Simon Oakes
Bancroft’s School &
RGS-IBG resource writer
[email protected]
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 Specifications
Current 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 outsourcing)
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 India
BBC 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
geographies
The 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.nationalgeographi
c.com
‘Untouchables’ and Caste
National Geographic 2003 http://www.disneychannel-asia.com/DisneyChannel/index.html
http://www.miramax.com/bride/