reflections from the hannover fair in germany

i was at hannover fair in germany- it was a part of india everywhere, the campaign, and i was glad to see that india everywhere seems to be picking up significantly, after davos.

i was privy to hear our pm, Manmohan ( i would be cheeky in refering to him as Mannu Singh) and the chancellor, Angela speak about this at the hanover fair-. So Mannubhai comes out with a generally humble and respectable speech that basically said indo-germany bhai-bhai! and the formidable lady came out with the speech, the tone of which seems to be "we want change " but without the attendant hardships to the welfare society model that germany practices- a lot more inward looking, for an economy that wants to embrace globalisation.

i suppose folks like mannubhai has a very beneficial effect in international gatherings, he does come across as a "well intentioned" and "intellectual" and "deliberate" in his decisions etc, giving india the much needed patina of "less risk" for all those people pouring their billions into good old materland!

whilst at the opening ceremony, i heard a lot ofchest beating about the worlds largest manufacturing fair etc, i was rather suprised at the relatively inward looking nature of all the speeches etc (eg there was an innovation award, all the nominees for the award were internal german organisations ) and all speeches were about making germany more competitive.

the interesting thing about all of this is the fact that there was a HUGE indian contingent- i met quite a few people, from TVS, to the munjals, to the public sectors CEOs , to folks such as Bharat Ram and others here!

i had a rather interesting chat in the evenings gala dinner with a couple of owners of small specialised foundries in germany- was asking them about what they felt about globalisation!
interestingly, both had a rather interesting view to take- neither of them, wanted to particularly engage wiuth china, the view being that any engagement wouldf automatically mean that the chinese would"lift" their technology and bring it out as their own in a space of days, intellectual property be damned!

but this said, india had a huge presence and a huge mindshare at hannover, and it has improved our perception
amen to that