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
Sunday, May 07, 2006
Monday, April 10, 2006
reflections from my official trip to Germany....
hmm, been sometime since i blogged....
well, i was in Germany last week and would like to share some reflections on the differences between Germany and England...
there are quite a few differences, but let me go over them in no particular order..
the most obvious one that i notice is the significantly lesser non germanic populace-and i suppose i would chalk it to the lack of "colonies" that they do not seem to have too much by way of cultural diversity! However, I am told that there is a significant Turkish and Eastern european immigrant population in Germany.
Hmm,i wonder what could be the potential implications- i suppose the old english argument that England will continue to benefit from the deep "relationships" they have with countries such as india and china, will no doubt be something germans will want to ruminate about, particularly given the recent upsurge in growth good ole india is witnessing.
i like working with germans because, like the dutch, i find them pretty straight forward- no beating about the bush, no trying to fudge what is essentially "i screwed up" message through twisting the language etc. however, i find it quite interesting when they communicate, because i find that there is a bit of a translation loss when they make a point, somehow, it does not have as much punch coming from a german as it has, coming from someone who has more of a way with english.
i was rather interested to hear about the heated debate on education that is on in germany at the moment-all this interesting stuff about segregation and how if you do not make it to the right schools, you are sorta condemned to a life of failure- hey, where have i heard that before??? aha, good ole tony...well, looks like german state has made a deliberate effort at creating an "intellectual appartheid" in their schooling system...something they will want to have a crack at changing in the near future, i bet!
this brings me to the indian view- the challenge that most indians face whilst spending some temporary time in Germany! Most of german education is in German- so what does an indian, who probably will not be in germany for more than 3 years anyway, do about their kids education? get them to go to a german school, learn everything in a language that will be of limited use to them after 3 years, or pay a truck load of money to ensure that they go to an international school where they will learn in english and hence potentially end up not having too much of a catch up to do once they returned to good ole india?
on the other hand, i suppose learning german does have its benefits- afterall, if you are in the engineering or the manufacturing sector, deutsche is a competitive differentiator, particularly among a billion indians many of who can speak english anyway!
well the jury is out, but i must say i enjoy visiting germany over multiple other countires in western europe that i have been to. Amen!
well, i was in Germany last week and would like to share some reflections on the differences between Germany and England...
there are quite a few differences, but let me go over them in no particular order..
the most obvious one that i notice is the significantly lesser non germanic populace-and i suppose i would chalk it to the lack of "colonies" that they do not seem to have too much by way of cultural diversity! However, I am told that there is a significant Turkish and Eastern european immigrant population in Germany.
Hmm,i wonder what could be the potential implications- i suppose the old english argument that England will continue to benefit from the deep "relationships" they have with countries such as india and china, will no doubt be something germans will want to ruminate about, particularly given the recent upsurge in growth good ole india is witnessing.
i like working with germans because, like the dutch, i find them pretty straight forward- no beating about the bush, no trying to fudge what is essentially "i screwed up" message through twisting the language etc. however, i find it quite interesting when they communicate, because i find that there is a bit of a translation loss when they make a point, somehow, it does not have as much punch coming from a german as it has, coming from someone who has more of a way with english.
i was rather interested to hear about the heated debate on education that is on in germany at the moment-all this interesting stuff about segregation and how if you do not make it to the right schools, you are sorta condemned to a life of failure- hey, where have i heard that before??? aha, good ole tony...well, looks like german state has made a deliberate effort at creating an "intellectual appartheid" in their schooling system...something they will want to have a crack at changing in the near future, i bet!
this brings me to the indian view- the challenge that most indians face whilst spending some temporary time in Germany! Most of german education is in German- so what does an indian, who probably will not be in germany for more than 3 years anyway, do about their kids education? get them to go to a german school, learn everything in a language that will be of limited use to them after 3 years, or pay a truck load of money to ensure that they go to an international school where they will learn in english and hence potentially end up not having too much of a catch up to do once they returned to good ole india?
on the other hand, i suppose learning german does have its benefits- afterall, if you are in the engineering or the manufacturing sector, deutsche is a competitive differentiator, particularly among a billion indians many of who can speak english anyway!
well the jury is out, but i must say i enjoy visiting germany over multiple other countires in western europe that i have been to. Amen!
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