India: Where over 300 million people live in poverty ... does it get much worse?

 The high point of my recent trip to India had to be my visit to the slums. From the moment I saw the destination on our extensive itinerary to the point of entry into the slum, I knew this living environment was bound to have a huge impact on me and it has.

My first visit to the Indian slums was in Mumbai, The Port Trust slum. This slum is unique in that the government doesn't own the land, the port does, and they obviously want to move the slum dwellers on but are unable to. This stalemate is apparent everywhere. Here we were hosted by Magic Bus, an NGO that has a goal of educating one million slum kids over the next three years, with the objective of creating employability.

It doesn’t matter how many movies you see or television programs that you watch that depict these living conditions, it will never yield the effect of actually being there.

After a briefing in a small hut inside the slum, we were taken on a walkabout. The ground underfoot was muddy given the recent rains and at times difficult to navigate. I hate to think what it looks like after the monsoon. The pathways where littered with goats that were to become the sacrifice the next day for the Muslim festival of EID. It was difficult to look at them going about their business knowing they where hours away from having their throats cut.

 We wound our way around a tiny slice of a city of one million people (almost the size of Auckland). I was surprised at how clean the living quarters of each dweller were, some with a TV taking pride of place, and definitely noticed no smell. The rubbish however was another matter as the ownership issues of the land mean that they are not eligible for a rubbish collection. Rubbish is then thrown into the sea to be carried away by the tide each day. The problem is that the tide simply can’t manage the daily rubbish of one million slum dwellers and the resultant effect is a massive tip-landscape on the side of the water’s edge. Rubbish of this scale being dumped into the ocean goes far beyond a slum and Mumbai’s problem but truly becomes a world issue.

We were introduced to some of the kids that Magic Bus works with and saw some of the slum business activity. Enquiring as always, the questions flowed from us all. It would appear that the life expectancy here is 50, the ablutions are part of a big block that we never saw and no one really clarified, power has been siphoned off illegally although I'm sure someone’s clipping the ticket in the process. This slum is unique in that others have been able to add to the crude infrastructure that they have, given the state ownership of the lands they occupy. Examples of this can be seen in the Asha slum that we visited in Delhi where the women in committee format had made changes to the infrastructure to stop the flow of water into huts amongst other things.

Asha also has managed to get banks to look at assisting slum dwellers with small loans for their businesses and enabled deposits of their savings. Money traditionally hidden in the dwelling is prone to the threat of either being eaten by mice or washed away in monsoon floods.  

The biggest problem in these environments that house so many in a relatively efficient and extremely community focused way is the traditional mindset as to education and employment. It is extremely hard to convince a race steeped in an ancient culture that girls should be schooled and even boys past a certain level, as departure and re-settlement is not high on the priority list. 

There’s a safety in this slum that is presided over by a slum lord and even though there are the problems of drugs and alcohol as with any community, wealthy or poor, it just all seems to work in a chaotic way, not unlike the retail space in Old Delhi itself.

The proximity to work and schools is important and the government has made a commitment to make sure that all school aged children have a school within a two kilometre radius. If not, they will provide a bicycle to enable the transit. Work is close for the adults. Many of the men in the Mumbai slum are working on scrapping the ships that have been placed in this part of the harbour to signify the end of their useful life. 

Magic Bus is all about employability, getting kids into schools and eventually into work, changing the mindsets of the parents and ensuring kids are thinking differently around their future opportunities. Magic Bus has 700 employees and many of these have come from their slums projects.

Our visit to an Asha slum in Delhi was very different. The slum dwellers were expecting us and excited to have us there. A guard of honour on our arrival saw us showered in rose petals, a stark contrast to the wonderful bath that had been run that night for each of us in our hotel rooms; this too had been scattered with rose petals.

 We were allowed to take photos, not so in Mumbai, and the afternoon was spent in the main office where we heard stories of the different generations, from the women to the university students and finally the school aged children. The walkabout was inclusive where we were even invited into one of the homes. It was unbelievably small and slept six people. I wondered if they would have to take turns sleeping but I doubt it given it has such a very necessary function during the day. Everything happens in this tiny space which is not a lot bigger than our average bathroom: cooking, homework, sleeping, washing and every other household moment.

Obviously it is not ideal for these people to be living this way, yet there is however a strong sense of family community and support for each other that comes from these slums. There is a sharing of what they do have, albeit not much. There are many NGOs that work with these areas, but our group’s consensus was that this really is a government problem. As with so many slums in other countries, it will be up to the government to improve the standard of living by introducing a more, however rudimentary, but basic housing block. Ones that have been established in the past on the city perimeters have had little success. Once relocated, they simply gravitate back to be near their work and the people and locations they know. 

The slums represent humanity at its simplest. Theirs are basic needs, food, water and love. The children are happy yet they have seen such hardship. The state’s commitment to education has got to see an improvement; all that remains is the re-education of the previous generation so they let their young live the new life that is being offered. These slum visits certainly were a high point in my trip, providing perspective to so many of the women in the delegation. Yes, they are a problem and a very big one at that, but if India can tackle issues of this scale maybe there’s hope for the NZ economy as well. 

INDIA: OMG the reality of a country of 1.2 billion people!

Following a six hour stopover in Auckland post Fiji Fashion Week and a wonderful dinner with my two adult children, I boarded a Singapore Airlines flight for India - excited at what lay ahead and even more so now that the date had finally arrived.

First stop the Koru lounge, they code share with AirNZ. Here I meet up with three of my travelling companions from Global Women. We are to be part of an eight-strong delegation led by our British High commissioner, Vicki Treadell, combining in India with a ten-strong female delegation from the UK.

The Singapore Airlines flight was underwhelming. The old plane and equally old business class beds make AirNZ look great. The service however, was excellent.

A quick transit stop in Singapore and we were on our way to India.

We arrived at 10am on a Sunday. Once again, I had a nervous moment regarding the almonds and dried fruit in my bag. A scan of my luggage however, saw no extra activity from airport security and we were off to change our money into Rupees. Innocently I swapped my American dollars for the nominated currency and, given it was Thomas Cook, I saw no reason to negotiate - not so for others who successfully bartered their exchange rates up.

We were met by a hotel car and the one to two hour ride to the hotel commenced. After 33kms we arrived, checked in and got to manage our own time for the next three hours. We had a briefing at 5pm in one of the hotel bars.

The Taj Mahal Palace where we are staying, was the site of the Bombay bombing in November 2008 where 31 people were killed, including many foreigners so it’s steeped in history and extremely well-guarded. All bags going in and out must run via a security machine.

5 pm arrived and at the briefing we met the British delegation, 10 women led by Pinky, a delightful Indian woman from the UK.

Dinner was at the NZ High Commissioner's residence and we were transported in a huge bus (our transport for the rest of the stay). Indians traditionally eat late after a huge hosting of snacks with alcoholic drinks. It was a wonderful night where all the women connected, but late for some as we'd just arrived. Exhausted, we headed home excited as to this new country and the five days that lay ahead of us.

Day one was a morning at Mahindra - a large Indian company that, amongst other things, had set up a finance business that was enabling Indians that live rurally and in poverty, to borrow against the one asset they have to improve their homes: their land. These people have been seen as such high risk in the past that they have been unable to get access to funds. The smart thinking business model not only has a 20% return but also has a very small default rate - something like 1%. And for those that do default, there is no resale in these houses for the company as they are ensconced in villages and have no potential buyer, so they are essentially written off.

The afternoon was left open for some shopping given that a tragedy had befallen Rashmi Jolly, our host and esteemed director of the Bollywood film studios, who had contracted Dengue fever and had not survived - a huge loss for their film industry.

Dinner that night was an extravagant affair thrown together with a male Czechoslovakian delegation into premises so cluttered with art and sculpture that I began to see opportunities for my own crowded space.

The local paper had arrived to capture the moment and an accomplished guitar player topped off the night with his repertoire of English hits that saw us all in song mode.

The next day we had the most inspirational of visits to the Piramal Life Sciences Laboratory: a company that uses plants to put together some of its drugs, has its recipes steeped in history and the methods of ancient generations. I'm not sure I'm keen on the animal testing that they say is so necessary but its founder, Swati Piramal, is possibly one of the most inspirational women I have had the opportunity to listen to and meet. It was Swati who convinced her husband and his company to consider the plants and their health giving benefits as a way forward.

The afternoon and early evening saw us hosted by the Tata Group who, amongst other things have pioneered a $2000 car to capture the burgeoning Indian middle classes. The company is huge with a $100 billion turnover and definitely they know how to host.

We have certainly seen India in the most capable light. The connections of our British High Commissioner, Vicki, have enabled an insight beyond my expectations. The food has been amazing, the city frenetic, yet comfortably safe and certainly not one of harassment as I've been led to believe.

The population of 1.2 billion will lead to some huge challenges going forward as India finds its consumer feet.

The colour, the activity, the sites, the heat, the fashion and the food are all beyond anything I have ever seen. I have shopped at the markets and visited the high end department stores. I've meandered down a street selling nothing but jewellery from the high priced bling to the real mccoy.

There are people everywhere! Just getting around can be challenging but there is an inner beauty that continues to struggle through in a city that is slowly deteriorating. The roads, the housing, the general infrastructure are barely coping with the constant siege of people.

Corruption is everywhere. It’s simply about being aware as with any good business. Be informed and negotiate hard prior to the exchange of product or service.

I have loved all the food and remain well despite all the warnings. I have only eaten local and essentially vegetarian as I'm sure the chickens are tortured.

It’s a country of 1.2 billion people with 500 million living on less than a NZ dollar a day and tomorrow we all get to see this poverty first hand as the Magic Bus organization takes us into the Mumbai port trust slum project.

Enjoying a beer at Leopolds in Mumbai. The café made infamous by the author of Shantaram

India: A force to be reckoned with

By Mai Chen

The last time I was in India, I was a poor, 24-year-old Harvard Master of Laws graduate and United Nations intern returning to New Zealand the long way.

My husband and I were backpacking and we stayed in a hotel where a low partition separated the rickety, flea-infested bed from the squat toilet. The dangerously low-hanging ceiling fan only spread the smell from the toilet throughout the room, and we used to be woken by loud banging on our door from people trying to take us to their shops.

The contrast could not be more stark a quarter century on. Our accommodation this time is the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, fully restored after the infamous terrorist attack in 2008.

The New Zealand British study tour I am on this week is led by the British High Commissioner to New Zealand, Vicki Treadell. As the previous Deputy British High Commissioner to Mumbai and an Asian woman herself, it is her impeccable contacts these 10 Kiwi and 14 British women on this delegation are leveraging off and the Mumbai companies and experts we visit clearly adore her.

Cesare Pavese says that life is not about days but about moments, so I have dropped everything to come and get some first-hand insight into what India is really capable of, and why business should be focusing on India as much as on China. I pick up the Economist and Time magazines at the airport and both have special reports on India. As if to underscore the need to get on and live your life, Bollywood's top filmmaker Yash Chopra who we were to meet on Monday passed away of Dengue fever on Sunday and his studio was closed in mourning.

We visit and hear from top executives and experts at three of India's best companies - Mahindra and Mahindra, India's biggest car manufacturer; Tata, ranked 45th out of 500 top global brands with $100 billion revenue and half a million employees (and inventor of the Nano, which is the world's most economical car costing just $2500); and Piramal, one of the biggest R&D companies in India, focusing on natural products and molecules. Dr Swati Piramal, vice-chairperson of Piramal, who has just been elected on to the Harvard University Board, said that she measures her time against human impact in deciding the difference she can make.

Despite the ever present poverty and corruption, India is a vast market, and a democracy with a young population profile. In 2010, 64 per cent of India's population was aged between 15-64. India's birth rate is now declining due to increased literacy and skill levels. The economic choices they make mean opportunities for Kiwi exporters, but also New Zealand educational institutions, which is why the Hon Steven Joyce has just led a New Zealand delegation to India.

Because of the level of official corruption, business people in India have to be savvy about politics and government. But Indians are now increasingly demanding better and improved transparency.

While there are already lots of laws and rules to promote transparency - the Right to Information Act has recently been passed, India's equivalent of our Official Information Act - enforcement of those laws is the stumbling block.

The chief legal adviser for Mahindra and Mahindra told us that there are only 12 judges per million people. Arvind Jolly, the managing director of JollyBoard, told me that justice delayed was justice buried. His cases kept getting adjourned because of a lack of judges and his legal bills kept mounting for no outcome.

Other business people tell me there are industries to steer clear of due to corruption. For example, the construction industry has a poor reputation as the primary means of laundering "black money". All of this highlights the value of New Zealand's No1 ranking in the Transparency International index for those doing business. Another stumbling block for growth is as Deepak Parekh, the chairman of the Housing Development Finance Corporation, says: "The British introduced bureaucracy, but the Indians have perfected it."

India is the size of Europe and has to be approached as a collection of markets. Individual Indian states, such as Uttar Pradesh, have economies and populations comparable to major economic powers, such as Brazil. Population and economic growth between these states is also not uniform and differs widely. The first question to be asked when considering doing business in India is: which India?

Figures from Dr Veena Mishra, the chief economist at Mahindra, show a doubling of Indian incomes from 2001 to 2011. India still has high but slowing growth when compared with the rest of the world, but that growth is uneven. Mumbai has the most expensive house in the world where 4 people live with 200 servants, yet over 50 per cent of the population live in slums in illegally built accommodation, and Mumbai has no subway despite a population of around 20 million people. The caste system still predominantly dictates marriage partners and what occupation you can have, although it is being eroded by affirmative action programmes.

KN "Vaidy" Vaidynathan, group chief risk officer at Mahindra said that "we overestimate what India can do in the short-term and underestimate what India can do in the long-term. Everything that is true of India, the opposite is equally true. Thus, you have to look at the macroeconomic story to really discern what is going on in India.

The challenges for India and for those doing business here are not for the faint-hearted, but there are some phenomenal success and innovation stories like the three companies we visited. They evidence that India is a force to be reckoned with.

Mai Chen, is a partner in Chen Palmer and author of Public Law Toolbox.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10842631

Fiji Fashion Week; the most ambitious of projects?

Day two in the city where it rains every day. I can't complain about the temperature and at least I am being acclimatized for my trip to Mumbai, India next week.

Today’s official luncheon event was at one of the local hotels right in the heart of Suva and having not yet navigated the city it was a surprise to find myself right in the thick of it. I'm not sure if I like what I see as the western world plonks itself into prime sites ready to capture the population’s hard earned cash at every opportunity.

 The biggest concern has to be the fast food outlets. We all know this spells health degeneration and obesity in whatever language you speak. I know this likely assault on all the available fast food establishments will only add to the country’s growing social issues.

 A debt that is also being further increased as the Fijians turn to the Chinese (given the political stance taken by NZ and Australia on the Coup) to enable the building of its larger convention centres and injection of funding to maintain their fragile infrastructure. Yes, this country is not without its problems.

 This mix of developed and developing worlds will always present problems, problems that almost become unsolvable in this digital age. Bureaucrats that are prepared to legislate and effect real change are few and far between and even when they do, timeframes and process are too slow. The digital age will always be racing ahead and presenting the world with the next best thing and possibly providing the next challenge for those that are under resourced and uneducated.

 The luncheon was in aid of the Dilkusha Children's home (an orphanage), one of many I am told, and whilst I would have loved to have seen the premises that was the recipient of this event, I was keen to be able to add real value to the cause, happy to match the amount that was paid for the auctioned Chameleon dress that I had donated.

 There are many institutions such as this on the island, the result of pressure to ensure ongoing family support is available and to avoid the shame that a child born out of wedlock will bring. One woman has even had an alarm installed on her step to let her know when a baby has been left at her door - she can get up to two babies a week .

 Conversations such as these start me thinking as to the possibilities, so many childless couples in NZ that have been unable to adopt, given the red tape hurdles, surely there must be a solution to the problem sitting three hours away on a tropical island.

 The luncheon is over, one excited woman pays $1000 for LaQuan Smith’s made-to-order gold rubber dress, helped by the pitch that the same dress was worn by Rhianna in her latest video; perfect ….it’s all part of an ever growing fund! A quick taxi ride home with a jittery driver (I've had worse…think he was listening to Rhianna) and I'm left to my own devices, the rain is pouring down so the open hotel lounge looks like a great option.

 The opening night of Fiji Fashion Week was fantastic …a huge effort from the organizers, one that was well beyond my expectations. The designers did themselves proud and the event enabled all levels of talent to showcase. The opening made me proud to have been a part of this culture in that it has so many similarities to NZ Pacifica.

 Friday…I am picked up by Mark, unapologetic for his hour time delay, shades of AirNZ, and I wonder if I will ever get used to Fiji time. He takes me to look at some of the clothing manufacturing capability here in the islands (no this is not an option for us, in fact it turns out to be quite expensive, especially when quoted in Australian $$) but it’s great to see and do as much as I can in the industry while here in Suva.

Mark has been here for 25 years and has himself well established. His factory is reminiscent of my first rag trade job and the operation that they ran, so none of this is foreign to me. He has a huge goal of recreating the manufacturing base that Fiji used to have and given the changes to legislation re outworkers in Australia, the time has never been more right. There certainly is a labour force to do so and a need to create the much needed employment. There are challenges however, as the Fijians have a propensity to let life interfere with their desire or need to work.

 My goal would be to see more of the local designers take centre stage as they certainly have the talent, to get them thinking more commercially, producing locally and meeting a tourist count that is as high as 700k surely gives them an excellent target market. Show me a woman that wouldn't want to take back a great frock as a reminder of her island holiday.

 Rosie Emberson Semisi has to be one of my favorite local designers. This lady had executed an excellent show that has huge potential to capture a relevant market. There were however many others who certainly have the ability to take their designs to market, but at this stage Fashion Week seems to be where it stops for most of them.

 Lunch on Friday at the NZ High Commission was a high point. I spoke briefly to 40 women from NZ or associated with us in some way. Some wonderful connections were made that hopefully will enable a return visit and some further work with local business. The rest of the day became monopolized by my pending fashion show, sorting my models became a moving target. The heat in the room was like nothing I'd ever been in, the dressers a little light on the ground…who am I kidding? It was chaos, but I did it and the show looked great! Show over, I said my goodbyes, went in search of food and prepared myself for a 4am checkout the next day.

 So if that’s Fiji Fashion Week, I've done it! What a great initiative from Ellen and her team! A wonderful platform to enable the showcasing of the local talent. I for one, was proud to be a part of it.

 

 

Some of my favourites from Fiji Fashion Week: L-R - Hupfeld Hoerder, Aisea Konrote Fostino and Tav