Consumers in India February 25, 2008
Posted by savitakini in Culture, General.Tags: consumer, india, manufacturers
add a comment
This past weekend, TiE Bangalore hosted a very lively discussion and networking meeting with two very dynamic and well know women – Rama Bijapurkar, author and consultant, & Vanita Bali of Britannia Ltd. The discussion was about Rama’s new book about the consumers in India, aptly titled ‘We are like that only’. I am yet to finish my copy and since I had heard Rama before, I decided to spend my sat’day morning constructively to gain more insight. Many of the questions surrounded how the MNCs try to implement their best practices from abroad instead of looking at India with a fresh set of eyes and creating something new and fundamentally different which would not only help them do well in India but take on new markets elsewhere. There were many interesting questions and examples – like the new innovation in saree pins, the inventor of Nirma and how that changed the distribution play for HLL. Since the upcoming bangalore airport is on the top of mind for everyone in that room considering many are probably frequent travelers, a lot of time was spent on discussing that there were no solutions, the govt was not doing anything, etc. But the discussion that was completely missing especially coming from someone like Rama, was around the lack of collective consciousness about Indian consumers. But this comes fromnm not just in their inability to act as ‘alert’ consumers, but also because we lack civic citizenship. Period! Since we never gather together to raise our voices against the corrupt corporators in our own wards for lack of proper garbage disposal, no pavements, incomplete road projects, etc. Why in world will we come together to file case against a builder, shoe retailer, a soap company etc. In general, those who make business seem to get away with providing much lesser quality and make more money from Indians in India then they would ever have been able to, had it been some other country. Recently, I bought a pair of shoes on my visit to singapore. The brand was a local singapore brand and the quality was amazing. I paid $50 singapore dollars equivalent to Rs. 1500, where as I would pay double at woodlands for the same or lesser quality of sandals. Because of a peculiar problem with my heel (thanks to all the hiking I did in my younger days!), I am very restricted to the kind of chappals I can wear and often I just find it hard to buy anything comfortable in India, that is wide enough to give heel/arch support and yet have the elegant look. Singapore is way smaller than India in terms of the it’s population and # of urban consumers, yet it has achieved much higher levels of quality in manufacturing.
In the recent years, competition definitely has improved the quality of manufactured goods compared to what it was 15 years ago when I grew up as well as the expectation of quality and willingness to pay more has gone up. But the quality of manufactured goods is not any where close to other asian nations like singapore, china etc. Until manufacturing was under the babu’s in the governement, and there was no competition. Now that both have gone through much change, we are seeing our manufacturing industry go through rapid change. It’s time that the consumers also took some action to drive that change to happen faster by demanding better quality from shoes to apartments/homes.
In countries like the US, the judicial systems allows for more regulation to start happening as people sue the manufacturers. Here, with our current judicial system it’s unlikely to happen. So, its important to build a strong consumer awareness and consumer action system so that we keep the manufacturers, builders, retailers in check through alternative means.
Working Women in India – A Perspective – Part I February 20, 2008
Posted by savitakini in Culture.add a comment
Been a while, that I got a chance to sit down and write what’s on my mind. You make so many observations, and India seems to present with many opportunities. But to sit dow and write requires time and effort. Work/personal life took a toll last few months. Hence, the silence. Hoping to get back to my writing.The nice thing about the “young india” is more women are entering the work force today, very noticeable compared to 20 years ago. However they still constitute only around 20% of the workforce especially in the IT industry. When we were launching the women’s network at MindTree, a colleague observed that there must be some 40% women in the company…I laughed out, and wondered what if really there were 40% women in the workforce. Just imagine. The entire ecosystem would shift – from the maid, the drivers, the shops selling formal clothes, the iron man, the laundry places, everyone – would become so much more used to there being no one at home during the day. Just imagine the plight of the courier services in India. It will just crash if no one is there to receive your courier! An entire ecosystem depends on the assumption that there’s a housewife at home.We bought a new Samsung refrigirator and the demo person never made it for a demo because he just wanted someone to be home between 9am-7pm and that was never true for us during the working week. The dude never wanted to come on a satday and we stopped following up with him.These are just minor concerns or rather irritants. The bigger issues are – Day care, promotions, salary, extended family, spousal support etc. An interesting trend that many like me (those who are vocal!) have observed, is with rising incomes in India for both spouses, many women give up on their careers to take care of the children. While I do not want to be judgemental, it umnerves me when I think whether the ‘women were working in the first place just for the money’. Very likely this is the case with the majority but in a few cases the women would rather have more flexible jobs that gives them more freedom over their time and leverages their ability to juggle & multitask. The sad reality is that as soon as the smart women take this route, the husbands who now earning more, start taking liberties and dump all the household responsibilities on the women. And there goes the flexibility and the woman ends up with no job at all. Only those who are able to push themselves are able to carve something out which keeps their professional experience intact as they wait for the children to grow up to school age.Then there are those who just were housewives from the begining. These are the smart, educated types but now have husbands who earn a lot more. So they employ all the household help they can including a full-time nanny which now frees up more of their time for gossip, kitty parties, shopping and movies. Some of these types even get into non-profits in-order promote themselves and display to the world they are serious 
…Trust me, no one does take them seriously.There are the more traditional types anyways with a 9-5pm job in teaching, doctors, banking, etc. Not much has changed here since my mother’s era except they do spend more now on shopping thanks to all those malls and credit offers one gets in India. I doubt they are smart money managers like how our mom’s used to be. But they are the most likely folks to be involved with community activities, volunteering and other such initiatives. Our local residents association was headed by some women who were principals/teachers in a local school. It was a nice thing. However, when it came to running the show, the men would again butt in with their views and didn’t give the women a chance to speak in meetings 
Finally, there are the countless women working as cleaners, maids, nannies, shopping assistants, cashiers, etc. Not much changed for them. They perhaps earn more these days but the cost of living has also gone. Many of these women struggle with husbands who leave them with young children for another woman, or are drunkards. But without these women, the average Indian household would just come to stop. Life would become a drudgery in already high stressed work environment further stressed by the commute and traffic.Across these different segments, there’s very little which brings them together. Each segment has its idiosyncracies. And I wonder how can we bring about the 1960’s sort of women’s revolution of america in this country when there is nothing in common which can bring all of them to one platform.
