Welcome
Travelogues
Begin trip
Previous: Ahmedabad
The first step of doing business in India is to obtain the required permissions from the central government in New Delhi. That sounds simple but it is not something to attempt without local assistance.
In the '90s the government made much ado about liberalising the economy but the accumulation, over four decades, of rules and regulations designed to exclude foreign interests remained a considerable obstacle to overcome.
I don't know how it is now but in the '90s, foreigners ended up either by finding an Indian partner with the right connections or by committing their interests to a "business agent" who accepts to navigate the turbid waters of the Indian bureaucracy for a price (often for a percentage).
Choosing the right agent was the secret of success. Not only must he be honest and loyal to you but he needs to have the right connections. Moreover, the fee you pay him must be large enough to allow him to apply grease to the right gears of the Indian administrative machinery.
Doing business abroad cannot be improvised overnight but this is particularly true in India.
I took advantage of being there to visit the Birla temple dedicated to Vishnu the preserver under the name Narayan and his consort the goddess of wealth Lakshmi .
GD Birla started with his father's cotton business to made a fortune in jute during WW I. He then diversified into petrochemicals, metals and several other sectors to build an empire worth more than 10 billion US dollars before his death in 1983.
The Birla family has built temples all over India and legend has it that it will prosper as long as it has a temple under construction somewhere.
Here an Hindu priest is teaching his followers inside the Birla temple.
This outdoor Jain temple in the southern outskirts of New Delhi looks more like a park than a place of worship.
The base of the huge monument to Mahavir the founder of Jainism dominates the surrounding plain. From here, the Qutab Minar complex, the first Muslim Pathan city built in this area, can be seen in the distance.
Families flock to picnic in the the pleasant gardens around the ruins of the Qutab Minar complex 15 km south of New Delhi.
This Minar (tower) was started in 1193 by Qutab-ud-Din to celebrate the defeat of the last Hindu kingdom in Delhi. It was completed by his successors and Feroz Shah Tughlaq rebuilt the top stories in 1368. It rises to 73 metres from a 15 metre base to its 2.5 metre top.
That's all I have to show you of India in 1990.
