India July 2006

My visit to India, Mumbai and Bangalore to be precise, in order to promote our city as a leading technology center, and to look into joint ventures with Indian companies. Our team was comprised of our city mayor, Miguel Lifschitz, Carlos Cerrutti, President of the Rosario Technology Park, and moi, Al McClymont, CEO of Autologica.

01-Mumbai Arrival

After some 36 hours of travel, we (from left to right: me, Mayor Miguel Lifschitz, and Carlos Cerrutti) finally arrived in Mumbai (ex-Bombay) early Monday morning, and made a beeline to our hotel, the Beautiful Taj Mahal.

But of course our much needed sleep was to be denied us!

We were greeted warmly by the hotel staff, received a bindi (red dot on forehead) and sandalwood necklace (did you know that sandalwood's fragrance never disappears?), attended a brief reception held by our hosts, and finally made our way to our rooms to pass out. :)

02-Mumbai Seminar 1

The main seminar on India-Argentina Trade Opportunities was held on Tuesday morning.

On hand to kick it off were Dr. Swati Piramal of the Confederation of Indian Industry (speaking here), and Argentine Minister of International Relations Jorge Taiana.

03-Mumbai Seminar 2

There were two panels held during the seminar. I had the honor of speaking for Rosario, and the Rosario Technology Park, of which our company is an active member.

(That's me sitting in the middle.)

The objective of my presentation was to promote our city as a leading technology center, and to look into joint ventures with Indian companies, in the same vein as Autologica's project with Satyam: we provide a niche software solution, and our Indian counterpart is our training and implementation partner for a specific region.

04-Mumbai High Court

On Wednesday we took a city tour, and visited the main sites of Mumbai. Unfortunately we arrived during the beginning of monsoon season, and it was POURING nonstop, so most of our sightseeing was done from the tour bus.

We first visited the beautiful Mumbai High Court building, built by the British in 1878.

05-Mumbai Rajabhai Clock Tower

Next we saw one of Mumbai's outstanding landmarks, the Rajabhai Clock Tower, built in 1870 and situated among the gardens of Mumbai University.

The clock tower used to play 16 tunes (including Rule Britannia)...

06-Mumbai Jainist Temple

Jainism was defined (or maybe summarized) by our tour guide as the religion of the wealthy.

A more scholarly description would be that Jainism is an ancient Indian religion, sometimes regarded as an offshoot of Hinduism. Jains emphasize the importance of not injuring living beings, and their code of ethics is based on sympathy and compassion for all forms of life. They also believe in karma but not in any deity. It is a monastic, ascetic religion. (Thanks Farlex!)

07-Mumbai Taxi 3-wheeler

Did I mention the traffic in Mumbai? Or should I say the unbelievably congested and honk-happy traffic? :)

I've seen cities with traffic problems (and I won't even go into the complications due to monsoon rains), but the sheer volume of vehicles on the streets of Mumbai was just overwhelming.

Of note was the gazillion of these 3-wheel vehicles swerving left and right (these are actually lower-fare taxi cabs).

We did not see a

08-Mumbai Airport

Off to catch a plane to Bangalore...

This is Mumbai airport, but from the amount of people, and frequency of flights, it felt more like a subway station.

09-Bangalore - Walking with Mayor

Our next stop after Mumbai was Bangalore, India's tech hotbed.

Our goal, in addition to the promotion of our city and technology park, was to learn first-hand how Bangalore had managed to become what it is today in the software and IT services industries.

The mayor of Bangalore, Mumtaz Begum, greeted us and then held a warm official reception for our team.

Afterwards, we discussed the history of Bangalore and the main factors that led to their current success.