It seems that since those days, hospitality is the distinctive feature of the people of the Karnataka state and its capital Bangalore. Charity and caring about others are not just modern trendy words, but real everyday efforts of many not indifferent people.

The first visit we made was to one of the biggest Indian not-for profit organization, the Azim Premji Foundation, which makes significant contributions to education in a manner consistent with social justice, equity, human values and sustainability. The Azim Premji Foundation engages with teachers, teacher educators and education officials at different levels in order to have a deep, large scale and institutionalized impact on the quality and equity of education in India. The Foundation today works in 8 states with more than 350.000 schools across the country. We also met Mr. Umesh Malhotra, a social entrepreneur that runs a highly successful pre-school program to promote reading, maths, and English among children in rural India. We had the chance to visit two of the «Hippocampus» pre schools and experienced as the children of 5 years were eagerly and in a playful manner learning English as second language and could, for instance, identify the difference between odd and even numbers.

The existence of the Azim Premji Foundation would not be possible without the support of the main business of the Premji family, Wipro, one of the biggest IT companies in the world. Mr. Sachin Jha shared the story of success of the company, its achievements and future growth opportunities with us, which is based on the remarkable talent pool of human resources. «People are the most valuable treasure, bringing success to the company» – that was the key learning.

The Silicon Valley of India
In general, Bangalore is an internationally recognized center of IT technologies and the Silicon Valley of India. Besides a huge number of large IT companies, it hosts an increasing number of successful start-ups, not only in IT, but also other industries. We visited Ather Energy, a future producer of eco-scooters, Jaaga – the oldest Indian community incubator for startups, and InnoAccel, a medtech incubator.

Several meetings hosted by Swissnex raised the entrepreneurship spirit in us, as we tried to create and develop our own business projects for India. We tried to touch every possible sphere of life, starting from sport to eco-recycling, transportation, and healthcare. And we understood that we still have to learn a lot to be successful in such a highly competitive environment. We would like to thank our Swiss hosts at Swissnex and all Indian experts who provided us with deep insights and inspiring feedback for our initiatives.

Overall, modern Bangalore is a symbol of the symbiosis of established tradition and modernity. This city has not lost its historical roots. A striking example is the ISKON temple of Krishna. This temple is a wonderful example of combining the traditions of old Dravidian architecture with glass panels in high-tech style in the heart of the city.

What are the most important insights that we gained from our visit to Bangalore? The warm hospitality and desire to share knowledge, demonstrated by Indian top-managers, as well as their dedication and passion to (sustainable) business and social responsibility, became valuable contributions to our study program. We have got new friends and met possible business partners; we got some first insights into the depth and diversity of Indian culture; we learnt the necessity to be open to new experiences in life. And we left India with a feeling that we want to come back.

• Unifr Students in India – previous week:

L’ancienne capitale du royaume de Mysore, réputée ville la plus propre d’Inde, nous ouvrit ses portes durant trois journées. Je ne peux commencer cet article sans mentionner l’incroyable accueil de la Myra Business School. En effet, l’excellent concert de musique indienne traditionnelle de la région de Karnataka, suivi d’une performance de chorégraphie traditionnelle exquise, nous a mis un peu de baume au cœur après les journées éreintantes des précédents jours. La Myra Business School nous a également offert des conférences de grande qualité, je pense notamment à celles des Dr. Shepherd (Cultural Management), Dr. Sudhindra Seshadri (Entrepreneurship in India) et Dr. Sudhendar Hanumantha Rao. Ces derniers nous ont apporté toute leur expertise, ainsi que leur expérience du marché indien.

Un campus impressionnant
Au-delà des aspects purement académiques, nous avions pu admirer deux mondes absolument sublimes! Premièrement, la visite du campus du Centre de formation de Mysore. Le mot «campus est peut-être mal choisi, et devrait être remplacé par «Univers Infosys». Successivement à l’obtention de leurs diplômes, les meilleurs étudiants d’Inde se retrouvent dans ce microcosme à huis clos, durant 6 mois de formation, afin d’intégrer les valeurs et la culture Infosys. En pénétrant au sein de cette enceinte, nous mesurons toute la détermination d’Infosys à procurer le meilleur environnement de travail pour ses futurs collaborateurs. Nous ne pouvons échapper à une claque visuelle considérable.

Bâtiments flambant neufs à l’architecture raffinée, complexes sportifs, cinéma, piscine etc… Bien que particulièrement tentant, peu d’étudiants deviendront des athlètes ou des experts de cinéma durant cette période, compte tenu de la charge de travail conséquente exigée d’Infosys à ses employés. En quittant le campus, nous réalisons l’opportunité qui nous a été donnée, d’avoir eu une vue de l’intérieur de la post-formation des élites indiennes. Impressionnant…

Une faune sauvage digne du livre de la jungle
Le second point culminant aura lieu en compagnie d’une faune moins instruite et un peu plus farouche que celle peuplant le campus Infosys. Départ 3h30 du matin pour une jungle touffue et resplendissante non loin de Mysore. Tout le groupe fut attentif au moindre mouvement, au moindre bruit. Chaque arbre, chaque buisson fut scruté avec insistance. Ce fut du moins le cas pour la première demi-heure de «chasse». La fatigue accumulée des derniers jours fit chuter notre concentration rapidement. Pas de tigre ni de léopard pour nous. Ce fut l’unique déception de cette journée splendide. L’absence des félins est-elle seulement le fruit de la malchance, ou le bruyant débriefing dans le bus de la soirée de la veille joua également un rôle? Nul ne peut le dire…

Cependant, nous avons pu nous consoler par l’observation d’une faune et d’une flore d’une richesse incroyable. Des gaurs, les plus grands des bovidés sauvages, dégageant une force et une puissance impressionnantes, des mangoustes intriguées par les 22 paires d’yeux qui les observaient, des paons sauvages majestueux, des faisans alertant les animaux aux alentours que des intrus se sont aventurés dans leurs habitats… La liste pourrait être bien plus longue…Peu de choses nous émurent autant que la complexe simplicité de la nature.

Le retour en bus s’effectua de nuit, dans un silence inaccoutumé. La fatigue gagna chacun de nous. Tout le groupe ayant à l’esprit que beaucoup restait encore à découvrir pour notre second séjour à Bangalore.

• Unifr Students in India – next week: Bangalore – Silicon Valley of India

So there we were, 20 master students in Management from the ÌÇÐÄVolg, ready and excited to start our once-in-a-lifetime experience in India, the second largest country in the world in terms of population. We had a two weeks journey ahead of us, with the main purpose of getting precious insights into the business opportunities and the challenges that this country offers, without leaving out its peculiar cultural characteristics and traditions.

The first stop of this extraordinary adventure was nowhere less than Mumbai, also known as «Bombay», «the financial capital of India» and «gateway to India», or, as we like to call it, «the city that never sleeps». Three days of full immersion into one of the most vibrant and populous cities in India gave us the chance to taste Indian business dynamics and meet outstanding local and Swiss people who are active in that area.

The Indian market is growing
Starting with a warm traditional Indian welcome in the notable H.R. College of Commerce & Economics, we not only had the chance to meet Indian students, but also important people in the Indian business circles, like Dr. Indu Shahani or Mr. Akhil Shani, currently managing director at The Shahani Group, and Ms. Kashmira Mewawala, Head of Business development and Chief Ethics Counselor at Tata Capital Financial Services Limited, a world renown company. The two main aspects we took away from that day were the significant growth of the Indian market, and the importance of corporate culture values and social responsibility within Indian companies. Interesting and innovative insights were also presented to us by the ISDI International School of Design and Innovation, where the importance of innovation in the country was pointed out, as well as the unique vision of Indian customers, covering the whole range from the richest to the poorest ones.

Of course, we could not leave the financial capital of India without visiting the National Stock Exchange! Here we learned, among other things, about the Indian trading culture – starting with cotton, hundreds of years ago, and the transparency dominating the Indian trading market nowadays.

Switzerland in India
From a Swiss and corporate perspective, we had the chance to visit two of the most important players worldwide in different industries: Sika and Novartis. Both Mr. Arijit Basu, CEO of Sika India and Mr. Ranjit Shahani, Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Novartis India, shared precious information and insights with us, highlighting the demographics’ impact on the local business, the trends of the two industries and the challenges which come along. Sika India was a special stop during our trip: Without the support of Sika, the ÌÇÐÄVolg could not have offered this trip to India to us as its students.

Being Swiss students, we could not have missed the Swiss Business Hub India! Its director, Mr. Michael Ederle, presented us the «Make in India» plan and «100 smart cities» innitiative, which aims to further develop India and thus attract foreign investors.

To sum up, Mumbai was a great mixture of several perspectives coming from different sides, which was exactly what we needed as a first plunge into this adventure. Interestingly, there was one thing that was being told to us from the beginning of the trip, which is «India grows on you». Well, already after three days we could definitely say they were right; India does grow on you.

• Unifr Students in India – next week: