Word: bombay
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...long ago, there was no surer way to get rich in a hurry than to bet on Indian stocks. Millions of Indians were finally clawing their way into the middle class, creating a new domestic consumer market, while companies in Bombay and Bangalore emerged as global players in everything from outsourcing to pharmaceuticals. Investors went crazy. India's main stock index, the Sensex, has more than tripled in the past three years. One giddy investing show on Indian TV has even dubbed itself Sensex and the City...
...long-term picture remains sunny. "It's like China maybe 15 or 20 years ago," Faber says. A frequent visitor to India since the early '70s, Faber says Bombay alone has changed more in the past four years than in the previous 30, with the sudden emergence of chic restaurants, hotels and stores as the most visible signals of India's new sense of wealth and optimism. And gaps in development provide opportunities for growth. India's infrastructure and housing are ripe for improvement, says Faber, and there's enormous scope for the building of malls and supermarkets...
...pulse of India beats fastest in megacities like Bombay. But to understand how quickly the economic boom is creating a new country, you have to visit places that few foreigners have heard of--places like Mangalore. Back in 1991, when I left, about 300,000 people lived there. Since then its population has doubled. But that doesn't begin to describe its transformation. A decade of rapid growth has produced shopping centers and high-rise apartments--and most of the construction has taken place in the past five years. Old houses have been uprooted, replaced by bars and restaurants...
...better or worse, Mangalore's fate is in the hands of outsiders. "Tier 2 cities" like Mangalore are believed to hold the key to the future of the Indian outsourcing industry. With wages rising in big cities like Bangalore and Bombay, tech companies must expand fast in lower-cost cities. But Mangalore shares the problem of other small cities with big aspirations: it's not an exciting place to live. "Lifestyle is a challenge when you're trying to get people from outside to stay here," Sudhir Albuquerque told me. Albuquerque, an Infosys executive, was taking me around the company...
...were gypsies, Sooni and I. Two sisters in saris surrounded by tuxedoed strangers. But instead of taking our Banjara bullock cart to the nearest water hole, we were in a limo en route to the Oscars, where our first film, Salaam Bombay!, was nominated as Best Foreign Language Film. It was 1989, before the government even recognized filmmaking as a legitimate industry. Armed with just good wishes and some telegrams from family and friends, we spent a few days in the luxury of the Beverly Wilshire, not really minding that we were neglected by our own country. When it came...