Day 8 In India

Day 8-January 10, 2014

  Today we got to visit one of the biggest technology firms in the world, Infosys.  At Infosys, we were met with armed (machine gun armed) guards working the security gate.  From there, our guide took us in a  huge 10 person golf cart (maybe I should call it an SUG) to Building #12 where we met Shyam Prasad, Lead Principal of the Education & Research Division.






You can get a better idea of the full scope of things Infosys does, by visiting the Infosys website.  Again today we were not permitted to take cameras inside the buildings so there are no interior pictures to show. But there are some great shots of Infosys's campus.  It is a gorgeous 50+ acre campus in the Electronics City District of  Banglore. 

 Shyam provided a very detailed presentation on the information needs and knowledge management systems that Infosys has in place. The first slide of the presentation was a quote from George Bernard Shaw, the only person ever to win both the Nobel Prize in Literature and an Oscar.  Shaw said, "If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple, but.... If you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas"

  This is kind of an informal guiding principle to the concept of information sharing and of Knowledge Management (KM) in general. Infosys actually defines KM as: "People, processe,s and technology directed towards the creation, harvest, and reuse of organizational knowledge."  Infosys proactively examines ways that KM can work for its employees, especially when they work with very short cycle (3 month) projects. KM plays a very important role in the lives of Infosys employees.  Most of their information resources have the letter "K" for knowledge incorporated into the tool's name.  For example, they use a service called Konnect (a professional networking platform).  The Kmail system is a query response product and Kshop is the most used KM resource that averages about 5,000 downloads a day.

 


We also got a tour of the campus's Central Library, known as the Infosys Development Center (DC).  The DC is like many libraries.  There are plenty of materials to check out on topics important to the success of Infoscions (People who work for Infosys).  It also serves as a place to read if you choose to do so on a break.  There are newspapers & quiet areas to read if you want to catch up on what is going on in the world. The librarian there was also very curious about Public Libraries in the US.  I spent a good deal of time giving her an overview of the American library system. 







 For lunch today, we dined at one of the many on-campus restaurants.  This was a buffet style version of the Toscano Restaurant chain.  Instead of the Italian food normally offered at  Toscano, La Terrace prepared a traditional India buffet that we all enjoyed.

 




Following lunch we hopped back on our huge golf cart & toured the entire complex.  The highlights included a towering glass building with a huge hole in the center (nicknamed the Washing Machine), a glass pyramid building and a lush green campus.  Then it was time to leave & we got to stare at the machine guns the guards were carrying as we waited for our ride. 

  After arriving back at XIME, our professor and the administration staff of XIME scheduled an open session where we could discuss any topics with a select group of their students.  They provided a great look into what the lives of MBA students are like in India. The group also gave us some insight into what daily life was like in India.  In return, many asked questions of us about colleges, libraries and life in general in America.  A very busy day all around. 

Here are a few random bits of knowledge I !

Lunch menu from today!

Here is a little more about the culture in India.  There are many similarities between India and the US.  Every morning our host supplies a stack of the Indian Newspaper Business Standard for students to pick up read the latest happening in business.  It remarkably looks just like a US business newspaper.  There is a stock market report on the Front Page and even an article about Facebook.

The TV News channel NDTV is frequently on in public areas when we go to visit the businesses on our itinerary.  It looks remarkably like CNN or MSNBC.  

There are two films that I have heard described as classic Indian movies.  The movie Sholay, just received a 3D re-release, so I have seen a lot of articles and news headlines about the film.  Apparently it is a classic.  So much so, that one theater in India has shown the movie continuously for 30 years because there is always someone who wants to see the film.  “The film follows two criminals hired by a retired police officer to capture the ruthless dacoit Gabbar Singh . Sholay is considered a classic and one of the best Indian films. It was ranked first in the British Film Institute's 2002 poll of "Top 10 Indian Films" of all time. In 2005, the judges of the 50th annual Filmfare Awards named it the Best Film of 50 Years.” I have found a full movie version on YouTube, but have yet to watch it.  But I do like the movie trailer.







Then there is also Mother India.  The movie is " the story of a poverty-stricken village woman named Radha who, in the absence of her husband, struggles to raise her sons and survive against a money-lender amidst many troubles. Despite her hardship, she sets a goddess-like moral example of an ideal Indian woman."  Here is a little video about the film. 











The most recent blockbuster smash in India would probably be Dhoom 3.  It is currently in the theaters, people are talking about it and I have seen music videos from the movie.  I have also seen movie posters for some US releases also.  We have seen THE WOLF OF WALL STREET, THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY & HERCULES posters around town.

 The US has Wall Street & India has D-Street.

Plenty of pictures available on my Day 8 Photo Album on Facebook.