Business Travelers

The most frightening part of Anna Satrom's ten-day journey in India was getting on the bus. \n"In India, they don't so much use traffic signals," she said. "They just sort of go wherever there is room. There would be five cars across a three-lane highway, and everyone would just be laying on the horns the whole time."\nSatrom was one of 60 sophomore business students to travel to Delhi, India to study different aspects of the economy and culture as part of an advanced program offered through the Kelley School of Business. But while the traffic situation might not show it, in the last 10 years India has emerged as the fastest growing economy in a rapidly shrinking world, said Dan Smith, dean of the Kelley School of Business. \nThe Sophomore Block program, which the Kelley School of Business offered for the first time this year, singled out 60 sophomores who were directly admitted to the business program as freshmen and who maintained a 3.6 grade point average, said Munirpallam Venkataramanan, chair of the Kelley School of Business's undergraduate program. These sophomores all took the same five honors-level business courses together, he said. \nBut the "cherry on top," sophomore Marc Uible said, was the 10-day trip to India to cap off one of the program's seminars, which discussed India as an emerging economy. \n"We really wanted the students to experience India rather than just read about it," Smith said. "We wanted them to experience the richness of that environment firsthand."\nStudents gained access to the country's parliament buildings through the assistance of Kelley school graduate Deepinder Hooda, a "rising star" in the Indian parliament, said George Vlahakis, chaperone and manager of IU Media Relations. \n"People in India don't visit their government the way we do," Valhakis said. "We can go to Washington D.C. and see the White House, but they don't have the same kind of access to seeing buildings because security is so tight." \nHooda also arranged for students to meet with the country's commerce and industry minister, Kamal Nath, who Valhakis called the "Alan Greenspan of India."\n"(Meeting Nath) was the coolest thing we did," sophomore Kelly Levin said. "He talked to us for a little while, but after that we had the opportunity to ask him questions about India and the state of the economy." \nStudents also explored different aspects of business in India, including a tour of a business process outsourcing company, more commonly known as a "call center." Students also viewed a Maruti Suzuki car factory and met with representatives from Tata Group, one of the largest companies in India.\nA favorite side trip was visiting the Taj Mahal and Red Fort in Agra, India, several students said. But many said they were surprised by the amount of poverty in India. \n"There is a vast difference between the rich and the poor," Satrom said. "You would see a brand-new high-rise being built, but right next to it would be a village of tarps." \nBut exposing students to an emerging economy's culture was an important factor in taking the Sophomore Block students to India, Venkataramanan said in an e-mail. \n"We have noticed that students typically travel to first-world countries to get their international experience," Venkataramanan said in an e-mail. "Given the important role the emerging countries play and are projected to play in the global economy, we believed that a field study to one of these countries will be a great educational experience for students in both the business and cultural sense." \nIndian companies will both partner with and be competition for American businesses in the near future, Smith said. \n"India is becoming a hot issue with a lot of work being outsourcing to India, as far as accounting and tech support," sophomore Scott Brier said. "An X-ray can be sent to India in the middle of the night, analyzed and returned by the next morning. By the time a lot of us get into the business world, India is going to be a major economic player"