The following is written by Brent Peterson MBA 2011 for his Applied Management Research Project:
Incredible India! That was the sign at the tourist office in LA for India… and it is! Today we left Delhi and flew to Ranchi in the state of Jharkhand. It’s called the “wild west” of India. The main industries are mineral and coal extraction. There is a ton of smog everywhere in India and even in the countryside surrounding this city of 1.3MM it is no different. When we got here we tried to put all three of us in one room to ease our budget, but 15 minutes later the front desk called us back and told us we couldn’t do that. It’s against the law for unmarried men and women to sleep in the same room. After settling in we went to a festival in the town center where UIDAI had an information booth. We met up with Arvind and he took us there. At the booth, they took my eye scan and my fingerprints to demonstrate the UIDAI enrollment process. It’s a pretty cool system they have going and I was really excited to be watch it in action. We walked around for an hour after and saw the other booths including a weaving machine, which was surprisingly neat. The region was known for producing the cloth that Ghandi used for his signature garments. The entire production process was on display from raw wool to finished cloth. Also they had a very dramatic play going on. We didn’t understand a word of what was going on, but it looked pretty entertaining and elaborate.
