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The US-India Chamber of Commerce-Midwest organized the 5th annual conference U.S. INDIA BUSINESS CONFERENCE – FOCUS ON TELECOM AVIATION AND RETAIL Illinois Governor Pat Quinn made an appearance to kick-off the event & indicated he’d be more like former Governor Jim Thompson & open more foreign trade offices rather than close them down like Jim Edgar did.
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Aradhana Goel of Ideo moderated the retail panel of Gaurav Bhuwan of Tanishq USA L.N. Balajii ITC Infotech & Gunjan Bagla of Amritt:
* consumer demand-while in the US & Europe a few spend more in India many spend a little. Culture is important which is driven by tradition ex. weddings. India has many dual-income couples who can’t cook & don’t have microwaves so they outsource their food preparation to someone else in the neighborhood.
* rural segment-1TR market 2/3 of private consumption 70% of population. There are 3.5 M retail outlets in 600K villages 87% of which have populations of 2000 or fewer.
* Indian consumers are not American consumers. The western veneer surrounds an Indian core so product must be modifed to reflect this.
