Hundreds of millions of people in India will be glued to their televisions on Sunday night. But many won’t be watching the Oscars, even though musician A.R. Rahman (of Slumdog Millionaire fame) is a nominee for his score for 127 Hours. There are two competing activities that have Indians captivated.
February 27th in Hollywood is already the 28th in Asia and India’s Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee will release the Annual Budget for the Union Government, which becomes effect on April 1. With direct and indirect taxation playing such a major role in India’s economy, consumers’ well-being and business fortunes are influenced greatly by the changes in tax rates and allocations of expenditure. The final budget will be posted online at the same time as Mukherjee gives his budget speech before India’s Parliament. Indians watch the budget news with much greater intensity than Americans watch the annual State of the Union address from the President and even the preparations for the budget speech are national news.
The second draw on television is India’s all consuming passion, the sport of cricket. The World Cup competition just started. In the city of Nagpur,in Central India, Zimbabwe will play Canada at 9:30 am Indian Standard Time, which is 8 PM on Sunday night in California. A few hours later the West Indies will square off against Ireland at New Delh’s Feroz Shah Kotla grounds. Despite the fact that these games are played during a working weekday, many Indians will receive regular SMS (text) updates on their cellphones; radios and TVs everywhere will be tuned to the right channels. Cricket will be the major topic of conversation until the final game is played on April 2 at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
And who did you say won the Best Picture Award?
Takeaway: While Hollywood appears to unite the world and is certainly watched in India, there are many other forces at play in the Indian executive’s or consumer’s mind. Being aware of these forces makes it easier for you to succeed in business in India.
