Learning India

Making sense of the subcontinent

Filed Under: #ChaosBeatsLogic, #PowerPlays, #TimeIsEternal, Parent Leadership

The Most Important Quality When Working for a Parent Leader

Image of Clock Tower

…is loyalty.

And the most important way your Parent Leader will evaluate your loyalty is…

availability.

You get no awards in India for having great time management. You get no praise for submitting weekly reports on all your tasks. No one will mention you at a celebration if you manage to save an hour a day by not checking email until noon. Time is not something that can be spreadsheeted.

The only truly important question about time in India is:

Were you there in the Moment of Need?

What is the Moment of Need? It’s the moment when your boss or your team members are freaking out because something has gone terribly wrong and the world might end.

The assessment of your loyalty is most dependent on how completely you are available in the Moment of Need.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: #PowerPlays, Politics

10 Questions You Might Have Asked About the Indian Elections

Narendra_Modi_in_BJP_National_Executive_Meet_in_Goa

Here’s a recap of the largest democratic exercise in the history of humanity, also known as India’s national election.

 

What was this election?

This election was for Members of Parliament (MPs). Each voter had a list of candidates to choose from to represent his/her district.

 

I thought they were voting for a Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister is not an elected position. He/She is selected by the party or alliance that has a majority of seats in Parliament.

 

What is an alliance?

[Read more…]

Filed Under: #ChaosBeatsLogic, Into India

Things the average Indian is better than you at…

 

Indians dancing

Flickr: Tim Whelan

 

I started this list recently, but I figured it would be better if everyone contributed instead of just me. Please share some of your own ideas and I’ll add them!

Dancing – I have yet to meet a young Indian man who is not both willing and able to break into smooth dance moves at any moment of the day.

Singing in Public – Similarly, it takes very little coaxing to get any Indian aunty or uncle to break out in a classic film song.

Giving an impromptu one hour speech – No preparation, no notes, no slides. Just talking. I can’t make it more than 5 minutes.

Making children laugh and feel comfortable – Every Indian feels it is his/her duty as a citizen of the country to make every child within a 1 kilometer radius have a smile on their face. [Read more…]

Filed Under: #ChaosBeatsLogic, #PowerPlays, #See1See100, #ThinSkinned, #TimeIsEternal, On the Job

Don’t waste your short-term trip to India!

short term trip to india

 

About the time you start packing your bags for your trip to India, the question dawns on you.

What am I doing?

Maybe it’s clear for you. You are training some colleagues. You are finding some suppliers. You are volunteering. You are choosing a vendor. You are attending a conference. (Do make sure you have the right visa for each of these!)

However, when you return and start unpacking your bags, you might suddenly realize the trip wasn’t as obviously successful as you thought it was. No one seems to be doing the things you trained them on. No one is replying to your repeated emails. All the processes you put in place seem to be falling apart.

You are left with a few pictures and a sinking feeling in your stomach that the trip was wasted. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Be Prepared

NRI PIO OCI – What’s the difference?

NRI PIO OCI

*This article has been updated to reflect the removal of the PIO status as of 9 January 2015. If you currently hold a PIO card, it will be treated as an OCI card. Updates are marked in blue.

 

For many Indians, moving out of India is a symbol of status. It is a matter of pride for a family to be able to say their son is working in the US and their daughter is in Dubai.

However, Indians who live abroad also work very hard at maintaining a strong connection to India.

This creates trouble for the Indian government in figuring out how to deal with the more than 22 million Indians living in another country. What about land ownership? Voting? Taxation? While many have renounced their Indian citizenship, they still want to be active in India.

There are three terms you should be familiar with that categorize Indians who live abroad: NRI, PIO, and OCI.

 

The Short Version

NRIs (Non-Resident Indians) are Indian Citizens who live in another country.

PIO (Person of Indian Origin) used to be a 15 year visa for non-Indian citizens, but it has since been removed.

OCIs (Overseas Citizen of India) are non-Indian citizens who have a lifetime visa to live and work in India with fewer restrictions.

 

The Long Version

[Read more…]

Filed Under: #IndiasNotIndia, Into India

States of India Song

It was a moment of inspiration.

I was trying to calm my nerves the morning before one of my first big training sessions in front of Indians. As I looked over my notes, I came to the part where I would quiz participants on how many states there are in India. (You don’t usually get a uniform answer for this one from Indians.)

Then I started thinking, What if they challenge me? What if they demand to see a list? I can only name about five states off the top of my head!

It was too late to get something printed. To add to it, this was the first training I had done for this company and one of my bosses was going to be there in the session. I had to think of something fast.

Ok, I’ll memorize them.

Seriously? You’ll memorize 28 state names in 30 minutes?

Yup, and I’ll even do it alphabetically. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Be Prepared

Filling Out Your Online Indian Visa Application

Visa Application Form

 

After you choose the right visa, the first thing you must do is complete the online Indian Visa Application form. If this is your first interaction with the government of India, you should refresh yourself on How to Please the Babu. This will get you in the right frame of mind.

The form seems easy enough, but a simple mistake can lead to your application being rejected, which means you lose your application fee, and you have to start the process over again! So, it’s best to get it right the first time.

 

Before you begin

Two things to remember:

1) Filling out the Indian Visa Application form online does not mean you have submitted it. The purpose of the online form is to make sure you have filled in all the correct information in the right format for easier processing. If you make a mistake, you can start over and it will not affect your application. No one is looking through all this data and cross-checking it. The only form that matters is the one you print out when you finish.

2) You may not alter the application after you print it. This includes handwriting answers. Once you print it out, if you want to make any change at all, you must start the application form over again.
[Read more…]

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© Neil A. Miller, LearningIndia.in, and Madras Media Marketing LLC 2013-2015. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given.