The Changing Geography of Oppourtunities

India is becoming the the epicenter of our ever the flatening world. I look forward to the day that Nigeria will impact the rest of the world the way the Indians and Chinese have done. Further tipping the trade balance, so that when Nigeria sneezes, the rest of the world shivers. Right now it is in the interest of the world for India to thrive, because some of these companies are poised, to bring about the next wave of growth in the global economy. My opinion is that we have it easier than India, we just haven't found the way to channel the oil money. Lesson learnt: strategic positioning.

Business week article; Indian Companies Hit Their Stride, As India's economy grows faster than ever, its newly confident companies are showing their global ambition. And India's moment is evident in the latest BusinessWeek ranking of Asia's top 50 companies. Indian outfits dominate this year's list.

A few years ago Indian establishment were plagued by corruption and bogged down by bureaucracy, a few decades later the situation has been turned around and these same companies or offshoots of these companies are poised to take over the world. Nigeria stands to learn a lot from these lessons presented by this modern day miracle. While we were asleep they planned and planned. I watch as Nigeria's BPE seem to have botched the privatization process with every sale or lease agreement being controversial. It is obvious this is not the way to plan, this can not be the way to move forward. Sometimes I am not too concerned about the present states of things in home country, but I often tremble at the missed oppourtunity and the cost of the missed oppourtunities fto our country's future. If the waste in Nigeria does not give you sleepless nights, check out the article below. Lesson learnt: Long term planning,growth is path dependent. (no microwave wealth creation).

Dreaming Big; But the strength of India's showing stands out the most. The Indian companies represented have plenty in common: smart management, low costs, and—increasingly—aspirations to join the elite ranks of multinationals. "All of India is dreaming bigger and aiming higher," says Keshav Sanghi, head of equities for Deutsche Bank (DB ) in Mumbai.

Growing Opportunity for African Countries; Analysts predict that India could lack 500000 engineers by 2010. There is is still endemic shortage of electricity and water shortage, in rural India. In other words India is not too far gone in the area of infrastructural development. All hope is not lost, we could be the comeback kids, the late adopters. Lesson learnt: we are trapped in a poverty trap (a dearth of initiatives, chasing money instead of pursuing oppourtunities).

Outsourcing as the third industrial revolution; Mr Blinder, Clinton's adviser and a teacher at Princeton already notes that we have barely seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to offshoring the eventual dimensions of which may be staggering. Where are we on this one? Personally I think we are wasting valuable time on what Yaradua did or did not do. I think with critical thinking and planning a private-public hybrid type of initiative can get the idea behind a service village off the ground somewhere close to Ogun state. (Close to Lagos, but away from the hustle and bustle).

Addition Comment; Another story poised to emerge out of India is Medical Tourism/ Outsourcing. India is building world class private facilities staffed by docs of Indian origin who have studied and worked in the U.S. With procedures often costing 1/10th of those in the U.S., increasing amounts of Americans are already travelling there.

From draft folder written in April, updated today. Apologies that the [post is short on links. Hey I am looking to crowd source my paper for the Institute of International Affairs, any ideas.