In January I will make my first trip to India. The airline tickets arrived yesterday. My passport has a nifty visa sticker. And our itinerary is set.
This is a faculty development trip sponsored by the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER). While much of my comparative work to date has focused on Europe, my interest in entrepreneurial studies has expanded my horizon. Of course, India has become widely known for its emerging technology industries. The India Program seems to provide a useful introduction to the country that would serve as a starting point for future comparative studies.
Moreover, the India Program caught my eye because I have been working on an international faculty development seminar for the Initiative for Studies in Technology Entrepreneurship (INSITE). The purposes of that seminar would be to enhance research, teaching, and outreach of INSITE and its principal faculty by exposing the participants to new practices and cultures; promoting the formation of an “invisible college” of scholars who are engaged in the study of technology entrepreneurship; and encouraging scholars and practitioners outside the United States to associate the study of technology entrepreneurship with the University of Wisconsin.
Madison has a substantial Indian population (well, it is at least more substantial than you might have imagined in a small, Midwestern city), and all indications are that I will have a wonderful time. In preparing for the trip, I consulted the Consular Information Sheet published by the State Department. I was pleased to read about “India’s low incidence of violent crime and its generally welcoming population.” On the other hand, the description of “Traffic Safety” was sobering:
Travel by road is dangerous. In recent years, Delhi alone has experienced over 2,000 road deaths annually. A number of Americans have suffered fatal traffic accidents in recent times. Travel at night is particularly hazardous. Buses, patronized by hundreds of millions of Indians, are convenient in that they serve almost every city of any size. However, they are usually driven fast, recklessly, and without consideration for official rules of the road. Accidents are quite common. Trains are somewhat safer than buses, but train accidents still occur more frequently than in developed countries.
On Indian roads, the safest driving policy is to assume that other drivers will not respond to a traffic situation in the same way you would in the United States. For instance, buses will often run straight through red lights and will merge directly into traffic at yield points and traffic circles. Cars, auto-rickshaws, bicycles and pedestrians behave only slightly more cautiously. It has been said that the Indian driver looks only ahead; all drivers consider themselves responsible only for traffic in front of them, not behind or to the side. Frequent use of one’s horn to announce presence is both customary and wise.
Hmm. Sounds like Chicago!