Today we started out the day with a tour of a sandelwood factory. It was very archaic and I had a hard time understanding the guide. When thinking about the flattening of the world, this tour made me have second thoughts as to how flat it is getting. The government controls this industry and the language barriers of this culture are still an issue. Yes, India has a lot of English speaking people, but they are very hard to understand. This is something that will have to be overcome to a greater extent than is currently in place. The encouraging aspect is that they want to become more global and seem to be willing to do whatever it takes to get there.


Next we toured a silk textile manufacturer. This was very interesting. It was very loud and not everyone had earplugs. There will be a group of people with a loss of hearing because of this factory. The process is government run as well. They have control of it from the use of the silk worms all the way through the creation of the finished fabric. The safety of the people on the production floor is of significant concern to me. This tour didn't have an official tour guide, but the Institute's instructor gave us an overview. I was reminded of the book Being Indian and the importance of status and power among Indians when I asked our instructor why we had to show our passports and leave our belongings in the car seeing as though we didn't have to at the previous site and they are both government run. He said it was to show off his power and status. I guess Pavan Varma was right.


We then went to the Institute and had time to check our e-mails and blog. This is when I found out about my daughter's car accident. I spent a good portion of the afternoon trying to find out how she is doing. It is frustrating to not be able to pick up a phone and call Duluth. How can the world be flat with this type of roadblock. The hotelroom I'm staying in doesn't have access to long distance calls. The telecommunications and tourism industries need to become more advanced for this country to grow.


In the afternoon I went to pick up my outfits that I had made. A grease stain was on the front of one of the dresses and the store owner wanted me to take it anyway. I told him he had to get it cleaned or I didn't want it. We'll see how he does. I then went to pick up the shirts I had made. There were two grease marks on one of those as well. He also said to take it home and wash it and it would come out. I said no, that I would not accept it unless he washed out the stain. He said he would. A little later he asked me to pick out a different fabric in case the stain didn't come out. At least he was a little more accomodating than the first place.

My concern is that quality is very important in the world of business. If these businesses want to grow and do trade in other parts of the world, they will have to step up the level of quality and have a better understanding as to what is acceptable to the global customer.