Trends: Gen Y US vs 20 somethings of India

A very interesting article in the New York Times, says Gen Y is delaying adulthood. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/magazine/22Adulthood-t.html?_r=1&ref=magazine.

In India is it the reverse? Today in India ( may be not the entire country atleast in the urban and tier 2 cities), because of the economic independence, availability of jobs and generally more money than earlier in the hands of the GenYs, the age of adulthood has come down. The 20 somethings are marrying early, buying cars and houses much earlier than it used to happen in India, say the eighties.

Earlier  marriages and settling down used to happen late. Financial security, large and joint families, mean the men wait for the ladies to be married off first. Jobs were less, money was meager and building a house for oneself  was just a dream. People used to plan for a house when they are about to retire. Men used to think of marriage once they reach the 30s.  Well, may not be a pan India trend, atleast it used to be that way in the south.

Today the GenY have far more independence than the earlier generations. Coupled  with the emotional security of the family system, lesser number of kids per family, money in the market in the form of easy loans, etc. times look really good for them.

Design for Disaster

There are far more disasters these days, than it used to be and we see the same things being played out. Buildings crashing: no equipments to lift the rubble. Flash floods: no vehicle to reach the location were people are stuck.

Haiti, Equipment took days to reach, probably there were not many earth movers etc. in a poor country like Haiti.

The earthquake today in China has also happened in a remote region, and the struggles are the same.

And it may not be just equipments. There is a need for survival kits, survival food, instant food which packs all required salts, nutrients,  portable operation stations, and trauma care.

Quite evidently there is a dire  requirement for equipments, devices products, which can be easily transported, easy to assemble and  install, and easy to operate. This will need radical thinking, or else how can an earthmover be converted to a much smaller and transportable device.

This could work as a decent business model too. These equipments/ products can later find use in many other applications.

Houses become hoardings for advertisers in villages.

Along the way to Bangalore, India homes in villages are being painted by companies with their advertisements. Its a great sight, with advertisement being directly painted on houses. The houses themselves become the hoarding. This is interesting in many ways. For the advertisers they get a great view and it stands out so well, because you get such a big hoarding space. For the villagers their houses get painted, which otherwise would cost them a lot of money. What happens to visual culture? Hmmm. That is a difficult question. Across India the way the homes are decorated are very unique to cultures, and this may not be a good thing to happen. There were many homes where the front patio retain the traditional colour schemes and only the side walls were given. On the other hand for the villages it is a way to earn money and also to get their houses painted quite often. A win win situation!

It is a unique and creative solution the advertisers have identified. It has got great visibility. There are no costs of erecting hoardings, and you dont need to worry about the hoarding being exposed to the vagaries of nature.

Newly built homes for flood victims, rejected by the villagers: A case for Participatory and Inclusive design for emerging economies.

Villagers of Karnataka , who were devastated by the floods  were given corporate help by Biocon, a major life sciences company in Bangalore to build houses. They came with a really good low cost technology. The model house was built and shown to the villagers and they liked it. But once they started building the homes and people started really observing it they rejected the houses upright. The villagers gave their reasons. And it seems to be a lack of research and participation of the villagers in the design process.
The villagers found the the full concrete wall does not allow them to put nails in the wall(manually) for hanging pictures. The footprint of the homes were too small for the villagers, who during the rainy season, keep their goats and sheep inside.
Participatory and inclusive design are very strongly needed especially when the user is miles and miles away in distance as well as culture. (In places like India and other newly growing economies were there is so much of polarisation between the rich and the poor, the house next door is actually miles and miles away). And it is not just in cases like this one involving villagers.

This is something which businesses should look into when they look at India and other emerging economies as markets to invest and sell their products and services. Its cliche, but you should be knowing what you are selling to whom.

Green Initiatives at Auto Expo 2010, Delhi. How Green are they?

Quite a few automotive companies showed off their green solutions.
Most of them are electric cars, save the Prius which is a hybrid.

Which is more green; Hybrid or Electric.
In the Indian context most of the electricity is generated by thermal power, mainly coal. Our coal plants are inefficient and it really need to be analysed whether the electric cars will genuinely reduce carbon the carbon footprint. But then there are hardly any emissions from the car if it is electric. Another point is a completely electric car will most generally be a second car. You spend so much on a car, and it can only be driven around in the city? How sad. So you have consumed more...Phew

The hybrid holds a lot of promise in the present situation and I think these are the technologies which we should promote in the short term.

The Electric car is definitely the future. By the time our energy is renewable and we have better battery technologies which would give more running kilometers, services like the Better Place to make charging and electric power hassle free, there is a lot on the horizon.

What we do need is government support, both for the consumer and the ,manufacturer.