South Asia

North America | Asia Pacific | South Asia | Latin America

Soon, the largest English-speaking nation in the world will be India. The GNP is growing and the challenges for sustainable communities--and businesses--are considerable.

Our VP for India, Mr. Ramanathan Haridoss, has helped NGOs, multinational companies, and his PacEth colleagues understand the many places that he calls "our India." From small villages to the busy, cosmopolitan glitter of Mumbai, we can put teams to work to ask--and answer--questions about daily life in India. We've fielded teams in both rural and urban India to work on transportation, village acceptance of IT, personal care, and women's economic power.


We have found it possible to recruit people in both urban and rural settings in India. We have worked through the issues presented by women's desire for private space and we've dealt with client who like to come with us into the field. We enjoy that. But we are also careful to establish pre-existing relationships and to be honest about the nature of our work, wherever we are.

We have been to an Indian neighborhood in which our client, joining our Indian crew in the field, received a thorough dressing-down for having come to India. A shop-keeper asked when she might be invited to the client's home country to study his daily life! These moments provide important perspective for our clients, who must recognize that in India, the politics of daily life often trumps politeness, providing a clear window through which to imagine new--and more equitable--kinds of relationships between the enterprise and its customers.