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A paradigm shift in emerging markets: from urbanization to neo-urbanization

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Image of the research interviews in India

By Sharad Jaiswal, Alcatel-Lucent’s Bell Labs India

One thrust area for our group at Bell Labs India are technologies inspired by emerging market problems. In the past we have worked on how to bring low-cost broadband to rural areas, distribute rich mobile content in a scalable way, and secure, easy-to-use solutions for mobile banking.

When I heard about Alcatel-Lucent Market and Consumer Insight Group initiating an ethnographic study across India, it was a no-brainer to sign on and participate. Over the years, we have learnt that spending time with end-users from the outset is invaluable in figuring out the right problem to work on. A multi-city, demographically diverse study such as this would thus be a unique experience.

Traditionally, India has seen migration from villages and small towns to larger metropolitan cities. However, in the past few years after the cell phone/Internet revolution, people in small towns are (at least in theory) exposed to similar levels of information and opportunity as in the big cities. This is one aspect of the “neo-urbanization megatrend” which was the focus of the overall study (to discover the other megatrends Alcatel-Lucent  Market and Consumer Insight Group has identified take a look at “Megatrends: a wave of change impacting the future”). As a technologist, my personal goal was to understand the role communications was playing in this process.

Initial Impressions

During our travels, I accompanied the Market and Consumer Insight group to several parts of India. A low-income neighborhood in the dense heart of Mumbai and a tribal village – geographically 100 Km from Mumbai – but light-years distant in terms of development. And then, down south in the more educated, relatively prosperous state of Tamil Nadu – to the enterprising city of Coimbatore, and the agriculturally fertile villages along the river Cauvery.

We met several young people in Coimbatore and Mumbai, invariably from lower-middle class backgrounds. Like teenagers everywhere, they were hooked to new smartphones and the latest, coolest apps. They carefully managed their bare-bones pocket money to buy devices, or shop-around for data plans (some as low as 40-50 cents/month) that would let them access Facebook on the phone. This was expected. What was different was how supportive were the parents towards their children’s aspirations. From my own experience growing up in India in the 1980s, these habits would likely have been considered “frivolous”. Somehow, the parents now recognize that phones, computers and the Internet are “hooks” to integrate into the larger economy and the world; offering opportunities they as parents may not fully understand, but trust their children will exploit.

The A-ha moment

The teachable moment however for me was to listen to a homemaker – an avid cook – in Mumbai, on her sons teaching her to upload videos of cooking recipes on YouTube. Or, the single mother in Coimbatore, who channeled her command of English and access to a broadband connection into a well-paying opportunity doing medical transcriptions. And I was genuinely thrilled to hear a small-time jeweler in Coimbatore articulately lay out his vision of a governance web-site – where citizens could upload pictures as proof of completion of the city’s civic works. Using the Internet/Web to increase citizen participation in government is a notion also close to my heart.

It was apparent that in places such as India, the Internet as a medium is now truly knocking on people’s doors. Not just the educated young, but even the older, non-techno savvy demographic has a sense of its potential.

The road ahead…

Whether in a tribal village, or in the urban neighborhoods of Mumbai, education was a prominent topic in many conversations. Parents and youngsters realize it’s a ticket to a better life, and were willing to make considerable investments – whether it involved sending children to another town with a better school, or migrating to a city with a diversity of education options.  Across the world, in the Silicon Valley, there is now a tremendous buzz around start-ups (Khan Academy, Coursera, Udacity etc.) going after the problem of making higher education available online to millions around the world.

Opportunities like this go to the heart of what I learnt during the study (published as : The role of the ICT in the formation of the Neo-urbanization phenomenon – PDF file). The neo-urbanized world has the promise of bringing high quality higher education, health and employment opportunities to small towns and villages; without people having to upend their lives and migrate to large cities. It is now for technology providers like Alcatel-Lucent to create the right tools, technologies and services to make this dream possible – the opportunity is waiting for us.


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