Bullish about the China shop

In Bangalore, bete noire of the West, the focus of an informal Internet group is fixed firmly on the East. ‘‘I have visited China three times on work and was pleasantly surprised by the hospitality of its people,’’ says Sreekumar Nair, a software engineer who founded the meet-up group. ‘‘With India and China set to have huge business links in the future, I felt a need to share knowledge about the country.’’

Among the members of the 50-strong group: business development managers, entrepreneurs, students and even homemakers who see a future in Chinese translations.

SUCH diverse groups are commonly spotted at the many institutes around the country that offer Chinese language courses. Mumbai’s Dhanashree Mehta, 17, for instance, has signed up for Mandarin classes alongside her B.Com course so that she has an advantage when she takes over father Ashok Mehta’s soft luggage manufacturing company.

‘‘One needs at least three years to master Chinese so I’ve begun early. I realised the importance of Mandarin only after my father faced acute communication problems during a business trip to Guangzao in southern China this year. I don’t want to face similar problems,’’ she says.

At least 100 Chinese language classes have mushroomed across Mumbai in the past two years, each charging between Rs 7,500 and Rs 15,000 for a basic course in spoken Mandarin. Sales of self-learning packages, too, have grown, says Linguaphone Institute’s Bangalore representative Sumitra Rajan.

‘‘Earlier, it was the Japanese packages that sold well, while there were barely a dozen takers for the Mandarin packages annually. But in the past 11 months, we have sold over 30 packages of the Chinese language course and at least three-four inquiries come in every week,’’ says Rajan.

The sudden popularity of Mandarin is explained by Tarun Bajaj of the Agricultural Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), which has enhanced its work with China in a big way this year. ‘‘The main gap in dealing with China is the language,’’ he says. ‘‘Though the Chinese always have interpreters and English speakers on their business teams, the idea is to make a positive impact. So APEDA worked with the Chinese embassy to get our visiting cards printed in Chinese.’’

THE fad is only fair, according to Sengupta, the pharamaceutical businessman. ‘‘The Chinese are very aware of Indian sensibilities. They know, for instance, that most Indians do not eat beef, that many of them are non-vegetarian,’’ he says.

More pertinently, Sengupta adds, ‘‘The Chinese are very sharp businessmen and it makes a lot of sense to trade with them. Unlike the Europeans and the Americans, they have no unnecessary arrogance.’’

By all indications, the China fan club is rapidly growing. ‘‘Across businesses, people are seeing the potential in the open and globalising China. In recent times, we have trained personnel of companies like TVS, StanChart, Infosys and Ashok Leyland to speak Mandarin and appreciate Chinese business ethics and culture,’’ says S Madhumita, a former Guangzao-based Singapore Broadcasting Corporation employee who now works as a Mandarin teacher at her Bangalore-based Karthick Language School.

While Infosys, Ashok Leyland, NIIT, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and Satyam already possess major business links with China, lesser known companies, too, are looking to a helping of the Chinese pie. Says Abhay Puranik, marketing manager (China ops) of Gala Precision Technology, a Mumbai-based engineering company, ‘‘Within the next three years, we expect business worth Rs 50 crore in China. I even intend to learn Chinese to facilitate business.’’

TO avoid mid-career study loads, some management colleges are introducing Mandarin as an optional subject; others are tying up exchange programmes with institutions in China.

‘‘China is growing up as a big economy and we can’t ignore the job potential for our students there. In fact, we’re looking to place them there in a big way,’’ says Anita Madhok, dean of Mumbai’s Narsee Monjee Instititute of Management, which introduced Mandarin in July this year. ‘‘Knowledge of the language will give them an edge over other applicants.’’

Other B-schools—SIES College of Management Studies and SP Jain Institute of Management and Research— are planning to include the language in the curriculum early next year. Says A K Sengupta, director, SIES College, ‘‘We will not only introduce the language, but also train our students in basic Chinese etiquette. This will help our students grab better job opportunities in China.’’

In Bangalore, the Dayanand Sagar Engineering College has signed MoUs with the Central South Forestry University in Hunan and the Wuhan University for student and teacher exchange programmes for undergraduate engineering courses.

‘‘We see China’s business-enabled environment as a great learning ground for our students. The Chinese also similarly see Indian cities like Bangalore as a great learning ground. The programme which begins the next academic year will also provide teachers from both countries a feel of teaching in the other country,’’ says S Janardhan, business development manager at Dayanand Sagar.

Opportunities for an MBBS course at Dalian University, too, are finding plenty of takers across India. A year’s study costs just Rs 1 lakh, there are no entrance tests, the candidate only needs 50 per cent marks in his twelfth Board exams, the course is recognised by the Medical Council of India and taught by professors trained in English.

‘‘Last year, we sent 50 students to China. This year, we’ve sent 120,’’ says a local agent for the university.

The increased interest in the East has also pushed up the tourist traffic. According to figures available with the Chinese consulate in Mumbai, 40,000 people travelled to China between January and October this year. At SOTC, which launched China as a tourist destination in 2004, Mumbai-to-China bookings have seen a 100 per cent increase since last year. A far cry from Feng Shui.