KolkataIndia

1
Kolkata-India
A city between communism, globalization and
poverty

• A presentation by Lela and Paula

2
Structure

• Facts about Kolkata / Calcutta
• Old Calcutta
• New Kolkata
• globalization / economy
• different aspects of globalization
• - politician
• - business man
• - rickshaw puller

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Facts

• about 4.5 million citizens
• capital of federal state of West Bengal
• area 187.33 km²
• population density 24.452 citizens per km²
• mayor Bhattacharjee
• religion dominated by Kali, the hindu goddess,
  or by catholics
• politics ruled by the Communist Party of India
• 40 illiterate
• 1/5 underfed
• on the edge of AIDS epidemic
• barely half of the population is supplied with
  clean drinking water and electricity

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Old Calcutta

• Calcutta has been dominated for 28 years by
  marxism
• living conditions have been worse than today
• clacutta was magnet for all this poverty
• a very big part of the populatione lived in slums

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• quotations
• - "They have 100 unlisted deseases" (Woody
  Allen)
• - "It's a pile of crap dumped by God"
  (Günther Grass)
• -"The home of everything in the world worth
  hating (Claude Lévi-Strauss)
• fighting for participation in global market
• did not play an important economical role in the
  world

6
New Kolkata

• economical boom started in the early 1990's
• Calcutta was renamed as Kolkata (2001)
• contrasts between highest techonology and a lot
  of poverty/corruption mark the city
• fewer slums and fewer homeless people but
  prostitution rate increases
• still problems with transportation planning,
  bureaucracy, electricity
• small indications of an emerging civil society

7

• education removes the barrier between well paid
  jobs for the higher castes and low paid jobs for
  the lower castes
• high tech elite changed the appearence of the
  city
• one of the world's best technical universities is
  in Kolkata
• the youth wants to stay in india instead of
  planning an IT-career in Germany or other
  countries
• is supposed to become Indias silicon valley

8
Globalization / Economy

• Kolkata is a symbol of globalization and progress
  and has a chance to become the next globalization
  powerhouse
• India has a growth rate of nearly 8 percent a
  year
• exports are rising at a double
• Indias future will be shaped by IT and
  globalization
• IT-growth of more than 70
• brilliant international software engineers

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• main growth at computer technology not at
  textiles
• Bengalis governement hopes to draw traditional
  industries back to Kolkata as well
• on the outskirts of the city industrial parks are
  build up

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Politician - Bhattacharjee

• head of the Communist Party
• the Communist Party regrets that they tried to
  stop the technological process and forbade unions
• economical policy of the Cummunist Party is now
  extremly pro-business
• the government declared all software and
  outsourcing firms to be essential services to
  prevent work stoppages
• says
• - alcutta needs to prevail in a world of
  global competition
• - land and work are cheaper
• - because of globalization they have to
  
  
• modernize and maybe cut down jobs /new
• jobs have to be created
• - he supports capitalism out of convinience

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Businessman - Premji

• benefitted from a gap in the market
• founded a company for low-quality electronic
  goods
• established a foundation to finance village
  schools
• says
• - capitalism only has a chance to improve
  
• living standarts when entrepreneurs do
• not boast about their richness
• - we are world leaders in high tech and
• train second most computer speacialist s
• but fail to create hope for our rural
• residents
• - worse is over in Kolkata
• - flexible way of thinking is neccessary

12
Rickshaw puller - Badal

• aproximately 30.000 rickshaw pullers in Kolkata
• live in slums
• work is not a symbol of globalozation but of the
  senselessness of the union politics
• politicians tried to abolish the inhumane work
• rickshaw union stopped that
• now pullers are only allowed on side streets
• pullers who give up their rickshaw get 260
• does not profit from globalization but knows that
  future lies in computers

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Sources

• Spiegel special - international edition
• Globaization the new world (No.7 2005)
• www.wikipedia.org/wiki/kolkata
• www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel