Latest posts by Martin Moodie (see all)
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“Everything here is happening at the same time so it’s chaos,” chuckles Neel Chatterjee (above), an experienced international businessmann and consultant based in Delhi.
As he drives me around the hectic roads of the Gurgaon district, Neel highlights the contrasts everywhere. Swanky new commercial and residential developments are taking place all around, alongside green fields, street stalls and obvious signs of poverty.
“Everything you see is work in progress – and it will be work in progress here for the next ten years,” says Neel, who believes Delhi’s commercial rise is unstoppable. He points to a giant luxury condiminium – “20 years ago this was barren land”.
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Cows, sacred creatures in India, stroll in and out of the teeming traffic, relying perhaps on more than a little divine intervention to spare them from some of the world’s most hair-rasing driving.
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Little girls walk up to beg some coins while yards away huge signs promoting the latest shopping mall and international brand launches scream their consumerist message.
Neel says the country’s airport, airline and travel retail sector are ideally placed to benefit from the economic explosion all around us.
In an allusion to the Portuguese explorer famed for completing the world’s first all-water trade route, he says: “India is Vasco Da Gama revisited – and this time he’s chosen the air route.”