City Growing 12.5% Despite Lack Of Mass Transport, Air Connectivity
The world is taking note of Surat’s sparkling growth story.
Last year, the World Mayors Council named it as the fourth fastest growing city.
Now, the Harvard Business School has sent a team of six post-graduate students
to the city for a case study on Surat, the fastest developing urban market of India.
The six MBA students were here on a three-day visit under the Field Immersion Experiences
for Leadership Development (Field), a curricular innovation announced by the Harvard
Business School in January 2011. Comparing Surat with the auto hub of Detroit, Michael
Konialian, a winner of the Princeton Scholarship
and said, developed cities of western world must take cue from Surat’s growth. When
Detroit grows at 2% per annum, it is amazing to know that Surat’s growth rate is
a phenomenal 12.5%. If it gets a mass transport system and air connectivity, Surat
has the potential to become one the top cities of the world.
Coming from diverse backgrounds ranging from finance to engineering and science
to telecom, the Harvard students believe this coming decade will decide the ultimate
course for Surat as it has all the ingredients to grow at a much higher pace than
the rest of the world but it will have to go about it in an organized way. The energy
of the place and people is amazing. We don’t see anything of this nature in the
US, said Adel Alderbas, who graduated from Purdue University, earning a BS degree
in accounting and management and worked in New York at Wafra Investment Advisory
Group as a senior analyst covering emerging markets.
Cambridge graduate Alice Henault Deprez said,
this emerging market is a combination of old and new. On one side we have beautiful
and wide roads with malls and stores and in the space where road dividers are made
there are cows and buffalos sitting coolly. This market has potential of eating
away major American markets but needs an organized sector to prosper.
Courtesy: Times of India
