“I have a double image of Japan in the 1960s on the eve of its high economic growth period, and India now. In light of India’s recent shining economic performance, Japan looks on with renewed interest.” he says.

Indeed, it is a year of strengthening ties between the two countries. As a postscript to the December meeting between Prime Minister Singh and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, and a recently signed comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, this year has been officially recognized as a year of Indo-Japanese Friendship, Exchange and Tourism Promotion.

The potential for these two Asian economic powerhouses is vast. It is a matter of making the right move and with the right partners.

Like in many parts of the world, “Kaizen,”  “Kanban” and “muda” became part of the industry vocabulary.

“It can be said,” says Vishnu Mathur, executive director of ACMA (Automotive Component Manufactures Association), “that all Indian automotive manufacturing is Japanese at heart. We learnt quite a bit from our Japanese friends.”

Today, Indo-Japanese automotive collaboration is stronger than ever. Honda has engaged the market from 1984, dominating the largest two-wheeler market in the world with Hero-Honda, an Indo-Japanese joint venture so successful that it is studied in business school case studies.

Hero Honda is now the world’s single largest motorcycle company, literally a textbook example of the potential that lay within Indo-Japanese collaboration.

Honda’s entry into the car market has been extremely successful as well. Masahiro Takedagawa, Honda Siel Cars India’s managing director, is confident enough in the future of Honda cars in India to have leased their new factory space in Gurgaon for 99 years.

Another successful joint venture is seen in the ongoing relationship between globally minded industrial family of the Kirloskars and Toyota. Both are enduring players in the person-to-person relations that are so important to the health of international business, and they have spearheaded projects aimed at bridging cultural gaps between the two business communities such as the India Japan initiative that is led by Geetanjali Kirloskar.

The new direction of technology transfer      
While Japanese technology helped bolster the economy in the 1980’s today’s trend is actually the reverse. The Japanization of Indian manufacturing has been met with the Indiannization of those same processes – the incorporation of information technology. To improve the overall efficiency of operations from the factory floor to the sales floor.

Indian IT know-how is making its way to Japan and it is not just savvy international businessmen who are beginning to recognize the potential.

Yokohama’s forward-thinking Mayor Hiroshi Nakada recognizes the value of Indian IT and has conducted several visit’s to the southern city of Bengaluru in the hopes of attracting its talent to his city. Known to many as the Asian silicon valley, it is this city, above all others, that illustrates the potential of this burgeoning economy.

Bengaluru: A model for modern India
The story of India’s IT boom is centered in one city: Bengaluru  (changed in September 2006 from the English “Bangalore”). The city is the emblem of the country’s technical skill and a clustering of some of its most powerful technical brain thrusts  and offshoring facilities.

The city has long been home to many of the country’s best engineers and scientists. Due partly to its temperate climate and relatively low dust levels, the city developed a strong manufacturing and industrial base, playing home to a cluster of public manufacturing heavy industries such as Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd., (HAL) and the headquarters of the Indian Space Research Organization.

The critical mass of capable engineers, scientists and research professors created by these organizations eventually created the base of talented technologists that attracted worldwide attention handling much of the preventive work that diverted the infamous Y2K computer crises.

From this opportunity came more work, creating some of the world’s largest offshoring success stories. Two of India’s largest IT outsourcing companies, Infosys and Wipro, are located here, along with a host of up-and-coming companies such as MindTree, iGate and Edkal.

Heavyweight IT multinationals such as Oracle, Intel and IBM have also set up major operations here, speaking volumes to the quality of the human resources available.

Bengaluru is now India’s fourth-largest and fastest growing market, with the highestper capita income of any other city. This is widely attributed to the tremendous
reputations of its IT companies. O(f the entire world’s SEI-CMM Level 5 companies, 38 percent are headquartered in the city, giving it a prominent place in the Global IT map.

Biotechnology is also booming in this “Garden City.” It is home to about 50 percent of all BT companies in India such as BioCon, Strand Life Sciences and Sami Labs. By all accounts, Bengaluru is a city on the rise.

What is vitally important to note about this phenomenon is that it is not just outsourcing and offshoring that India is known for. India is not just a source of low-cost IT labor. It is a nexus of innovation and cutting-edge design.

Lesser known startups like Encore, MobiApps, Esqube and others are quietly developing projects that are changing the world while larger firms such as Aztec Software and Quest Engineering are providing world-class end-to end solutions to world class clients such as Microsoft and Toshiba.