Looking to invest in a developing market?

Come to Madurai!

Everyone is talking about it. Madurai hopes to be the next big center of information technology in India. Construction started in December on two large IT parks.

Colleagues of mine said that when they moved to their flat in Madurai two years ago, their view was of fields and farmland. Now it's of white stone houses, and office complexes, roads and traffic.

Madurai is a very conservative, small city. People here are religious. Marriages here are arranged. Families here stick together. That's why it's so hard for many of the educated here that they have to move to Chennai or Bangalore for work. The hope is that these IT parks will hasten the already fast development in Madurai. That it will bring these jobs to the people.

The problem is: how do you do that without shaking things up too much? Is it possible to have this fast growing development and not inspire young people to do cosmopolitan things, like to wear jeans? Or smoke? Or not go to temple? Or choose love marriages? ...

On another note, a German colleague of mine is very concerned about what will happen to the very poor here in Madurai when the middle class becomes more empowered. Will they be shipped out in a town clean up? Will their economies be disrupted when they're shifted to government subsidized poor housing? ...

But for now, people are excited. I was speaking with a coworker whose two sisters are working in Chennai, while she and her mother take care of their kids. When asked whether the IT parks will open soon, she opens her eyes wide.

"I hope so!" she said.