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作者 BonneCherie (小號詩人)
標題 [新聞] India’s Smaller Cities Show Off Growing Wealth(NYT 20101023)
時間 2010年10月24日 Sun. PM 01:06:54

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印度二線城市敢跟孟買比富
東方早報 作者周晶璐  發表於2010-10-25 02:22


忘掉孟買、新舊德里或者加爾各答吧,這些體量龐大的印度城市怪獸,除了有高聳的摩天
大樓,更多的是不斷擴張的貧民窟、永不休止的堵車、污濁的空氣……是時候看看印度的
城市新星們了!

幾十年來,印度中西部馬哈拉施特拉邦的奧蘭加巴德一直是古印度文化的中心,破舊的莫
臥兒時代的廢墟、佛教寺廟的斷壁殘垣,似乎與現代化城市的定位格格不入。 但是近來
,奧蘭加巴德突然以一種完全不同的姿態出現:發展迅速,日益城市化,出現了一批新興
富商,帶動了城市的奢侈品消費。

奧蘭加巴德的例子說明,在印度政府的二線城市發展計劃推動下,該國的一些中小型城市
已經開始了蓬勃的發展。 不僅在大城市,中小城市的富豪們的消費觀念也正在悄悄改變


150多名商人集體買奔馳

據《紐約時報》23日報導,為了給城市博取宣傳效應,刺激人們眼球,獲取更多外商投資
,150多名當地商人每人購買了一輛奔馳汽車,花費近1500萬美元巨款,由此,奧蘭加巴
德頓時聲名顯赫起來。

“在奧蘭加巴德,有許多公司擁有數億盧比的資產。”40歲的賽秦· 納高里是當地的房產
巨頭,早年他靠買賣和開發地皮發家。 去年春天,在與朋友一起去健身房健身的時候,
他腦海中一下浮現了集體購買豪車博取宣傳效應的點子。 於是他發起了身邊20位朋友,
隨後人數又不斷增加,以至於最後有150多名商人加入到了這個計劃,許多人同納高里一
樣,為三四十歲迅速暴富的中年人。

“但奧蘭加巴德的潛力仍未顯現出來。這裡有許多低調的有錢人,我們只需讓人們看到這
點即可。”納高里說。

小城市更吸引大企業

經濟學家和政府官員一直很看好印度推行的二線城市發展計劃——把二線城市作為經濟繁
榮的新助推器和培育中產階級隊伍的溫室。 比如,距離印度金融中心孟買幾個小時車程
的中型城市浦那那,已經發展成印度的製造業和信息技術業的中心。 位於印度南部泰米
爾納德邦的小城市哥印拜陀只有100萬人口,卻已經發展起了紡織製造業、軟件開發和汽
車零部件三大支柱產業。 這樣的例子說明,較小的城市更能吸引大企業的投資。

目前,奧蘭加巴德有1200萬人口,擁有一條以汽車裝配廠、工業工廠和農業加工企業為主
的成熟的產業鏈,吸引了一些生產出售小家電、手機和經濟型轎車的外企企業。 隨著經
濟的不斷發展和文化習俗的改變,奢侈品公司也對該地區表現出了興趣。 據悉,一個大
型商場將坐落在此,另將配合建成一個多功能影院和豪華酒店。

年輕暴富者揮金如土

“奧蘭加巴德的發展其實就是印度的縮影。”奔馳汽車印度公司的銷售和市場總監米特拉
說。 “在印度,有許多城市與奧蘭加巴德一樣,有著許多富有的人,他們並不依戀大城
市的紙醉金迷,過著低調而簡樸的生活。但現在這種情況正在改變。人們有消費慾望,並
認為他們理應得到奢侈品的享受。”

納高里的生活可以用奢華來形容——他居住的別墅寬敞明亮,充滿現代風格,意大利大理
石地板熠熠發光,屋內擺放著設計師設計的沙發。 院子裡停放著他的四輛座駕,包括最
新購買的白色梅賽德斯奔馳汽車。

年近古稀的賈德從上世紀60年代末就開始經營自己的廚房用具公司。 他的想法與納高里
截然不同。 “將1500萬花在購買高級轎車上,還不如用於投資或做慈善更為明智。我對
自己的經濟型轎車非常滿意,也不打算換掉。”賈德說。

他表示,經歷過過去困苦年代的他們這一代人,對自己辛勤賺來的錢看得很重。 而那些
快速發家的新一代與他們的觀念不同。 “全球化讓一夜暴富和投機變成可能,白手起家
的人已經不多了。”賈德說。

Back To Top 
India’s Smaller Cities Show Off Growing Wealth
Indians Tap Wealth of Savings to Dress Up Smaller Cities
By LYDIA POLGREEN
NYTimes Published: October 23, 2010

[圖]
AURANGABAD, India — For decades this central Indian city was vintage old India: crumbling Mughal-era ruins and ancient Buddhist caves surrounded by endless parched acres from which farmers coaxed cotton.
[圖]
But this month Aurangabad became an emblem of an altogether different India: the booming, increasingly urbanized economic powerhouse filled with ambition and a new desire to flaunt its wealth.
[圖]
A group of more than 150 local businessmen decided to buy, en masse, a Mercedes-Benz car each, spending nearly $15 million in a single day and putting this small but thriving city on the map. Frustrated that the usual Chamber of Commerce brochures were slow to attract new investment, the businessmen decided to buy the cars as a stunt intended to stimulate investment in Aurangabad, one of several largely unknown but thriving urban centers across India’s more prosperous states.

“In and around Aurangabad there are companies worth a thousand crores,” an amount of Indian rupees equivalent to about $225 million, said Sachin Nagouri, 40, a hyperkinetic local real estate mogul who came up with the idea. “But Aurangabad is not known even in this state. There is plenty of money here. We just need to show it.”

Economists and government officials have long acclaimed India’s so-called second-tier cities as new founts of prosperity and incubators of India’s growing middle class. Cities like Pune, a manufacturing and information technology hub a few hours outside of Mumbai, and Ahmadabad, the biggest city in India’s wealthiest state, Gujarat, have shown that smaller cities can attract big business.

But now even smaller cities in some of India’s most prosperous states are booming, too. Coimbatore, a city of about one million in Tamil Nadu near India’s southern tip, has expanded from textile manufacturing to software development and making auto parts.

Aurangabad, with 1.2 million people and a stable base of automotive assembly plants, factories and agribusiness, has long attracted the attention of companies selling small appliances, cellphones and economy cars. But as the city’s fortunes have grown, and cultural mores that once made ostentatious spending unseemly have shifted, companies selling luxury goods are also seeking out these newly flush consumers. A sprawling new mall just opened here, as well as new multiplex theaters and luxury hotels.

The story of Aurangabad is the story of India,” said Debashish Mitra, head of sales and marketing for Mercedes-Benz in India. “There are many cities like Aurangabad, where Indians have money but were not indulging in luxury; they were always in a saving mode. But now that is changing. People want to spend, and feel they deserve luxury.”

That certainly describes Mr. Nagouri, Aurangabad’s answer to Donald Trump. He has made a fortune buying and developing land in highly leveraged deals. He lives in a sprawling modern house kitted out with Italian marble floors and designer sofas. Four cars sit in his driveway, including the latest, a gleaming white Mercedes sedan with buttery chocolate leather seats.

He was working out at the gym one day last spring with a friend, he said, when the idea for the group purchase of the luxury cars struck him. Perhaps, he wondered, if they could get enough people together they could generate publicity for the city. It started with a core group of 20 friends, but as word got out the number quickly grew. Eventually more than 150 businessmen signed up, most of them in their 30s and early 40s like Mr. Nagouri.

These men could not be more different from their cautious fathers, who stashed every penny as a hedge against an uncertain future in India’s economy, which until 1991 was heavily controlled by the government. In the land of Gandhi and the birthplace of Buddhism, grand displays of material wealth are still frowned upon.

Older men like Ashish Garde, who runs Nirlep, a company that has made nonstick pots and pans here since 1968, declined to join the group. Mr. Garde said the nearly $15 million spent on luxury cars would have been better spent on investments in industries that would create jobs or donations to charity. He declared himself satisfied with his economy car.

Those of us who went through the hardships of the past know the value of money in a different way,” Mr. Garde said. “Those who get quick money, their relationship is different. After globalization things happen very easily. The element of struggle is gone.”

Mr. Nagouri’s family once had a small fortune in land holdings, but his father, a university lecturer, made a bad bet on a spring factory that went bankrupt.

“We had no money even to take a bus,” he said.

In the 1980s Mr. Nagouri got a job as a clerk in a construction company and spent six years studying how the business worked. He made a bit of money on the side selling sand and bricks. Eventually he struck out on his own, borrowing $2,000 from friends and relatives to build a small apartment building. He said he sold it almost immediately. “I understood the gimmick,” he said.

Not everyone is cheering Aurangabad’s new ostentatious wealth.

Sanjeev Unhale, a local antipoverty activist and journalist, said that the money spent for the luxury cars could have gone a long way to help those left behind by Aurangabad’s boom. The Marathwada region, of which Aurangabad is the capital, is cursed with perpetual droughts. Cotton farmers often assume huge debts to stay in business. Suicides by debt-ridden farmers are common, Mr. Unhale said. India’s economy may be nearing double-digit growth, but the wealth is not widely shared, and hundreds of millions live on $2 a day.

“Mercedes is for luxury,” he said. “It is not the manner in which we should show our mettle. We should show it in the genius and quality of what we produce.”

The desire to flaunt new wealth, however, is a natural part of India’s economic trajectory, said Ashutosh Varshney, a Brown University professor who has studied the social dimensions of India’s economic rise.

It does show the burst of ambition in the small towns of booming states,” Mr. Varshney said. “It is, deep down, a drive for recognition, an impulse known to be sociologically and psychologically important when those lower down rise.

Pramod Khairnar Patil, a local builder who bought a Mercedes, said entrepreneurs like him deserved to enjoy their wealth. Initially he had planned to buy the least expensive model, which sells for about $50,000, but his daughter persuaded him to upgrade, which nearly doubled the cost.

“It’s more expensive, but we should step ahead,” he said.

Mr. Patil has seen Aurangabad’s fortunes rise since he started out as a builder in 1990. Where he once built claustrophobic one-bedroom apartments for aspiring middle-class families, today he puts up airy townhouses and bungalows.

“People’s dreams are changing,” he said.

His own fortunes have grown, too. When his father built the modest house in which Mr. Patil lives, it did not occur to him that he needed more than one parking space. At that time owning even a single car was a distant dream. Now he has a problem deciding whether to park his sport utility vehicle or his shiny new Mercedes in the driveway.

Times have changed,” he said. “The things that were luxury initially now are the need of the time.

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※ 來源: Disp BBS 看板: Hindi 文章連結: http://disp.cc/b/145-GN4
※ 編輯: BonneCherie  時間: 2010-10-25 07:36:42  來自: 61-230-194-165.dynamic.hinet.net
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