A city of milk and NRI honeyANAND
The tenth and concluding part in our series on the explosive economic growth of small town India.
India’s best-maintained six-lane expressway connects this city—famous for the billion-dollar Amul brand—with Ahmedabad. The average speed on the expressway is 110 km per hour, but the pace of change and action in Anand is even faster. The city boasts a rich and consuming middle-class. It’s Patel rap at play. A vast majority of the residents of this town are non-resident Patels from the motel trade in the US. The city is, by and large, clean and free of the grime associated with small town India.
Take the case of Raoji Patel, a man in his seventies, who, after being thrown out of Uganda, went to England where he owns 11 corner stores. Now retired in Anand, he has opened charitable temples and a hospital. It is this philanthropy combined with the cooperative model of Amul that ensures a broader base of prosperity. Says Mohitbhai Shah, a farmer in nearby Petlad suburb: “If you have six cows, you have an outlet that gives you a fair price. I think the farmer is happier in these parts than in the rest of India.”
The NRI income and well-off farmer are attracting the attention of corporate India. Bharti and Subhiksha are already here. Plans by Reliance, Aditya Birla group as well as Adani are also afoot. Comments Aditya Bhatt, a management consultant: “Anand has many advantages. The infrastructure is excellent, they have one of the best universities in India in the nearby Vallabh Vidya Nagar and they also have access to capital. All major banks such as HDFC and ICICI have a big presence here. When you combine local entrepreneurship with the money order NRI Economy, you have the making of a boom.”
This is reflected in the realty boom; the last three years have seen a tripling of property prices. At the Fame Adlabs theatre, ticket prices can go up to Rs 200 for the reclining seats. Several grand villas, though largely empty since NRIs come only for a couple of weeks a year, contribute to keeping land prices buoyant.
The famous Amul Dairy has a curious visitor from Seattle: Kirsten Grote of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She is here to study the Amul model so that it can be leveraged for the foundation’s agricultural initiatives. And there is plenty to learn at Anand. Says BM Vyas, MD of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, the apex body that Markets the Amul brand: “People come here all the time; they want to learn and hopefully replicate the success of the Anand model. It makes us happy that the city is seen as an inspiration across India for building capacity for broad-based enterprise.
“It has also gained from access to high technology in sectors such as the machinery and electronic industry; both have a sizeable presence with a big plant by Elecon that manufactures electronic equipment and at least three new entrants planned over the next two years.
Says Vivek Bhandari, director of Indian Rural Management Institute, Anand: “This is a traditionally wealthy place that is also logging on to the globalised context. You have a cosmopolitan culture thanks to the NRIs and because it is midway between Ahmedabad and Vadodara on the Mumbai grid, there is also prosperity through connectivity.” Add to that an 80% literacy rate and you have the makings of progressive workforce.
As Indians grow richer, Anand is sure to gain. As far as Anand is concerned, it would prefer to let them drink milk; that way the city keeps on growing and returning a large income to farmers all around. It is a bottom-of-the-pyramid story that started even before CK Prahalad was born.
The tenth and concluding part in our series on the explosive economic growth of small town India.
India’s best-maintained six-lane expressway connects this city—famous for the billion-dollar Amul brand—with Ahmedabad. The average speed on the expressway is 110 km per hour, but the pace of change and action in Anand is even faster. The city boasts a rich and consuming middle-class. It’s Patel rap at play. A vast majority of the residents of this town are non-resident Patels from the motel trade in the US. The city is, by and large, clean and free of the grime associated with small town India.
Take the case of Raoji Patel, a man in his seventies, who, after being thrown out of Uganda, went to England where he owns 11 corner stores. Now retired in Anand, he has opened charitable temples and a hospital. It is this philanthropy combined with the cooperative model of Amul that ensures a broader base of prosperity. Says Mohitbhai Shah, a farmer in nearby Petlad suburb: “If you have six cows, you have an outlet that gives you a fair price. I think the farmer is happier in these parts than in the rest of India.”
The NRI income and well-off farmer are attracting the attention of corporate India. Bharti and Subhiksha are already here. Plans by Reliance, Aditya Birla group as well as Adani are also afoot. Comments Aditya Bhatt, a management consultant: “Anand has many advantages. The infrastructure is excellent, they have one of the best universities in India in the nearby Vallabh Vidya Nagar and they also have access to capital. All major banks such as HDFC and ICICI have a big presence here. When you combine local entrepreneurship with the money order NRI Economy, you have the making of a boom.”
This is reflected in the realty boom; the last three years have seen a tripling of property prices. At the Fame Adlabs theatre, ticket prices can go up to Rs 200 for the reclining seats. Several grand villas, though largely empty since NRIs come only for a couple of weeks a year, contribute to keeping land prices buoyant.
The famous Amul Dairy has a curious visitor from Seattle: Kirsten Grote of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She is here to study the Amul model so that it can be leveraged for the foundation’s agricultural initiatives. And there is plenty to learn at Anand. Says BM Vyas, MD of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, the apex body that Markets the Amul brand: “People come here all the time; they want to learn and hopefully replicate the success of the Anand model. It makes us happy that the city is seen as an inspiration across India for building capacity for broad-based enterprise.
“It has also gained from access to high technology in sectors such as the machinery and electronic industry; both have a sizeable presence with a big plant by Elecon that manufactures electronic equipment and at least three new entrants planned over the next two years.
Says Vivek Bhandari, director of Indian Rural Management Institute, Anand: “This is a traditionally wealthy place that is also logging on to the globalised context. You have a cosmopolitan culture thanks to the NRIs and because it is midway between Ahmedabad and Vadodara on the Mumbai grid, there is also prosperity through connectivity.” Add to that an 80% literacy rate and you have the makings of progressive workforce.
As Indians grow richer, Anand is sure to gain. As far as Anand is concerned, it would prefer to let them drink milk; that way the city keeps on growing and returning a large income to farmers all around. It is a bottom-of-the-pyramid story that started even before CK Prahalad was born.
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