I felt slightly better today than I did the day before. Still some chills and occassional stomach cramps, but they seem to be lessening. I'm on a steady round of Tums, plus Immodium, and that seems to be all I need. Hopefully my body will adjust to the climate and foods soon and I'll be over all the stomach troubles. This, I suppose, is a downside of growing up in America. We have such a sterile environment that we don't build up immunity as others naturally do.
Today we enjoyed the same guest lecturer, Sunil Parekh of B Tech ITT Delhi. This time he went into more depth on the Indian economy. He was very supportive of democracy in India, and particularly of the free market system. I was surprised to hear that poverty levels have declined in India from 46% of the population in 1980 to roughly 16%-18% of the population in 2010 (with "poverty" being defined as less than $1 U.S. per day). India really is producing a tremendous amount of high-tech services and the economy is growing rapidly. Although the average standard of living is still quite low, there is vibrant growth potential for businesses and I can see why SMU chose for us to study advertising in this particular diverse and emerging market.
Following lunch in the MICA dining hall, I attended our second Research Methodology class. The professor (Dr. Rajneesh Krishna) is very animated when he speaks and has quite a lot of industry research experience. I was happy to find that this particular set of lectures was an overview of the research process, which was a review for me from the pre-requisite Advertising Research class I took last fall. I had been worried that the statistical analysis and techniques used in this class would be over my head, but I think I'll be able to handle it. Especially good for me today, since I'm still not feeling particularly well.
No photos from today in particular, although here are a few more of the MICA campus:
To see more photos of my time in India, connect with me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/alexandra.watson. You can also find me on Twitter as "abcwatson".
That is surprising about the poverty levels decreasing. Do they have anything in particular they attribute it to?
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