"Good ideas," General Electric's legendary former CEO Jack Welch once told BT, "are meant to be borrowed." It wasn't merely a nifty soundbite. Rather it was a one-line introduction to Welch's management philosophy that had made the conglomerate one of the most successful in modern corporate history. By trashing the "not invented here" syndrome, Welch went on to borrow ideas from rival companies and execute them better. For example, Six Sigma, a quality system made famous by GE, was actually developed at Motorola. GE certainly did not invent the internet but, after initial circumspection, has gone on to adopt it to some wonderful effect.

That drives home another point about ideas. You don't need to have the biggest R&D budget or the smartest scientists to come up with inventions, systems or practices that change the world. Sometimes, patience and adversity can be potent crucibles too. Especially if you are talking of civilisations-like India's. And when a civilisation has survived 9,000 years, there are bound to be some clever ideas that contributed to its longevity, never mind that today it is one of the world's most poor. So just what are these ideas? There are at least 10 that we think the world can take from India. These pertain to different aspects of the Indian society, but each one of them meets two crucial criteria that every successful idea must: One, it must have demonstrated efficacy and, two, it must stand the test of time. Some of the ideas may be more relevant to some countries than others. But that's another thing about ideas: One must be smart enough to now which ones to pick, and dedicated enough to make them work.

The Art of Living: Spirituality doesn't have to be a serious business; it can, and should be fun

SPIRITUALITY
Abiding Mystical Appeal
It's not so much about seeking god as the peace within.

Even before garments, diamonds, and software appeared on India's trade horizon, spirituality was its biggest export. While it may not have fetched precious greenbacks, it did give India its first brand identity. Whether it came via Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's famous disciples from Liverpool, or via the part-comical-part-controversial-but-mostly-misunderstood International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), is not really an issue. Therefore, India as a global purveyor of spirituality is not a new idea. What's new, however, is its renewed relevance in an era of global terrorism, xenophobia, and economic uncertainty.

But does borrowing Indian spirituality mean having to travel to India, donning a saffron robe, taking a dip in the Ganges? Maybe not. For, the essence of spirituality is not in the medium, but in transcending the immediacy of our daily lives; realising that while it is one thing to do your best in whatever you do, it's quite another expecting it to deliver the desired results. If the idea is to acquire a measured detachment-realising that what's a lifetime for you is, in the larger scheme of things, but a galactic blip-then New York is as good as Rishikesh. However, if first-hand experience is your preferred route to spirituality, you are welcome to swing by India.

Jaipur Foot: It has a leg up on others

LOW-COST QUALITY HEALTHCARE
Mother Necessity
It is possible to cure well for a pittance.

What's common to an intra-ocular lens that costs $3, a prosthetic foot that costs $28 to make, and a bypass surgery for less than $2,000? Besides the unbeatable price proposition, two things: One, all of them are Indian examples and, two, all of them match global quality. You can get the ridiculously-priced intra-ocular lens at Aravind Eye Hospital in Madurai; the cheaper-than-a-five-star-meal rubber foot in Jaipur, and the steal-of-a-bypass surgery at any of Cardiac Research and Education's (care) seven hospitals in the country. Is their healthcare model replicable elsewhere? Perhaps not in countries like the US, but in the poor countries of Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia, very much. What's at the heart of such a business model? Ingenuity. At Aravind, systems borrowed from mass manufacturing lower costs while preserving quality. At Bhagwan Mahaveer Viklang Sahayata Samiti (or Jaipur Foot), department of irrigation pipes replace more expensive materials as successfully, and at care doctor-owners squeeze costs to make heart surgeries affordable. The interesting bit about India's low-cost, high-quality healthcare: It's profitable.

Papad-power: The possibilities are endless

COOPERATIVES
The Power Of Many
Self-organised businesses can become an agent of change.

Year: 1959. Seven women get together and start a papad-making business with a borrowed capital of Rs 80. Today, their business-a cooperative called Sri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Pappad-has 42,000 members in 17 states, and at last count raked in Rs 350 crore in sales. Rewind to the early 40s. Dairy farmers in Gujarat are impoverished because they lack direct access to the consumer. In 1946, a dairy cooperative is launched, and less than five decades later it has become the largest food products marketing organisation, boasting 2.28 million members and Rs 2,746 crore in revenues. Think small-time artisans and units with no marketing muscle. Khadi and Village Industries Commission, a Rs 10,193 crore cooperative, has turned them into a marketing juggernaut. Anybody out there who still thinks cooperatives can't empower the poor-be it India or Nigeria?

Herbal chemistry: There may be something in grandma's recipe, after all

TRADITIONAL MEDICINES
Back To The Roots
It may well pay to look beyond allopathy.

At the Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (CIMAP) in Lucknow, researchers have isolated a molecule from the leaves of the Himalayan yew tree that one day may cure cancer. The leaves of this tree have long been used by herdsmen in the lower Himalayas to relieve pain. And a drug to treat ulcers that is twice as effective as the best-selling Omeprazole is already in animal testing at the same lab. At Ranbaxy Laboratories, the largest Indian pharmaceuticals company, researchers are working with a variety of herbal plants to come up with drugs for new-age illnesses. To those who think of Indian traditional medicines such as Ayurveda, siddha, yunani, even tribal medicines as the vocation of quacks, this would come as a big surprise. But the fact is that it makes immense sense to marry a traditional body of medicine with the molecular rigour of modern science. For one, in many cases, developing a more effective drug may only involve improving the herbal chemistry. The cost of developing such a drug could also be significantly lower. A lot of Indian companies are waking up to the potential. Others could too.

Yoga: Aligning body and soul

WELLNESS
It's All About Balance
Good living doesn't mean high living.

Take some ayurveda, add a few asanas from yoga, and stir it up with a dash of meditation. What do you have? The perfect recipe for wellness-one that goes beyond mere popping of nutraceuticals or pumping of iron. Although most of us may not betray it, India is the best destination for wellness, the thickness of your wallet not being an issue. Want an economy detox package? Sign up for kottakkal. Fancy a more luxurious experience? Check out Ananda in the Himalayas or any of the Taj or Oberoi hotels. The former offers an authentic Kerala-style therapy, while the latter lends a Thai-twist to wellness. Turn that into an everyday regimen and you are staring in the face of immortality-well, almost.

Ringing in India: By making wireless telephony dirt cheap, Reliance Info has roped in new categories of consumers

MARKETING TO POOR
The Future Consumers
Crack the Indian market, and you can sell anywhere else in the world.

Cavinkare, a Chennai-based FMCG marketer, is toying with the idea of launching its spinz brand of perfume in sachets. The nifty bit: A sachet will cost around Rs 2. Reliance Infocomm, a mobile service provider, offers a phone connection for just Rs 501, and incredibly throws in a handset too. What are these companies thinking? By pricing its perfume sachet around Rs 2, CavinKare is trying to tap a market that otherwise may never use perfume. Ditto Reliance Infocomm, which knows that unless the cost of a call from its network is cheaper than a postcard, it has no chance of selling to consumers like plumbers and carpenters, who are now part of the five million subscribers it has racked up in less than a year. If it seems that companies like Reliance Infocomm and CavinKare are going out on a limb to sell, it's simply because they have no choice. Of India's 1.2 billion people, nearly three-fourths can't afford to buy anything of significance like a two-wheeler or a refrigerator. So, if you are going to crack the market, you'll need more than just a smart slogan. You need your entire marketing strategy worked backwards from the price point.

Munuswamy: Truly a Gold Winner

SHOESTRING ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Community Enterprise
Starting up with little is relatively easy in India.

Every day, train-loads of immigrants pour into India's metros. The fortunate ones find odd jobs, the unfortunate, misery. However, the smartest of them become the proud owners of a cyclerickshaw, a paan shop, even a factory. Like G. Munuswamy of T. Kaleesuwari refineries. He started off as a 14-year-old factotum at a grocery store in Chennai, but by 26 he had his own edible oil trading business. Thirty years on, he owns a refinery (he's imported another from Belgium) and sells Rs 340 crore worth of oil a year. There are many in India like Munuswamy, and indeed other parts of the world too. But nowhere else do so many eke out a living as shoestring entrepreneurs selling chaat, repairing scooters, or vending paan. What helps? Strong community support and lax regulations. A bad idea? Not if the only other option is starvation.

PepsiCo's Vibha Rishi: After a successful stint in India, Rishi has been moved up to the cola major's headquarters in New York

GLOBAL INDIAN
Citizen Of The World
What makes the Indian diaspora so extraordinarily successful?

Perhaps with the exception of Chinese, there's no community as global as the Indians. USA, Nigeria, Belgium, even Benin...there's hardly any country on the planet that doesn't have at least a sprinkling of the Indian diaspora. What makes the Indian immigrant one of the most successful citizens of the world? We can think of three reasons. Education, English, and enterprise. Superior education ensures that the immigrant Indian straightaway enters the upper strata of her adopted home, while English-speaking skill helps communicate and hence better integrate with the mainstream. Where both may be lacking, enterprise-and the resulting affluence-makes up for it. Here's a quick test: How many first-generation Chinese, Japanese or Germans can you think of who are or until recently were CEOs of large American corporations? None? Now, how many first-generation Indians can you think of who made it to the corner room in America? Start counting. Rakesh Gangwal (US Airways), Rono Dutta (United Airlines), Rajat Gupta (McKinsey), Raj Gupta (Rohm & Haas), Ajit Jain (head of Berkshire's "super-cat" insurance business)...and this is not counting Indian CEOs in Silicon Valley or even Arun Sarin of Vodafone, or Dinesh Paliwal of abb.

MANAGING UNCERTAINTY
Mastering Madness
Why the world, like India, must learn to deal with systemic snafus.

Life's a blur: It's time to get a new view

When the American east coast was plunged into darkness in August 2003 by an errant power plant in Ohio, life in cities like New York and Washington, D.C., came to a standstill. What a laugh, some Indians said, not just on the sub-continent, but those in America. Because outages are a way of life in the country. You are in the middle of an important presentation, and power goes off, forcing you to ad lib to faces in the dark. Worse, your multi-crore greenfield project is getting costlier by the day, but the boiler that you ordered, or a ministry approval that you've been waiting for, is nowhere near coming. And nobody can tell-besides making promises, of course-when it is likely to arrive. There are two reasons why others in the world must get comfortable with the idea of chaos. One, increasingly, their own world is getting a lot uncertain, be it courtesy Osama, a psychopathic sniper, or simply a teenage student who thinks it is cool to shoot his classmates. Two, they are increasingly coming into contact with markets that are uncertain. Managing uncertainty, then, may be the millennium's most important survival tool.

Block printing: Colours of Rajasthan

DESIGN
A Rich Tapestry
There's a goldmine to be tapped in Indian designs.

What can the world borrow from India in terms of design?" is the incredulous question racing through your mind. Agreed we still can't design a Corvette or a Mac, but we do know a thing or two about textile design. Take zari (gold thread embroidery), for example. This ancient art is common in saris from Benares to Kanchipuram. In fact, in the catwalks of Milan and Paris there are signs that Indian zari embroidery work is being used by large fashion labels. Block prints from the North and ikat work from Hyderabad, and the Lucknowi chikan work are some other styles that hold global potential. Why will these designs work in world markets? Because they are unique, employ intricate design techniques (it takes one day to weave one inch of gold tapestry), and are chic. Much more than bindi and bangles.

-reporting by Kushan Mitra and Sudarshana Banerjee