rye3131

1. District-3131: Pune-INDIA PUNE www.rye3131.org

2. Agenda • Why India? and Pune? • Overview • Fact-file • Culture/Festival • Food • Infrastructure; Educational; Economy • Tourist Attractions; including nearby • RYE History & Success Stories

3. INDIA World’s Largest Democracy: 1.2bn (1/3rd youth) 3rd Largest Economy (in terms of PPP) Rich Culture, Family-values Secular (different religions) “Multi-lingual, Spiritual” Art, Music, Dance, Festivals, Sports 28-States (each with own language, food) Historical; with Palace, Fort, Temples …

4. Why Pune? • Ideal mix of Good Infrastructure & Rich Culture • Other metros like Mumbai, Delhi does not offer different experience (as they are similar to what is there back home) • Many Nationalities from world-over already present (as student, expatriates, long-stay) • Safer • Well-connected within India by Air, Rail, Road (Mumbai/Bombay <200-kms)

5. Pune Oxford of East Cultural Capital Good mix of Old (1/5th) & New City Cosmopolitan (<40% Local) “Safe, with IT/ITeS 24x7 working” Good Infrastructure Green with 40%+ Open space Best Weather (amongst Top-8 cities in India)

6. b) Fact-file • Coordinates: 18-degree 32-minutes North; 73-degree 51-minutes East • Altitude: 559-meters above mean sea-level • Area: 140 sq.km. • Population: 4mn (amongst Top-8 city in India) • Languages: Marathi (Local), English widely spoken; Hindi (National) understood/spoken • Season: Summer (Mar-June; <38-degree Cel.), Monsoon (June-Sept; ~100cm rain-fall), Winter (Oct-Feb; 5-25 deg.) • Time-zone: GMT + 5 ½ hours (same zone across India) • Literacy rate: 3/4th+ • Economy: Automobile mfg hub; IT (Information Technology) co.’s; Heavy Engineering/Global mfg co.’s;

7. c) Culture/Festival

8. d) FoodWhile North-Indian food; and perhaps Chicken Tikka; may be the only known Indian food outside India, actual Indian cuisine is full of variety:

9. e) Infrastructure/Educational/Economy • Infrastructure: • International Airport in Pune (and Mumbai airport 200-km away) • Well-connected by Air/Train/Road within India • World-class Medical facilities; Professional Fitness Club/Gym • Best Leisure facilities (shopping-malls, theme-park, multiplex, club) • Educational: • Variety of courses available; like Engineering, Science, Commerce, Media, Journalism, Fashion, Photography, Animation, Film-making… • Best known Institutes like Ferguson, Symbiosis, FTII… • Economy: • Automobile Hub in India; with Mercedes-Benz, Volks-Wagon, Tata Motors, Bajaj (2-wheelers), John Deere (Tractors), ZF steering…. • World-class IT co.’s in Hinjewadi, like Infosys, Wipro, TCS, Cognizant.. • Heavy Engineering co.’s like Atlas Copco, Tetrapack, KSB, Philips…

10. f) Attraction/Sight-seeing

11. g) RYE-3131 History • Pune has been participating in International Youth Exchange since over 10-years, with around 30-60 students every year • Most students for Long-term, and few short-term exchange; around 1/3rd are girls. • Many success stories, like: • Almost all inbound students appreciate Indian (joint) family system, and society • Inbound girl from USA; after completing RYE; comes back to study Medicine for 5-yrs, and stays with same family without RYE… • Outbound student starts a joint-venture company with overseas host • Inbound boys likes India so much that come back to settle down • For 2014-15, good mix of students from Science, Music, Commerce, IT (information Technology) etc.