The Big Mac Index

Heres some really tasty stuff on the Big Mac Index

http://www.economist.com/markets/bigmac/displayStory.cfm?story_id=2708584

(Although the crummy table does not tell me how much a big mac costs in India. I suspect that the BIG MAC index will fail with India because a big mac at spencers would cost about a 150 Rupees (heh heh, about 3.4$ at current exchang rates) ,whereas in the US it apparently costs only 2.90$ leading us to the outrageous conclusion that the Rupee is overvalued.

The answer is simple, 'supply-demand'. While the big mac is like vada pav in the US, its more like gourmet in India. maybe we'll look for some other method to measure PPP

Maybe we can compare the cost of services,say, a haircut. A very decent indian haircut (Like for instance in 'salon' topaz, in adyar costs about 40 rupees. with air conditioning, Stuff labelled 'Nivea for men' and an unlimited collection of stardust, filmfare and even the economic times, its pretty cool. That makes about 1 Dollar.

Now, a haircut in the US, to quote peter lynch (from his book "Beating the Street" written in 1994) from his "friendly neighbourhood barber vinnie dilorenzo" costs 10$. Forget 10 years of inflation to be on the safe side. This makes services in the US 10 times as expensive as in India.

Logic tells me that for high flying techie jobs, this unbalance will be MUCH higher, also aggravated because of the sheer numbers of techies that India is churning out.

(( I beleive that this is probably going to continue being the theme in the coming years(as if its not now). So if we (Me, Indians as such) can improve on skillsets / capabilites to match the sophistication levels of the west there is going to be HUGE opportunities. In services, in manufacturing(Whee), heck, everywhere.

Whew, Ive got lotsa stuff to do