India Culture and Business Etiquite

The purpose of this report is to become more familiar with the culture and business etiquette in the country of India. The findings of this report will aid the company’s employees that will be traveling to India later this year to negotiate business contracts. The focus of this study is on the culture and business etiquette in the country of India. Information will be gathered from articles and journals from experienced researchers. India is believed have the second largest population in the world. Knowing about one’s culture beforehand can give the employees an advantage. India’s culture is very diverse with many religious groups. In a recent journal article, SOCIAL OVERVIEW (2008), the findings revealed that the area of the Indian subcontinent were subject to successive incursions of settlers and invaders including Aryans, Arabs, Parthians, Greeks, Central Asians, Mongolians, Tibetans, Burmese, the Himalayans, and Malay. This contributed to the variety of ethnic and religious group’s through-out India. India’s culture is somewhat different than that of the United States. In India, cows are considered sacred and direct eye-contact may come off as intrusive. Other unique differences are that feet are considered unclean and should not be pointed at anybody. Butler notes that business lunches are preferred to dinners’ and that Hindus do not eat beef and Muslims do not eat pork. It is important to remember this when a client is taken to lunch or dinner. Also another main cultural difference is that the head of a person should never be touched while in India. There are also a few rules to follow to be on the safe side while in