By now, most of you would have read about the Indian election or at least heard of it. With more than 800 million registered voters, India took pride in conducting the largest-ever election in the world. Narendra Modi, the leader of the Hindu Nationalist Bharatiya Janata party, had a historic landslide victory over the incumbent national Congress which ran the office for the past decade.   

Modi is viewed as pro-business. He campaigned on a promise of economic revival through foreign investments and businesses. His victory in the election is viewed as a beginning of an economic boom in India. If this is true, it could affect the American companies as well.   

Wal-Mart recently announced plans to open 50 new wholesale locations in India. It is currently banned from entering the retail business due to a protectionist policy which many believe Modi will eliminate.   

Currently Starbucks, has stores in more than 40 locations at four different states in India. McDonalds, KFC, Burger King, Papa John’s and Domino’s are other examples of rapidly growing western food chains in India.   

So with a pro-business attitude of this new government, many American companies could start expanding to India to serve its 1.2 billion people, not just in retail and fast food but in other lines of businesses as well, including fashion, medicine, agriculture and defense.

If this happens, India could become more like America, in terms of businesses and lifestyle at least. India could be a home away from home for an average American who could continue to shop at Wal-Mart and grab coffee in Starbucks. This would change the whole experience for anyone choosing to visit, study abroad or settle in India.

But this influx has its repercussions. India could be impacted by the western ideologies potentially influencing the Indian culture itself. It is worth noting that more than 20 percent of the school-going Indian kids are already obese, mainly due to western junk food.

An official Government Accountability Office report says that between 2000 and 2009, 46.9 percent of the total approved H-1B visa holders had India as their country of birth. According to Department of Labor website, “H-1B provisions are to help employers who cannot obtain needed business skills and abilities from the U.S. workforce by authorizing temporary employment to qualified individuals.” Nearly half of the H-1B visa holders were from India, mostly being hired for technology-related positions, followed by China and Canada.   

When you think about it, Indian-Americans are now CEOs of some of the world’s largest technology companies, including Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Harman and Bose, and directors and senior executives at Google, Cisco, HP and other leading companies.

So how would this trend be affected by this new government? One of the three things could happen.

First, Indians could continue to come to the United States and impact America.

Secondly, the Indian government could start luring back its talented citizens that it lost to the American workforce. It can do this through supportive business infrastructure and safe investment opportunities.

Lastly, India could be welcoming more American entrepreneurs through its pro-business attitude.

Having said that, American companies have already started establishing firm roots in India. IBM for instance, through a subsidiary called IBM India, has more than 100,000 employees there. Zynga, the maker of “Farmville,” opened its largest office outside of the United States in Bangalore, India — a year after the company was started. Microsoft and Google have offices in India whose employees work on products ranging from Xbox to fancy computer servers.   

If Modi’s economic reforms go through, India could become a lucrative heaven for businesses and startups, backed by government incentive programs packaged with relatively cheap and skilled labor from India and China.   

Indian economy is booming. India just surpassed Japan to become the third largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity according to the recent World Bank report, preceded by China and the U.S.   

Given India’s development along with a pro-business and foreign investment government led by Modi could potentially transform India to be the next Silicon Valley.  

Investors are currently pouring billions of dollars into the Indian economy, hoping to rise with the wave. This could be seen as the time when people invested in Apple before it went mainstream or buying stocks in Amazon.com when it was nothing more than a book selling site.

Don’t be surprised when the next big startup is based in India or an American entrepreneur moving to India to start a business.

So what could this mean to you at Iowa State? Well, the next time you sit next to a classmate from India, think about this new political and cultural ideologies that they could bring with them.

While you think about that, a pizzeria in Mumbai has already started delivering pizzas using drones.

But among all this excitement, Indians should also have some realistic standards. They should not expect one person to change everything and save India from corruption and poverty while boosting its economy. Change comes from each person doing his or her part first.

India needs to be cautious when it plans to encourage foreign businesses.  Because the last time it tried, it got colonized and lost its identity. It doesn’t have to be McDonalized this time and lose what is left and known as India.