Author: Dana Greenspon, Field Producer

So if any students out there are wondering if they’re going to have trouble getting a loan for school next year, here’s the bottom line: Student loans and student loan companies aren’t going anywhere, but you may need to shop around a little harder to find the best deal. That seems to be what I’m hearing from pretty much everyone I’ve spoken with, no matter what their bias is.

But there is another issue I didn’t have time to include in tonight’s story: the home equity piece. Colleges and universities often use home equity as a way of determining financial need. A family making $50,000 a year who owns a house has different financial strengths than a family who makes $50,000 and rents. With home prices and home equity falling in many regions of the country, schools will need to recalculate need-based aid – and they may find they have more needy students than before. How will institutions deal with this? TBD.

In the easy, breezy days of elementary school, I remember my principal announcing an event called the “Invention Convention.” Students were told to come up with idea for an invention, build or sketch a model and present the invention to the class. I’m pretty sure there was some sort of prize involved for the best invention – very exciting stuff for a bunch of 8 year-olds.

The inventions ranged in sophistication, from neon Velcro socks (why?) to robots that would clean your house for you (if anyone knows of this invention becoming a reality, please email me…). I don’t recall what I invented, but I have the distinct feeling that it involved an overly elaborate contraption for a fairly simple task.

I highly doubt any of my fellow classmates scored patents for their inventions, but that same innovative spirit has driven so many of the products we take for granted today. As I explain in my report for NBR's "Copy Protection" series and special, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) is swamped by some 450,000 applications each year, from inventors – perhaps one-time childhood dreamers – who believe their innovations are patentable. That’s a pretty astounding number.

Call me a science geek (you wouldn’t be the first…), but I love learning about nanotechnology. Sure, some of the science has been overhyped, but there is an abundance of high-level, cutting-edge research that has the potential to revolutionize the way we do, well, almost everything.

In tonight’s broadcast, I talk about the use of nano-sized detectors to root out food pathogens and clean up our food supply. But I’m continually amazed at how this science of the super small applies to a field that is so…large. When you talk about “nano” research, you’re really talking about research in fields as diverse as medicine, engineering, cosmetics, textiles, food – the list goes on and on.

Traveling around India, we found ourselves inundated with signs of India’s real estate explosion. From the extensive construction sites to the glossy billboards advertising developments – one newer than the next – there was no denying a widespread Indian real estate boom.

What I found particularly interesting, though, was the interest by developers in building up areas on the fringes of major cities. As one investor I spoke with said, prices at auctions in “obvious” locations like Mumbai get pumped up beyond what might be considered reasonable. But in outlying areas, you will pay less and be able to do more – the thought being that as India continues along this growth path, the major cities will spread and bring with them the requisite density.

By the time you read this, our crew will be back in the United States, having spent 14 days gathering material in India. I suppose, then, that this is the hardest entry to write. The last in any series carries with it the expectation that it will tie everything up in a nice, neat package, as if the other entries are evidence leading to some sort of conclusion. But this is by no means an ending. Now our real work begins.

Up to now, what you have read here has been a behind-the-scenes look – through my eyes – at what it has been like for Darren, Steve and I to travel around India, gathering string for our series and special, “India’s Promise.” I have divulged very little detail about the meat of our stories, other than alluding to people we’ve spoken with or sites we’ve visited. For some reading this travelog, that approach has made these entries routine. And that is why the greatest challenge lies ahead. Now that we’ve collected hours and hours of material, we must put it all together in the sophisticated and thoughtful fashion characteristic of Nightly Business Report coverage.

Thirteen days in, one more to go, and until today I had no issues with crime in India. In fact, I felt safer walking through some of the slums here than I do walking through my neighborhood in Washington, DC. But today, on our day off, I was caught off guard. I was mugged…by a monkey.

With our first day off in two weeks, we decided to visit the Elephanta Caves to get a taste of Mumbai’s early history. These Shiva temple caves are thought to date from about 750 AD and are a truly stunning study in the culture and history of Indian civilization. The caves are located on an island about five and a half miles from the Mumbai coast, reachable by a scenic one-hour ferry ride from the city.

When we hopped off the boat, a handful of gentlemen greeted us, saying that for only a few hundred rupees they could give us a tour or provide us with a guidebook. I was very hot and feeling a little run down, so I paid no attention, allowing Darren and Steve to explain that we weren’t interested. I did hear one man say something about “monkeys” on the island and how they “like food,” but I figured it was part of his sales pitch.

The other day, one of our interviews told us a story that had been circulating about a comment Indian Commerce Minister Kamal Nath recently made. “We find the Europeans fighting for a 35-hour week,” Mr. Nath said, “and we in India are fighting for a 35-hour day.”

I think that speaks volumes about the ambition, energy and commitment to success here. Whether it was the Commerce Minister himself, real estate mogul Surendra Hiranandani or education activist Madhav Chavan, all have given the impression that “if only there were more hours in the day….”

We could all use more hours in the day (Although, given how much our crew has been working on this trip, I’m glad there are only 24.), but I think there is a strong sense among people here that India has a lot of work to do in order to fulfill its promise. They know what the problems are, and I sense an urgency to solve them so that India can continue along this growth path.

When talking about India’s booming economy, people often compare India and China. Given that both developing economies are growing at 8 or 9 percent a year, I think the inclination to make that comparison is understandable. But comparing the two countries is complex and, as I’ve learned, an area of extreme sensitivity here. On several occasions, without us mentioning the word “China” or drawing a comparison between the two countries, an interview would voluntarily say, “If you are going to compare India and China, you must remember we are two very different countries. We are a democracy and cannot do the things China does.”

Whether we were speaking with Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, Microsoft India Chairman Ravi Venkatesan or real estate developer Surendra Hiranandani, the China comparison elicited defensive overtones. Indians pride themselves on being the largest democracy in the world, but I think they also see that a democracy with a population of 1.1 billion people – and a coalition government to boot – faces hurdles that the Chinese government does not.

I have received a few comments about the blog, and I would like to clear up a few misunderstandings. First, and most importantly, the content you read here is not the NBR series & special “India’s Promise.” This is a subjective travelog, an account of a first-time traveler to India – and the developing world – of what she sees as she travels from shoot to shoot with her crew, gathering string on the Indian economy. If it seems that I’m writing through a Westerner’s eyes, well, I guess I am. I am a Western journalist, visiting this country for the first time and receiving a crash course in Indian life, culture and politics – and writing my impressions of all of these things at midnight after working 14-17 hour days.

But “India’s Promise” itself will be a series of objective reports on specific issues – rather than the general, subjective posts you are reading here – and will utilize the same sort of thorough and thoughtful reporting that NBR viewers expect… and that we at NBR value. We have been working very hard, trying to reach numerous segments of society here, so that our reports do not seem to be those of unseasoned Westerners, but rather those of meticulous and thoughtful journalists. I have deliberately not discussed the content of our stories because I want to keep that material separate. We need time to think and sift through all of our material (and I assure you, there is a lot of it) so that we can bring you the best stories.

Today, in Bangalore, we found the first cup of coffee that met with Darren and Steve’s approval – or at least came close. Up to this point, they had encountered disappointment after disappointment and were a bit downtrodden by the fact that Starbucks has not made it to India yet. But, today, we came one step closer to the real thing.

I’m sure there are many explanations for this (we finally found a good chain, we had a stronger cup, we were all desperate for caffeine in any form whatsoever), but I think a lot of it has to do with the city itself. As someone said to me earlier today, “Bangalore is a coffee city.” Whereas the most frequently served beverage in Delhi was a hot cup of tea (usually Masala chai), I’ve noticed that here we’ve been served coffee more often than tea.

That certainly fits with the character of the city I’ve seen so far. Bangalore strikes me as a city filled mostly with young professionals, rushing off to work at one of the tech or BPO (business processing outsourcing) companies here. Years ago, Bangalore was referred to as a “pensioners paradise,” where retirees or near-retirees would move once they had made a decent living. But, now, the city is filled with young, recent college graduates who have moved here to take advantage of all the employment opportunities – opportunities at companies like Infosys, where we found this caffeinated holy grail.