2019年经济学人 印度金融—变身华尔街(1)（在线收听）

Financial centres, like delicate plants, thrive in the right conditions.

金融中心就像是娇嫩的植物一样，在适宜的环境下繁荣生长。

Those include a vibrant private sector, banks that direct capital based on the prospect for profit,

这样的环境包括一个充满活力的私营部门、根据盈利前景引导资本的银行、

analysts with direct access to companies and investors,

能够直接接触企业和投资者的分析师、

openness to foreign people and institutions, and businessfriendly, consistent laws.

对外国人和机构的开放态度以及商业友好的一致法律。

For good measure, throw in the cultural amenities that attract the sorts of employees who could choose to live anywhere.

另外还要加上文化便利设施，以此吸引各种愿意在此定居的员工。

India is not such a place. Its laws are many and perplexing; its domestic markets, inefficient and politicised.

印度并不是这样一个地方。印度法律纷繁复杂；其国内市场低效且政治化。

Though saving is unrewarding, capital is still costly for entrepreneurs.

尽管储蓄不能盈利，但对企业家来说，资本仍然很昂贵。

International firms are mostly limited to cross-border activities. It often scores badly on quality of life.

跨国公司多局限于跨境活动。印度的生活质量评分通常很低。

So it is hardly surprising that although tiny Hong Kong and Singapore are globally renowned centres of finance,

所以尽管小小的香港和新加坡是享誉全球的金融中心，

Mumbai, India's financial capital, features low on most rankings.

但印度金融之都孟买却在多数排名中排名靠后，也就不足为奇了。

But the country is nonetheless becoming an essential hub for international banks.

但这个国家正在成为国际银行的重要枢纽。

India is often their second-largest place of employment after their home country,

印度通常是仅次于他们祖国的第二大就业市场，

and becoming ever more important for their innovation efforts.

并对于他们的创新努力而言，印度也正变得越来越重要。

India has long received other countries' outsourced jobs.

长期以来，印度一直接受其他国家的外包工作。

Some of those are unsophisticated, such as answering phones or processing forms.

其中一些很简单，比如接听电话或处理表格。

Many, however, rely on Indian universities' remarkable ability to turn out engineers in great numbers,

但很多依赖于印度各大学培养大量工程师的非凡能力

and computing firms' ability to use them to solve complex problems.

以及计算机公司雇他们解决复杂问题的能力。

Such tasks may be dismissed as "back-office". But they are at the heart of modern finance.

这些任务或许可由‘后台’替代。但它们位于现代金融的中心。

In recent years banks have become global networks that link apps on smartphones,

近些年来，银行已经成为一种全球网络，连接智能手机应用、

workstations used for sales, and sophisticated programs used to manage compliance and allocate capital.

用于销售的工作站以及用于管理遵从性和分配资金的复杂程序。

Systems that once merely updated balances now determine financial-product marketing—

曾经只是更新余额的系统现在决定了金融产品的营销—

whom to send offers to, when to increase credit limits and when to adjust charges.

向谁发出邀请、什么时候提高信用额度以及什么时候调整收费。

For banks all over the world, many such tasks are now done in India.

对于全世界的银行而言，很多这样的任务现在都在印度完成。

Even tasks that would seem to require the personal touch—a trusted adviser pitching a deal to the boss of a client firm, say

甚至是看起开需要个性化品质的任务—比如一位值得信赖的顾问向客户公司的老板推销一笔交易

—may rely on a fact-sheet compiled by an Indian research team overnight.

—可能要依靠印度研究小组连夜编写的情况说明书。

The only things that cannot be done in India are client meetings, says Tuhin Parikh, a senior executive at Blackstone.

唯一不能在印度完成的事情是客户会面，黑石集团的高级主管图希恩·帕里克表示。

Since 2014 the buy-out firm has nearly quadrupled the amount of property it leases in India to international financial firms,

自2014年起，这家收购公司在印度租赁给国际金融公司的房产数量增加了近四倍，

from 690,000 square feet (64,000 square metres) to 2.7m.

从690,000平方英尺（64,000平方米）到27,000,000平方英尺。