Question by a student: What is India’s biggest obstacle to becoming a developed nation?

Answer: Self-doubt. Leadership qualities are essential. We must produce students who say, “What I can do for you” – this is leadership. We need mission oriented leaders.

Regarding talent, When I said Indians are talented, I do not mean Indians are the most talented of all. Indians, Chinese, Americans – all are talented. And I do not thnk that Chinese as more talented than Indians.

Since India has a good population of under utilized, well educated, English speaking, talented population, American companies are coming to India to utilize the talent in their development centers in India. It is much better than unutilized. (Thanks to the British, even though they took all of India’s glory and wealth during their ruling, we learnt English and now taking sort of a revenge with BPO work )

Regarding the BPO and other offshore work, it is anyway better than Indians going to foreign country and working there. These are the baby steps we have to take to reach our goal. So I feel good about India doing the high quality work, receiving better Indian salaries, though it is less compared to US salary standards if lived in the US. Business is always a two-way street, both has to benefit.

Since our nation failed to utilize the innovation and invention of Indians, they went to the US and other countries and did great things. Our government still fails to provide a good environment and infrastructure. The MNCs operating in India will give Indians a better perspective of life and better research environment and opportunities. This could later result into Indians developing something of their own and contributing to the world. This way, the dependency on government is reduced.

We cannot depend on the politicians for India’s development, they are outdated and incapable (except a few). With the new industries and well educated society settling down in India, we will have a better tomorrow.

Regarding products: As you know India opened up the economy only in 1991. Indian companies like Wipro, Infosys and Tata have started known to the world very recently. As far as I know, Infosys developed Finacle many years back. But it takes a lot of time to establish in the product area and to get the return on investment and involves a lot of marketing. In IT service industry, Indian companies made a debut by doing all sh*t work during the Y2K conversion and proved ourselves good at that!

Indian companies need to have a very good profile in order for us to sell products outside India. Even today, the usage of technology is very limited in India and so not many local products available in the market. India’s computer usage was very limited for someone to try making products for India. Another difficulty we had was supporting more than 20 languages, unlike the US and other countries. With the new technology, things are much better. Now Indian weather is getting clear and soon will have products coming out. It is just the matter of time.

In the new world, no country is independent. Actually, there should not be any borders between countries at least in technology. Its th enew global economy and everyone has a role to play.

P.S: My blog gives a student’s perspective of being in US. Feel free to visit and leave comments..

PC

Outsourcing in general is mainly about cheap labor, no doubt about it. I totally agree with that.

But in the context of this article, offshoring by tech majors like Microsoft, Google and Amazon is not just about cheaper labor. Its about great Indian talent.

BTW, regarding software products: Indian software giants are not product companies, but services ad consulting companies. That is the difference. Anyway, I know that Infosys has a successful banking product, Finacle.

Revenue of Indian giants like Wipro, Infosys, TCS and CTS mainly depends on US (more than 65%). So when there is a slow down in the US economy (dotcom doom in 2000, post 9/11), it affects the whole Indian IT export too. It will continue the same way until India’s economy start consuming these services. It is the simple ecomonics of demand and supply.

PC

Offshoring is not about cheap labor any more. It is about tapping great talent and high quality. Now Indians will also get a chance to use their brain living in India itself and contribute to the world as well as have a respected social life.

Companies like Microsoft, Oracle and Google have grown very well without having centers in India. Having multinationals will surely help our economy and social life grow. (Do not read as westernization here, please!).

Just think about Singapore, the country with less area than Thiruvananthapuram city! They have all kinds of industry there and mostly multinationals.

BTW, I have been drafting a post regading this topic in detail compiling my thoughts, but I don’t think I will finish it soon! I am lazybones now-a-days.