Is India an IT Super Power ?

India stands 3rd when it comes to IT product making next only to U.S and Ireland. In IT services we stand 2nd next only to U.S.

Many claim our achievements in IT as one of these.

Vijay Khosla was the Co-Founder of SUN microsystems.

Microsoft's Vice Precident is Sanjay Mirchandani. Just see the acknowledgements list for Indian names. Internet Explorer is the defacto browser of the day, isn't it happy to see these names. First name is an Indian name (it comes in the alphabetical order though).

Vinodh Daham the father of Pentium also became the partner of AMD.

HP sometime back developed a strategic product called E-Speak. The idea of E-Speak was conceived, headed and driven by Indians. The CEO of the E-Speak operations was Rajeev. The brain behind the specification and the one who defined the nuts and bolts of E-Speak was Arindam Banerjee. Sekhar (a NASA scientist) was the head for the tools section.

I hope everybody knows the story behind bose speakers.

You would have heard that an infosys's banking product is being used in Africa.(?)

Indians have contributed a lot to the Java technology.

Is it enough to call ourselves an IT Super Power ?

Is there any single company setting the standard for a particular cutting edge technology in the IT field? No, absolutely not. I find very little Indians aspiring to become Entrepruners. They tend or rather prefer to work under someone instead take a bigger pain in establishing their own business empire.

China, Taiwan and korea are very good in computer electorinics. Only Dell and compaq sell systems, though they use korean parts. Indian IT companies are doing exactly the same.

Look at the way the Japanese, Koreans and the Taiwanese are treated or rather respected in the west as against, we Indians. There is no doubt that they are looked a little high, rated high and ... When you see the number of Asians settled in US in the 70's, the Indians are the least in number to start their own firms, but top in the migration. ofcourse, there are some interesting success stories. But, look at the bigger picture. where do we stand? there is nothing wrong in analysing and correcting our mistakes, right? whereever u find good, make it yourself.

For example, take the automobile industry. when u take automobiles, u say Japan and germany are super powers (as against v call India as an IT super power). When u see the western market, they are flooded with toyota, honda, nissan, mazda, volkswagen, benz, bmw etc ... above all ferrari. So, when they say Japanese are good in autos... They have really nice products... they have cutting edge technologies in their fields. When India says that we are the best in IT, then, how many Indian companies have a cutting edge technology with them... ? Take for example infosys, TCS, wipro... all are into service. they get projects from west. They execute it. Here, there is no major technology involved. its just the service that is utilised. they don't have any particular product that can drive the market. No one is the market leader. we don't set trends. we just follow trends. ofcourse we have brains... that's y, Indians are hired all over the world. there is no second opinion. But, that brain is used to execute a particular work. Not to think innovatively. Guys, we don't comeup with ideas. We just execute other's ideas... No one can deny this. Even giants like Infosys and wipro don't drive the market. They just drive the sensex high.

Well, u can claim that, an indian is leading the team of intel's most prestigious project. 2 indians r in highest position in MicroSoft, philips has most of its R& D work in india, servlets was invented by an indian, pentium was designed by an Indian etc etc etc. But, what I am trying to convey here is not this kinda success. These are again MNCs. They utilise our brains. Ofcourse, Indians are a part of their success. Infact, they are the key drivers behind their successes. But, this success is not a part of Indias'. The only gain that India derives from these successes are just monetary benefits which indirectly contributes to our GDP and forex reserves.

We shud be proud of the Java tech skills and our contribution to that. But, are we to take credit for that? Is India really an IT Super Power? Indians are utilised for low end projects. We take orders. We execute projects. That's it. Most of the Indians are not amoung the guys who actually frame the strategy and plan designs and all. This is a blatant truth.

Moreover, India is 'relatively under-computerised' with only 4 million personal computers, as against China where the penetration of PCs stands at around 18 million. On contrast, Thirty per cent of the world's graduates in software are from India and a big part of the talent responsible for innovation is from our country's universities.

Many justify the Indian companies' stand by saying that, "It is not that the Indian IT companies don't have ideas to make products. What happens if a Indian service company like Infosys or WIPRO or HCL starts making products? Clients and customers of these companies will lose their faith on as they might fear that we would make products based on their ideas and requirements". But, I say that, once we grow to that extent, we will replace them in the market. It will be our market then. MicroSoft was started as a services company for IBM. But, where do they stand now?

They claim, "The Indian companies do not have the monetary strength to push a product in to the world market easily". Accepted. For startups yes. But, what about companies that are well established in the market? What about the ever boasting TCS or the Wipro or the Infosys? If they can pay more than 3 million dollars on a scam settlement, why can't they?

The key reasons for this is our general attitude. We should avoid "The Earn-to-Spend" Mentality. We should do Whatever Is Necessary to Meet Your Goals. We should Take Calculated Risks. We shud learn lessons from the Japanese. For example, Akio Morita was a young man fighting for the Japanese Army during the world war II. There were news that Japan was bombed by US and almost 1 lakh civilians perished and therefore, the war might come to an end. As predicted, the war was over, he came back. Saw the troubles of his country men. He, with his girl friend Yoshiko, (this concept of gf was there at that time itself ...) started a company in 1946 with 20 employees. That day, he wrote in his diary, that, "My growth shud be my country's growth."(Ennoda Valarchi En Naattoda valarchiya Irukkanum) True to the every single word, the company as well as his country grew. He later renamed his company as SONY Corp. This is the kind of vision we want. We want people who can dream this big.

The problem with Indians is that we have lost the habit of thinking big! Growth has no limit. We have to keep revising our vision. And that vision has to be within reach, not in the air, It has to be achievable.

When individuals succeed, its for the individual or may be his family or at the max, we can be proud that it was an Indian who did this... I want to point out someone like Morita, someone like Dirubai... ya, I shud defenetely mention Dirubai Ambani here, orelse it would be a great injustice. Dhirajlal Hirachand Ambani had achieved what many would consider impossible. In a life spanning 69 years, he built from scratch India's largest privately controlled corporate empire. Today, the whole energy cycle in India is gonna get changed. Reliance has got 26% stake in IPCL. RIL has found gas in bay of bengal some 2000 feet below sea bed. They have decieded to go by themselves, inspite of all the OIL majors in the world lending their hand for joint venture in that. See, The company whose mentor returned back from Yeman to Bombay with just 500 rs in 1957, is going to take gas from Bay of bengal over a period of 7 or 9 years with an overall estimate of 18000 crore rupees. RIL, First Indian private sector company to record Net Profit of over Rs. 1,000 crores in one quarter. He is an investor's deity. He created a new class of investors. (middle class investors.) sollitte polam.. Idu madiri daan edir pakkaren. This kinda success is what amuses me. This shud amuse "us".

We need entrepreneurs like them. I believe that ambition and initiative will ultimately triumph. The success of the young entrepreneurs will be the key to India's transformation in the new millennium. They should drive the market. They should create new markets. Not follow one.

I think, while so many people are out there smelling the flowers, we should take the time to plant some.


- Murali