Re: Reply to Prasad Boddupalli

["Raju Agarwal" <krantikari@hotmail.com>]

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Let's put this in perspective shall we?

India is a poor developing country with a per capita GDP of $500 (less than 
even Pakistan) and is developing next-generation applications for the 
leading companies of the most advanced country in the world US (per capita 
GDP = $40,000) including, Microsoft, Nortel and Cisco in the fields of 
Internet, Wireless, and Optical Networking.

And all you have to say is that this means nothing because India imports 
avionics software!  Give me a break!
How many countries create their own avionics software?  Why should India 
create its own if it is not commericially viable to do so or if there are 
more cost effective alternatives.

That is like saying that Japan should not be proud of their automobile 
industry because Japan imports BMW's.

I don't understand why so many Indians have this defeatist attitude that 
despite the country's greatest accomplishments, they will always attempt to 
find some way to discount those accomplishments.

You focus on the problem while I focus on the solution.


>From: "prasad boddupalli" <bvssp@hotmail.com>
>Reply-To: debate@indiapolicy.org
>To: debate@indiapolicy.org
>Subject: Re: Mr. Aggarwal, please try to be scientific
>Date: Mon, 5 Feb 2001 10:38:52 -0800 (PST)
>
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>Please help make the Manifesto better, or accept it, and propagate it!
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>    I sincerely share Dr. Roy's concerns about the projected revenues of 
>$50
>billion dollars.
>
>    Point No 1: Mr Aggarwal, in an earlier reply said that the figure of 
>$50
>billion dollars is based on the current growth rate of 50%. How can an
>estimate be that simple ? We don't need McKinsey's for that. Can I apply
>that simple rule to other sectors, say textiles ? No, you cannot. We not
>only have to consider the external competition, but our abilities to meet
>that. Like, the quality of engineers, the management, govt policies and so
>on.
>
>     Point No 2: About the quality of our engineers. Mr. Arun Mehta was 
>right
>in this regard. Please do not quote and believe the likes of John Chambers
>and Gates. Standing on Indian soil, they can only say that we are second to
>none. Look at those half-baked students, being churned out by the most
>lucrative industry in India, the engineering colleges. Mr. Agarwal, look at
>the computer science departments. They have the infrastructure, but no
>faculty. Don't tell me that industry trains them. That takes us to the 
>issue
>of the IT managers
>
>     I had the misfortune of working for TCS, once upon a time. Believe me,
>it was such a frustrating experience. It is run like a grocery store. It is
>the case with many companies. You have to be part of that to see how rotten
>it is. Many companies, adhere to quality by completing the paper work and
>nothing else. There is so much to write about. Ofcourse, this is not to say
>that, we are incapable of some excellent work. We are yet to have
>visionaries and I am only highlighting the current state.
>
>     About the news that TCS, Wipro and Infosys plan to outsource coding 
>and
>maintenance work to china. How ridiculous ? The US or european companies
>will then go to china. Why will they have to do it through WIPRO or TCS ?
>Such talk is devoid of any merit. 'Made in China' is a better brand than
>WIPRO or TCS.
>
>     We succeeded in this out sourcing work because of the low entry
>barriers. That can be our undoing, if we are complacent. Dewang Mehta's,
>Pramod Mahajan's and newspaper articles can only create that feel-good
>factor. It is up to us and the IT cheiftains ( who are over-valued, like
>their company stocks ) to change the course of IT industry.
>
>    We still import avionics and other mission critical software. We can be
>rightly proud of our IT industry, when we start writing such software.
>
>
>


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