Big Ideas Factory
Big Ideas Factory
2005-08-20T05:19:00
India Today, dated Aug 22, 2005 has some great things to say about India (and especially the Indian `Infotech' industry) - it's that time of the year when we are `celebrating' independence and it's great to know that the Indian race, endowed with superior `brainpower' is making giant strides in the world of hi-tech. Let's see what Kiran Karnik, the president of that all-knowing association called NASSCOM has to say: The wider and stronger the base of the BPO pyramid, the higher the industry can grow. It's not an either-or scenario. So, now we know that those generation `next' youngsters in Bangalore, Chennai and elsewhere wearing headphones and speaking in great English accent form the `foundation' of our industry. Let's see what another headline has to say: IT's acme, R&D outsourcing, will cross $8 billion in India by 2010 The article goes on to enlighten us as to how Indian `whizkids' with superior brainpower are employed by Multi National Companies to do `cutting-edge' R&D in their posh Indian offices where they can work `flexi-time' and: Write codes, brainstorm with US teams in video-conferences and chill out practising their backhand on the tennis court or stretching their legs in the cafeteria. So now we know that Indian Software companies are hot-beds of innovation, `Big Idea factories' as the article itself puts it. I have so many students working in Indian and foreign software firms - they all confirm this - in terms of sheer innovation, Bangalore has already overtaken the Silicon Valley. The key for this success is the high quality of our educational system, especially in the engineering and technology sector. There are such a large number of excellent colleges in India that every Indian, if he so desires, can become a Civil/Mechanical/Electrical/Electronics engineer and after 1 month of training at the Software company in which he was placed during the first semester of his study, go on to write world-class software. You know, software is in our blood. We don't have to slog like those poor Americans and Europeans.