Views on the Indian tech industry

One of my friend has shared this story to me .I am sharing with you.



Views on the Indian tech industry:

It's a topic that has been oft debated - that India's tech industry is a lot like the Chinese manufacturing phenomenon - Low cost, reasonable quality, minimal innovation. I was an employee of a huge IT company in India (what the heck, it was TCS) and have, in the two years in their employ, developed certain opinions and concerns about the direction of India's IT revolution.

Here's how Indian IT companies operate (Infy, TCS, Wipro and the second string such as Mastek, Satyam, Patni etc). Hire engineers in bulk, never mind that they are not computer scientists or electrical engineers - if they can write a few lines of code in C/C++ and are academically decent, they're hired . After all, they don't need brilliant engineers - just people who will do as they are told and reasonably intelligent enough to get the client's work done, and bullshit their way out of it if they don't. They'll rarely make CAD software for Electrical engineering or mechanical engineering. Instead they will develop "end to end solutions" for banking, finance, inventory management, website development, etc. By develop I mean code, not design - there is a huge difference between the two, something which I will touch upon shortly. One important thing to note is that the HR in most IT companies don't give a damn about individual interests. They will put you wherever they need someone to slog for them. I've had one HR person tell me that they will put me in a project where they get maximum money, regardless if I am interested or not. And they wonder why so many people leave!!!

What is the nature of the work? At least 70% of the international projects in most Indian IT companies is maintenance - i.e someone else has already developed an application. All you need to do is add more features/change behavior as per client's request. Then there's production support, which is worse. It is almost call-center work - ensure that the application runs normally and if it fails, get it up and running ASAP. Take calls from the client, update on the status. In a sense, like a car mechanic - I didn't get an engineering degree to be a car mechanic - I got it to design the car! Finally, if you are lucky you get development - write code. But then, writing code is easy - it is like manufacturing a car. What is not, is designing a system that works efficiently. Typically, foreign clients get the design done by the likes of Accenture, IBM, etc. The designs are then sent to Desi companies, who actually do the coding at a cost much cheaper than IBM or accenture. Thus, all we do is donkey work. It is not technology - it is programming. Technology is a new idea, paradigm or design - programming is implementing that design. Thus, most of the people in IT waste their engineering degrees, doing mundane programming, until they are made project managers - after which they spend their lives approving time sheets, conducting appraisals and sucking up to the client . Wait a second - shouldn't an experienced IT professional be doing advanced stuff and leave the bullshitting to MBAs?

Why is it so hard for Desi companies to do design? They've not tried hard enough (yet) to get into this space. They just don't have the competence to get the job done. Desi companies are amazing at procedure oriented projects - if there is a procedure in place telling us what to do, we can do it. They don't have the experience (and therefore the brand equity) to attract IT consulting projects. Consulting is largely a reputation driven business. In order to build such a reputation, desi companies need to hire high-flying consultants - they dont come cheap. Even after all this, there is no guarantee of results! (Lately, Infy is trying to get into this space, I'm told, so good luck to them. I dont think TCS is though :-)) How many software products come out of Indian cos? IFlex is the only company to have a product successful worldwide. Making products is expensive and again, there is no guarantee of success - why risk it when services give me an assured income?

Why do we need to get into high end IT - consulting and products? Simply because the algorithm of low cost, low margin services will run it's course in the future. As pay scales rise in India and the rupee appreciating wrt the dollar, margins become more and more slim. In time, India may not be as competitive as say Brasil or Russia - the American cos will take their projects out there! U can see trends in the manufacturing sector - earlier Taiwan was the manufacturing base for American cos, then South Korea and then these days, China For too long have we been stuck in the procedure oriented IT services. It is time to invest in consulting and products, and take Indian IT to the next level, or else I fear we will remain stuck in this low end nonsense.
. Indian companies thus have 2 choices - identify and set shop in countries where the low cost, low margin algorithm can be applied (TCS seems to be taking this route) or enter into high end IT, which is independent of geography (Which Infy is trying). I believe the latter is the better route - it is a high margin business and reasonably high tech. What is even better, is coming up with technology - like Java, efficient databases, advanced operating systems (Like Sun, Oracle or Microsoft). That is real tech. It's not that we can't do it. It's just that we don't want to risk it. But, nothing venture, nothing have! Desi companies’ don't even do proper R&D!


Finally, a true story. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC) was huge in the chip manufacturing industry, making almost 60% profit. They could have got into chip design, and potentially, designed low cost chips. However, design is a risky business - what if the chip bombs? TSMC chose to stick to it's core competence - fabrication. In time, TSMC's profits have declined to 20% or so... they're still number one, but don’t make as much money as they used to... Are we learning yet?

But dost logo Recession ke time pe sab karna padega .

Kosi-----Not a Sorrow of Bihar,made by Govt.

"Kosi-----The Sorrow of Bihar"

This phrase was coined by a British tax-collector who found it difficult to collect his quota of revenue from this area.People living nearby Kosi do not consider it as a sorrow.They rather worship it.

The Kosi river basin in Bihar is facing its biggest ever flood disaster.The disaster is completely due to the neglect of the Government of India and the Government of Bihar.It is actually a man -made disaster which could have been avoided.

Govt of India has declared it as "National Calamity".More than two millions people are suffering.Government of India and Bihar are doing relief work as it is favoring people that too in hapzards and unplanned manner.

Most of Kosi water is flowing through the breach in the embankment that started with a small, few metres-wide breach on the eastern side, in the afternoon of August 18. This water is flowing through three of the 15 old streams of the Kosi river,namely Sursar, Mirchaiya and Belahi. This water is entering an area that does not have the capacity to drain that much of water.

What are the bottlenecks to be identified?

The longer the water remains in this area of flooding, more damaging would it be for the people and the state.

Similarly, it is important to ensure that the Kosi is able to drain out its water into the Ganga. But the Ganga flows this time of year and actually flowing above the danger mark at Sahibganj (Jharkhand) and Farakka (West Bengal), as per the Central Water Commission's (Government of India) flood forecasting site for almost two months now and is further rising.

The barrage on the Kosi river, just before it enters India was built under the 1954 Indo-Nepal Treaty. It is Government of India's responsibility for the proper operation and maintenance of the barrage and long embankment on both sides of the river . In the afternoon of August 18, when the embankment breached, the flow of water was lower than its expected capacity. The fact that the embankment breached at such a low flow compared to the design capacity speaks volumes about the abysmal state of maintenance of the embankment. The statement from the Indian embassy in Kathmandu that Nepal did not cooperate in ensuring timely maintenance is adding insult to the grave catastrophe.

The monsoon in this part of Bihar comes in early June. And the repair and maintenance of the embankment is supposed to be completed before the monsoon arrival.The Govt of India should have ensured that the maintenance is done before the required date, at least for the sake of the two million people of Bihar and Nepal. That was not done.

The pressure on the breached site on the embankment was clearly visible from August 5 onwards. Even at this stage,if the Government of India had used all its powers to ensure proper maintenance, the disaster could have been avoided. That too was not done.

It was apparent that Kosi is set to take the path which has least resistance and it was the old path.And destruction is there because kosi has taken its old path.But neither Govt. of India nor Nepal Govt woke up on 18th Aug.If the Govt. was woken then more planned evacuation was possible.Both the Govt has wasted time. In this cause Govt. of India is more responsible.
The option of big reservoir is also a false hope.

So what should be done to ensure that this calamity should not happen again.
Only one thing I see that both Govt. of India and Govt. of Bihar should be honest to the responsibility they have taken to protect their people from these kind of self generated pity. Officials should be fired for their irresponsible behavior.They are not there just to make statement .They have to do everything to ensure timely work.

I think Govt of India is more responsible for this "calamity" which they have declared "National Calamity".It was initially British who called it "Sorrow of Bihar" and now Indian govt justified it with their abysmal effort.