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 .

Review-- A Wednesday

Powered by: Chakpak.com	A Wednesday !

Films about terrorists holding a city to ransom aren't new. It's a theme that's been exploited many times over in the movies, especially in standard Hollywood action films like the Die Hard series.
But the kind of subject A Wednesday deals, was untouched till the movie arrived.
One day Commissioner of Police of Mumbai received a phone call from stranger for releasing four terrorist otherwise the person will explode all the bombs he planted at different locations.On a Wednesday he has given 4 hrs to police to complete the task of accumulating all four terrorist at the place of his choice .For confirmation that he is a terrorist, the stranger has planted a bomb inside a police station as well.Police found the bomb and confirms that this guy is not an ordinary caller and can be really destructive. He uses technology to fool police about his hiding location.He uses media to keep an eye on what is the impact there in middle due to his phone call,Is police actually doing what he wanted? Ultimately he manage to keep police on their toes and four militants were reached where the stranger wanted.Now when we were thinking that any plane would come and all four militants would flee,Suddenly a phone call come from the stranger to the militants and that phone was linked to the bombs .One of the militants pick the phone and bomb explodes. 3 out of four militants died on the spot.The plots unveils the awesome climax . That stranger happens to be a common man and he was frustrated with the fact that militants are the master of their lives and militants can kill a common man anytime.Police is either not able to catch the militant or even after catching militants ,they somehow manage to come out with the help of their peers or laws take 10-15 yrs to complete the process of judgment.The stranger aka common man create a plot to kill all four most dangerous militants.

The story is binding.The script is tight,dialouges are fabulous . The first time Writer and Director Neeraj Pandey did the awesome job.Naseeruddin Shah as a common man who chooses the bold path to finish the terrorists and symbolizes the pain of common man.He has shown the world again that, why he is one of the best actor India has ever produced.He doesn't bagged the limelight though his character was most central.He perfectly symbolizes a common man.Anupam Kher as CP of Mumbai did justice to his role.He has done a brilliant job. But the amidst these two stalwarts Jimi Shergill manages to steal the show ,which is itself a big thing to happen.Aamir Bashir as Jay Singh did a fabulous job.Deepal Shaw was not having much to do in this movie.
The real hero of this movie is Writer and Director Neeraj Pandey.The film has some minor flaws which are ignorable .
Written and directed by Neeraj Pandey, A Wednesday is an engaging thriller with a twist that's more dramatic and unpredictable than anything you're likely to imagine.
I would give this movie 3.5/5 .