Why India Inc.
not producing a google or an apple?
Having spent
more than a decade, in software industry, this question always comes to my
mind. I was in search of answers? Don’t know what I am putting down is right or
left – but let me;
Why youngsters
lands in IT industry in India?
In the late 90s there was really an IT boom in
India; The companies in the west started exploring the possibilities of
computer technology and they realized that the skills set in their own land is
costly when compared to that in India. Indian organizations (with very strong
support from the govt.) fished that plentifulness big time to build their
fortune. In order to work in IT all you need is logical thinking (which most of
us have) and aptitude. Even if I have done Mechanical or Civil engineering, I
will land in IT as there are a plenty if high paying jobs and less of people
having those skills. It is a status symbol back home. ‘My son works in IT’ has
become a feeling. Initially many said it is GOLF (Gentlemen Only Ladies Forbidden)
game; over the period of time that is also proven otherwise. The strong
affinity for IT is not seen these days with youngsters, though it is not fully
died out. It is a universal behavior that everyone wants their children to
excel in the same profession like the parents. I don’t think that this is true
for IT folks.
Contribution
from Society
I believe an Individual’s shape up happens through
3 major influences, ‘Inherited Genetically’, ‘Family and Brought up’
and lastly ‘Society’. Our echo system looks at school drop-out as bad guy
image. India's emphasis on engineering, medical schools, and studies makes it
difficult for a teenager to pursue a business venture which is his/her passion;
It takes extreme guts to go against the grain and societal pressures to pursue
a business opportunity without a steady income;
If Bill Gates was born in India, he would not have
become owner of Microsoft. On 8th grade he bunked his maths
class to visit computer lab to learn BASIC programming and he ended up in
writing his first game of tic-tac-toe in Teletype Model 33 ASR terminal. Even
if this happens today in India, our system would be concentrating more on the
calling his parents questioning about his bunking of Maths class and he would
have given a warning of expelling from school – a literal ‘nip in bud’; whereas
Gates has done this in late 60s.
So called IT
Giants in India
With all due respect to all the IT services
organizations in India, Yes - you are doing a wonderful job by consuming all
the lacks and lacks of software (or non-software) engineers produced by Indian
engineering colleges’ year on year. You are helping India Inc. in a BIG
way in reducing un-employment in the country. Thank you for that. You are adding
some contributions towards killing innovation in young minds.
Mind set for services organizations is to bill
maximum head count to their customers in the west. They do create a frame work
or ‘a confined environment of abstraction’ to perform computer programming. The
services mindset does not care about individual’s aspirations; rather they ask
them to fulfill all their aspirations within the boundary set by their
customers. Few yeas back while I was talking to a support person in my
outsourced team about how did he landed there; ‘Sir I wanted to do computer
programming and hence I joined XYZ, but because I am from commerce background
they put me in support’; this could be one of a case – but I am sure there are
many cases like this. All these organizations take fresher’s in a bulk quantity
to support their on-bench methodology, and spoiling their aspirations. They end
up as a well-trained lion to do only ‘dance and drive’ within the boundary of the Circus
ring.
Our brain
design
When we talk about logical thinking – we are
talking about ‘left brain usage’ and when we talk about creative arts or sports
we are talking about ‘right brain usage’. Historically, we Indians had evolved
as a left brained creatures. Take a simple example of ‘angry birds’, we all know
the logic behind this is simple projectile motion physics; we all knew this so
many years ago. But India does not own Angry Birds. Take another example
‘Talking Tom’ – logic very simple. Record and replay; for some reason we don’t
get it to cash it. West does.
Off late, I was
talking to one of my friend who does coaching on the human behaviors across the
globe and she told me one classic example; they have an exercise where
participants needs to perform a role play of three locations (USA, AUS and India).
While they conducted this in Mumbai what participants has done is – took 3
sheets of paper and wrote ‘New Jersey’, ‘Sydney and ‘Mumbai’ on the paper and
paste on the wall to represent three places. This exactly the ‘left
brained thinking’.
When they did
this in Netherlands, what the participants have done is – instead of writing
the place names – they drew picture of 3 clocks which they set 3 different time
zones – more right brained.
When they did
this in Brazil, what the participants have done is – instead of writing the
place names or clocks – they drew picture of 3 monuments in the three countries
to represent the locations. ‘Christ the Redeemer of Rio De Janeiro’, ‘Opera
house in Sydney’ and ‘ Agra’s Taj
Mahal’ to be exact. That is more and more right brained
thinking.
By now (over a
period of time) most of us become left brained; we can only think logically and
hence we end up in programming and calculation related profession.
Recent past
India Inc. is seeing lots of entrepreneurship
mushrooming all around in the recent past. This is a very good sign; you can
read many of such stories if you subscribe to ‘yourstory.in’. I think environment is changing
and it is supporting youngsters for creating our own apples and oranges. I
really hope we outsource work to west in near future.
Yours truly,
Aary
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