Are we really dumb....

Got this one as a forward, but it made me think a lot, jus wanted to share with others so posting it here,

Are Indians really dumb?


'The whole process where people get an idea and put together a team, raise the capital, create a product and mainstream it -- that can only be done in
the US. It can't be done sitting in India. The Indian part of the equation is to help these innovative US companies bring their products to the market
quicker, cheaper and better, which increases the innovative cycle there. It is a complementarity we need to enhance.'


-- Nandan Nilekani, CEO, Infosys, quoted in The New York Times, March 7, 2004.


Translated into plain English, this means 'Indians lack creativity and cannot come up with the ideas to create and sell a product. Indians can only do
the backend slog work that helps US companies create and sell their products.'


How about this?


ISRO -- the Indian Space Research Organisation -- is the result of Dr Vikram Sarabhai's vision. Its first rocket, like the one in the picture, was
launched 40 years ago. Over the past 40 years, a multi-disciplinary group of electronics, mechanical, electrical, civil and chemical engineers has
designed and built 32 satellites and three generations of launch vehicles culminating in the GSLV.


This was done with almost totally indigenous R&D, battling US sanctions. Each time that a technology or component was unavailable, ISRO went ahead and
developed it on its own. ISRO's satellites help India in telecom, television broadcasting, weather forecasting, disaster warning, telemedicine,
education and fishery. Technologies in areas as diverse as optics and artificial limb manufacture have been developed and transferred to Indian
industry.


Jamsetji Tata wanted to make textiles in Nagpur in the 1800s with the cotton grown there. Nagpur had no textile industry then, and in Manchester
Jamsetji was told that Nagpur's weather was not suitable as it was too dry. He said, 'Alright, I will bring the Manchester weather to Nagpur.' He
imported humidifiers and started India's first textile mill in 1874.


When Jamshetji started the Tata Iron and Steel Company and wanted to export steel rails to Britain, a Britisher called Sir Frederick Upcourt said, 'Do
you mean to say that Tatas propose to make steel rails to British specifications? I will undertake to eat every pound of rail that they make, if they
do that.' The Tatas did manage to make steel rails and export them to Britain. Upcourt must have developed a massive case of indigestion). In World
War II British tanks were called Tatanagars because the steel was made in Tatanagar.


To paraphrase Nilekani, Vikram Sarabhai and Jamsetji Tata got an idea, put together a team, raised the capital, created a product, and mainstreamed
it. They did it sitting in India, 40 years and 125 years ago respectively, when India's technical capabilities were far less than they are now.


So we now have two Indias.


One has a severe inferiority complex and is unwilling to do anything creative because it thinks it is incapable of it. It thinks being called the back
office of the world is the ultimate compliment, missing the implied insult in the word back. It thinks its ultimate destiny is to do all the slog work
of the world.


The other is confident about its capability, dreams big dreams, then goes ahead and translates the dreams into reality. There are innumerable success
stories like ISRO and Tata Steel in India today, in manufacturing, electronic hardware, pharmaceuticals, software, fashion design, or any area that
you can think of. The problem is that these are not highlighted. Creative individuals and organisations who are developing products or technologies
with a lasting impact are unsung heroes.


To be a hero in India today you just have to make a lot of immediate money. Creativity is irrelevant, and maybe dreamers like Vikram Sarabhai and
Jamsetji Tata would be considered fools.


When you dream a big dream, maybe a small part of it gets translated into reality. If you do not dream at all, what do you finally get in reality?An
entrepreneur must have self-confidence bordering on arrogance. Why is it that this confidence is missing in the heads of India's biggest software
companies?


Back to the Raj?


Every Indian child's history textbook says something to this effect: 'During the British Raj we exported cheap raw material to Britain, then imported
the finished products at a much higher price. We were paying for the value addition done in Britain, and the Raj prevented us from doing the value
addition here. We were being exploited by the British.' The IT industry is considered to be India's biggest success story, but in reality 99% of it
involves the export of cheap (human) raw material and the import of expensive finished products.


We are happy if Microsoft starts a development centre in India and employs a couple of thousand people. We develop the software modules that go into
Microsoft Windows XP at a low price, and then pay through our noses to import the finished Windows XP.


There is no British Raj to exploit us today, so what prevents us from doing the big value addition here now instead of exporting cheap man days? Why
are we exploiting ourselves? The standard argument is that the software industry is evolving, and will 'move up the value chain.' There is, however,
no evidence of any motion up the value chain. Some of the biggest IT companies are on the contrary regressing into BPOs. Everyone is happy making a
lot of money today, and there is no thought of tomorrow.


Another argument goes: 'Oh, but see how much foreign exchange the IT industry is earning for the country.' Agreed, we are making a lot of money
selling our time, but we would be making many times this amount selling our creativity through technologies, designs or finished products.


Current government policies, value systems and the education system are creating a whole generation of people who believe they are second class
professionals unfit to do anything creative. During the Raj the British convinced us we were fit to only produce raw material and not finished goods.
They'd be proud of us now -- we've learnt the lesson very well and are now convincing successive generations too.


In today's India Jamsetji would probably have said to Frederick Upcourt, 'Maybe you have a point and I'm taking a big risk trying to make steel in
this Third World country. I think I'll just sell you the iron ore from my Noamundi mines. Besides, I can start selling you the ore from next month
itself, while it will take me 5 years to build the steel plant and start making money.'


So are we really dumb?


A century ago, Jamsetji Tata took some foreign visitors to the Majestic Hotel in Mumbai but was denied entrance because he was an Indian. Jamsetji
simply resolved to build a hotel that was even finer, and which would not discriminate against people on the basis of colour or race. Today when we
lose software outsourcing contracts and get thrown out of the US, we go back and beg to be allowed back in instead of fighting back by being more
creative than them.


We need drastic changes in the education system and in government policies to reward creativity and value addition. Changes that produce creative
people, visionaries, dreamers, people with guts, like Vikram Sarabhai and Jamsetji Tata.


We are definitely not dumb. We just have to stop thinking that we are.

What Nandan Nilekani said was absolutely true? We cannot think beyond the backend work, let me not restrict it to software, considering all other indutries we have not suceeded so much in creating products that have earned international acceptance. Why is it so? US has been a free nation for 250 yrs or so, we cannot achieve that growth in 50 and odd years but atleast we shud have made some progress. We are still in the infant stages. We indians boast about being the software hub of World, tech savvies skill sets etc. But 90% of the work we do is the backend procesing except for a few projects. This does not need any innovation or creativity. The MNC's are not outsourcing because of the quality of our services, it is because of the cheap labour. China is cheaper than India but they lack the english and knowledge that we have thats y these MNCs chose India. It is a well known fact. But it is kinda symbiotic relationship in which they get their job done at low cost and we get employment. But where is this going and what is its future? As India develops the ratio of rupee:dollar will decrease and one day may be in another 20 years or so rupee might be equal to 1/8th of a dollar.If that happens US companies will start searching for an alternative, they might have started already. So we cannot depend on this outsourced software industry forever. One fine day outsourcing may not happen and many ppl may lose their jobs overnight, it has already happened once, remember post y2k times. We have to think more innnovatively and come up with some new ideas. I spoke to my friend yesterday who is working for a software giant, in the discussion we spoke about the architecture stuff, he said that architecture will be designed and given by Microsoft, we ll use it to develop the application. This is the same with all software companies, biggies like IBM Accenture EDS design the system and give the framework to us, we write millions of lines using that architecture. I could not avoid comparing this to construction of a house. The engineer designs the plan and gives the blueprint to masons , they build it using the plan. They are engineers and we are masons. Sorry if this line hurts any software pros, am one of them. I hope a time will come when Indian products get world wide recognition, world will use a programming language invented in India, systems all over the world will use OS written in India. Lets wait n see.

What prohibits us from thinking innovatively?
In my opinion the root cause is our education system. This needs a change.
Will write about our education system later on some other blog, but our system definitely needs a change. That cannot happen overnight, but have to be gradual.

Disclaimer:
Am not blaming our software industry and am not against it, am a part of it. Jus expressing my views.