How do you think the growing IT industry will change India?

lotus blossom

i just read the article that was recommended on another thread "Why US pros find India the sexiest place to work" http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...27,curpg-1.cms.

First of all, why that title? And if these americans find it "sexy" to work in india, what will become of india?

After being away from india for four years and then returning this year i was quite surprised at the changes that i saw. the westernization was disturbing, especially india's Mtv and the way that women were portrayed. I will say that i applaud some of the changes that i saw, but really wonder where things will go if an onslaught of IT grads from the u.s. start pouring into india.

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Digital Drifter

Rule #1: never trust the TOI group. there're shillers for the highest bidder.

#2: if it' really true, then we become something like guam, philipines, hawai, mexico, bangkok; a good place for getting laid. America may be a shinign beacon of democracy but it sure knows how to have a good time in the bargain.

#3: IT is about 1% of the overall job scene; as of now, there's about 300K jobs created. not millions.

#4: IT people skew living conditions in cities making middle class people poorer and the poor worse off. with their pay, they more rent for dipshit places which one wouldn't consider under different circumstance

#5: People get tired of the disorder here sooner or later. Your love for the place lasts only so long as you can get a cold coke/beer. and cars. and washing machines. and no blackouts. no noise pollution. lots of spac & privacy.

What's that song "wide open spaces"?

#6: behind that MTV fig is an amazing conservative, casteist, clannish way of thinking which stifles individual choices. don't be fooled by it. Just ask the chaps who watches all the crap on MTV whether he'll marry or even go out with anyone who justy dresses with those bare shoulders straps and heels?

His mother will come out firing on all cylinders about how YOU are corrupting her son.

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ashishkec

Well this does seem a bit too much on the negative side doesn't it...

I too am a part of the much hyped IT sector of India, and here are a couple of observations:

- I see a failry large no of women in senior positions, and they do enjoy the same power and match their male colleagues at every level. Something, that i am not sure is present in most other sectors of the economy.

- In my own company, i see a fairly large segement of the work force who did not necessarily study in fancy private institutes or who are extremely westernized so to say. If they earn well and send the money back home to their homwtowns, isn't it better than the same folks working in the gulf to earn similar salaries

- Most IT companies in India are doing pretty low end work of the value chain, and that too at dirt cheap rates compared to their american counterparts, but its also true that with the cost of living in India even the dirt cheap rates turn out to be a fairly decent deal for us. So if America's 'Low' rates are good enough for us, then isn't the 'bargain' beneficial to both sides?

- And regarding the way an average Indian thinks, i will agree with you that most people are pretty conservative on the inside, cast and clan still are rediculously important to so many... but at the same time, it is also true that the amount of freedom possible for today's youth was never there even 10 years back

Just my side of the story...


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Nick-H

It will make a big difference to a few people.

It will make a big difference to India's image. It seems these days that it has to be projected as land of the IT revolution and the call centre.

The other 997,000,000 people in the country just get neglected

ashishkec

If IT prospers at the cost of other sectors, then the rest will be neglected. Most state governments get their votes not from the urban cities where IT prospers, but from the rural interiors where there are no IT companies at all. They cannot afford to neglect these areas if they want to continue to be in power.

IT comes more into limelight as it is the most in your face aspect of the Indian economy at the moment.

If the image of India improves, will it not help India's vast auto component suppliers to find new buyers abroad.

For my generation in India, for ages, anything 'Made in the USA' meant quality and anything 'Made in Japan' meant the best technology... does not the image of a country, improve the worth of its industry on the whole?

PS: I do not want to make this a debate, or even an arguement. Just that, if IT spells money, it does not make it automatically bad for the average Indian

Digital Drifter

I dont think anyone implied that. The 'average indian' is almost 2 orders of magnitude away from the median salary of IT employees.

A recent survey found 300 million people as the number of migrants int he country, people who go place to place in search of work.

In hte aspect of IT opening up more services downstream i.e catering, taxis, transport etc. yes, it does open up more jobs.

IT tends to skew things in terms of COL indexes, land prices at great cost to the average Indian. Old time kannadigas see IT as a curse, they no longer can see their place as idyllic retreats.

A rising tide should lift all boats, not just a select few. Rising inquality leads to social unrest. & in the words of Napolean

'Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich'


Now you know.....

IndeGuru

Some economic facts about India:

-The 20% return on equity from Indian companies is the highest in Asia
-$7.27 Bn is the FII inflow till Aug 9, 2005 (just about in 1st Quater of '05)
-$3.3 Bn were raised by Indian firms in Via overseas issues in 2004-05
-15 assets in 13 countries in 4 continents were accuired by ONGC (Indain oil & gas Co) for $4,300 Million
-$22.9 Bn is the NET profit notched by coporate India in 2004-05.
-India controls 44% of global outsourcing
-400 of the fortune 500 companies get services from India
-51% is the extent of India's market share in global outsourcing by 2008
-$12.2 Bn is the estimated worth of software exported by Indian firms alone
-$4.9 Bn is the estimated worth of Indian IT Co's
-More than 60 overseas companies across the globe were accquired by Indian companies in 2004 for expansion
-21.7% is the expected growth in the IT sector- fastest in Asia pacific
-More than 60,000 new cell ph connections are sold each day in India
-Hotels and transport sector grew by 10% last year
-25 new Millionaires are created in India every day on an average
-9,000 Millionaires were created in India in 2004 alone. At 14.6% this was the 2nd highest rate of growth after Australia.
-India's retail industry is estimated to be worth $ 200 Bn
-65,000 Indians honeymoon abroad annually, the largest such segment in the world.
-50 Million Indians are likely to travel abroad for business & leisure each year by 2020.

The list can go on, if these does'nt mirror fast changes taking place then what else does ?

ashishkec

[QUOTE=Digital Drifter]
IT tends to skew things in terms of COL indexes, land prices at great cost to the average Indian. Old time kannadigas see IT as a curse, they no longer can see their place as idyllic retreats.

QUOTE]

Point taken, the issue out here however, is that it is not just about old time kannadigas ( with no offence meant at all). Tell this to any Indian graduate on the lookout for a job to find out what he wants

And as far as the aspiration of the middle class, well I believe India's entire IT revolution is spawned by the middle class itself. It was not the already affluent Upper Class students which rode the crest of the wave, the majority of the Indian IT workforce comes from and is a part of the middle class.

A crowded road is any day better than an unemployed generation...

sirensongs

The more median incomes rise in India, the less we will be able to afford it. Pretty soon we will be the beggars here! LOL!

Don't laugh...I saw it happen in the East Village.

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lotus blossom

4. - this is one of my concerns, of how it may negatively affect those who are already struggling. i live in oregon, though i am a transplant. but the natives loathe the californians who come here with two pockets full of cash who buy housing, causing the market to go so sky high, squeezing the native oregonians out of there own homes.

6. - it's like the saying goes, a woman like that is not one you take home to your mother.

sirensongs

India has got to be the least sexy country imaginable, IMHO.
Also, I've been here 3 years now and feel no need for cars, washing machines and so on. Blackouts occasionally are nice because they slow things down. In fact, I came here partially because everything in the States moves too fast and is too competitive. I love doing my laundry by hand. If it's too quiet at night, I can't sleep at all so I need a bit of noise pollution.

The one thing I do need is privacy. Just don't live with an Indian family and you will be fine. Living next door or upstairs from them is great for single girl, gives you a built-in family when you want one.

Digital Drifter

& the NYT on the same subject with the indian Expat community

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/26/bu...uit.html?8hpib

Note the last 2 paras on page 2.

lotus blossom

interesting article, esp. the bit about 30k indians moved back home in recent months. the gated communities are a bit creepy, imo, seems like segregation.

Digital Drifter

Oh, it is, only it's class distinction. Have money, stay cocooned. Once you're used to a little order in the USA, you can only take so much disorder back home. hence the illusion of control.

Once someone hoists a 'cone' speaker over the nearby temple and blasts some film music at 2300hrs into your condo complex. 'poof' :-)

You are forced to deal with it. Just like everyone else.

bijapuri

First of all, a bit of nomenclature:
IT= Internet technology
BPO= Business Processing Outsourcing

IT is merely one slice of the pie of BPO, which is definitely changing. make that TRANSFORMING India.

In the short term, it is WONDERFUL! Who cannot but feel good that millions of decent, hardworking people are finally getting decently paid and living decently? About time, I say!

OTOH: Who can say what is ultimately good or bad when the final results are man years, even decades away?

I think this much: There are so much long-term construction and investment going on all over India, and the world's major corporations are so tied into India's economy in every way imaginable, that it is unlikely to slow down for a long, long time, barring catostrophies.

I also think a catastrophy, or a string of them is inevitable. Either something that makes UC Bhopal look like a beesting, and/or a major climate change (drought), or something. The ground beneath Ma India's feet is groaning in agony.

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