The first millennium saw India reach a high point in mathematics, astronomy, surgery and a few other similar areas, with people like Arya Bhatta, Varaha Mihira, Brahma Gupta and Susrusha making seminal contributions to the body of knowledge in these sciences. The second millennium was a disaster for India, since the country was under foreign rule throughout this period, save the last 53 years. Unfortunately, the early conquerors concentrated on arts and pleasure and did not encourage the advancement of science and technology in the country. The rule under the British started during an era when Indian curiosity, entrepreneurship and technology orientation was at an all-time low. Thus, India missed the benefits of industrialisation.

The Indian intellectual had to make do with pen and paper and show his or her contribution in matters of the mind like mathematics, algorithmic and theoretical aspects of sciences. The emphasis, world over, was on innovation in mass manufacturing, till the advent of software technology in the eighties. Fortunately for India, the last 20 years have seen tremendous opportunity in software, which is essentially about algorithmic and conceptualisation. Thus, the Indian intellectual now has an arena where he or she can excel, despite the tremendous handicap that India has had in the global marketplace.

India has several competitive advantages in the area of software... A large and growing pool of English-speaking software-oriented talent; The project management skills of Indians in managing large software projects and ensuring completion on time, within budgeted cost and with the requisite quality and productivity; The software-friendly policies that successive governments have instituted; The lower cost of operations; The ability to work round-the-clock by leveraging time zone differences between India and a majority of the developed countries.

Indian software companies have concentrated on software services rather than on products. They specialise in designing, developing and maintaining software that is specific to a customer need. The strength of India, at this time, is in the production of customised software and not in mass marketing and brand creation. This is because products require physical proximity to the customer, an environment that reveres innovation and considerable domain knowledge. At this point in time, we do not have these conditions in India. Thus, Indian companies have rightly concentrated on services.

It is fashionable amongst armchair pundits in India to criticise this approach and say that India should concentrate on products rather than services. Thanks to the strong influence of the Brahminical mindset among the intellectuals in India and the condescending attitude of the British civil servant towards the Boxwallah, the Indian intellectual had a healthy contempt for business and for businessmen.

Let me dwell a little on the Brahminical mindset issue. Ancient India encouraged the caste system purely based on a belief in the specialisation of successive generations of a family in a given vocation or trade or an activity. That made eminent sense at that time. The result was that the Shudra tilled the soil; the Vaish ya engaged in commerce and the Kshatriya became the warrior and the defender. The Brahmin, thus, got the responsibility of connecting the rest with God and was also the champion of all intellectual pursuits. Since his primary responsibility was to think of the after-life and to connect with the higher powers, he had little or no interest in anything that had to do with the present or which involved any physical activity. Learning for learning’s sake was the motto. Using that learning to make any difference to society would be sacrilegious for two reasons -- it was not chic and they might be held accountable!

That mindset is strong even today in India; for instance, when I interview young boys and girls, they insist on working in esoteric fields that have no relevance to solving the problems that beset contemporary India. Their first choice would obviously be Artificial Intelligence! I have tried to elicit why they were interested in AI and their answer is usually that it is intellectually challenging and aspirational. Never mind that there were no real applications that had at least a semblance of relevance to India! You see the same attitude when our intellectuals comment on Indian companies not having a product focus.

My answer to them is that product skills will surely be acquired and leveraged as Indian companies become more global and have better financial strength. The need of the day is to create a large number of high-income jobs for our young men and women. As long as we run a business that solves the problems of society, that creates wealth legally and ethically, that provides challenging and lucrative jobs, it does not matter whether we do rocket science or bee-keeping. This is just what the Indian software industry is doing.

There is also a belief that Indian companies do not do high value-add work. In my opinion, these criticisms are ill-founded. You will see an Indian software company behind most leading-edge IT applications in the world. The examples are numerous. Whether it is a next-generation securities trading system or a retailing system or a broadband wireless switch, you are likely to see an Indian company involved.

The key questions to ask should be: Is there a market opportunity? Is this opportunity profitable? Do we have the capability to service the market? If not, what can we do to build up the capability? What role should the government and the academia play in this?

I will spend the next few minutes answering these questions.

The market opportunity
What should we do to become a successful nation in IT?
Conclusion

Introduction
Do we need hi-tech enterprises in India?

The Rediff Specials

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