A conversation in Bangalore
Today India is known as the center for Information Technology services but the dream of many Indian graduates is to get a software job in the U.S. or Europe. Ravi, my friend explains: “Few years ago, there was a popular saying among Indian women: “Having software job, will marry.” When a girl invited her boyfriend home, her parents asked whether he was a software student or worked in Software Company. If the answer was “Yes” then he was a good match for their daughter. Now many parents begin to ask another question: “Do you have plan to go to work in the U.S or U.K? So it seems the standard to get married has been raised another level. It reflects a new trend where software graduates are leaving for better jobs oversea and many parents want their daughters to have better life there.”
I ask: “If many top graduates are leaving the country how does it impact the Information Technology (IT) industry?” Ravi laughed: “It does not impact much as after several years living oversea, many are returning home, bringing their money and skills back with them. Many start their own company and contribute to the economy. Last year, India's GDP has reached $2-trillion dollars. Since independence, it took us 60 years for our economy to reach the $1-trillion mark, but with IT, industry exploded, India moved to the next trillion in just seven years. India's growth rate was 7.4 per cent in 2014, which is the fastest growing economy, ranked second only after China. Our economy has doubled in size since the financial crisis in 2008, and has more than quadrupled from the year 2000 because of the export in IT services. With this growth, we believe that in two years, we will be growing faster than China. Today China is having trouble because it depends too much on manufacturing products for exports. When the global economy changed from products to technology, China cannot change as all of the investments are tied in factories and lands.”
I ask: “So what is the next thing that your country is planning to do?” Ravi answers: “Although India's software industry is strong but the hardware industry is weak. Almost every electronic devices consumed here is imported. Electronics companies such as Intel, Samsung, Sony, LG, and Motorola are doing good business here. India government has been working hard to encourage the development electronics manufacturing. Currently we are building semiconductor plants in New Delhi and Gujarat state. These plants will provide over 20,000 jobs. Soon we will build our own computers, smartphones and other electronics devices from our own factories rather than import from somewhere. But our growth is still focusing on software and we would like to create our own domestic software industry rather than using somebody else.”
I ask: “Do you think you have enough skilled IT workers to support that? Ravi confirms: “India's population is over billion people. There are plenty of workers for whatever we want to do. Our education system is improving fast and technology is the number one field that every young student wants to study. There are plenty of jobs here. For example, Infosys is opening new facility that can hire over 50,000 workers in Karnataka near Bangalore; you can see that the construction of roads surrounding the facility already began. The company continues to grow larger as it is developing plans for another facility in Nodia that will employ 25,000 IT workers. Another IT company, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has planned to hire 55,000 IT graduates this year. As our IT industry is growing strong globally, many Indian companies are actively hiring graduates in other countries as they plan to expand their business oversea too.”
I tell him: “That is great, it seems that your education system has improved a lot since I visited here few years ago.” Ravi smiled: “The education system has improved, especially in the technology areas. The IT job market has encouraged more students to study technology and competition is tough to get in these top schools so quality has improved a lot in the past few years. Currently we are producing more technology workers than any country in the world and it attracts more companies to come and open facilities here. For example, The Sweden electronic company Ericsson has more workers in India than in its home country. Where else can you find a lot of skilled IT workers who are willing to work for less? Even Chinese company like Huawei Technologies is opening facility in Bangalore and hiring software engineers for their Android and graphics development. Today many companies around the world complain that they cannot find the technical skills they need. But when they come here, they will find many willing IT workers who can meet their requirements. Our technology trainings are flexible enough to change quickly to ensure that we meet their needs. Although there are some shortages in emerging areas such as cloud computing, big data analytics and security but many India's tech companies are stepping up to provide additional trainings to get their workers 'skills up to date to meet demand.”
Ravi continues: “The returning of Indian workers from oversea also helps promote technology start-ups. We just launch a new “10,000 start-up program that is sponsored by Intel in collaboration with NASSCOM. Today India is now full of entrepreneurial spirit where young Indian now all have hope that someday they will become the next Steve Jobs or Bill gates. Our universities are now beginning to teach start-up program aims to encourage graduates to start their own company and make India the center of technology of the world.”
Ravi concludes: “We know that we are moving in the right direction. We know that our economy is growing fast. We know that we have created millions of jobs for our people but the most important thing is we are creating a new vision for India. We know that India will become one of the most powerful countries in this century because what we did many years ago: Improve education, especially in information technology to lift our country out of poverty.”
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
