A conversation in Hyderabad
To create more technology companies, the India's National Association of Software & Services Companies (NASSCOM) has initiated a “10,000 start-ups program.” It invites entrepreneurs across India to apply for funding to start their own start-ups. Within weeks, it has already received over 1000 applications and possible over 5000 in the next few weeks. My friend Ravi explains: “There is a strong feeling among young Indian that entrepreneurship is the right way to achieve their dream. For many years, getting a job at technology company is a dream of college graduates but now they prefer to own a company. Today young Indians are feeling optimistic about their future and they believe with information technology, India will be one of the most powerful countries in the world.”
I ask: “So how many start-ups have been successful here?” Ravi explains: “There are thousands of small startups focusing on providing mobile apps for the local market. Most companies have ten to twenty people but some have grown to fifty or hundred people when their products are successful. The local mobile apps market is doing well and provides jobs for many people but the current goal is to expand the market oversea. As part of the program, NASSCOM will select about 500 start-ups that are eligible for funding ranging from $25,000 to $250,000 and put them into a special mentoring with successful entrepreneurs to guide them grow bigger. These selected start-ups companies will be placed in special technology zones to sustain the momentum. Start-ups are among the most critical elements of the Indian IT industry as they keep India to retain its competitive advantage over other countries. The mobile trend has opened new opportunities for small start-ups as they have created products and services for the local market and sustain our overall economic growth. To encourage more start-ups will create more jobs; more opportunities and help thousands of entrepreneurs grow their businesses and propel India's economy.”
I ask: “How is the IT outsourcing market?” Ravi nods: “The outsourcing market is making very good progress during the last ten years. As many global countries are struggling with the shortage of IT skilled workers, we fill in this gap by providing them with quality services at reasonable costs. Our success has helped us to come up with innovative propositions that will help us to make another step toward our vision of being the IT service provider for every company in the world. But to do that we need to continue to improve our education system. In the past, we focused mostly on technical trainings and produced over million IT workers, ranging from programmers to system analysts, which are good for IT outsourcing services. Our next step is to develop our own innovators, our own data scientists and our own entrepreneurs. It means we must completely change our education system. Today our education produces less independent-thinking graduates as they are taught to follow and submit to authority. We want to develop leaders, independent thinkers, problem solvers, and entrepreneurs who can stand on their own and position themselves in the global market. That will require new way of teaching, new method and new education system. Today our technology students begin to realize that they have more capability than what they believed. They know that they can achieve what others do in developed countries. They are learning to take risks, they are not afraid of failure anymore. They saw what successful companies like Apple, Uber, Twitter, or Facebook did and began to get excited on what they could do.”
I ask: “How do you do that? What plan do you have in mind?” Ravi answers: “Technology education is the key driver for this change. To transform an education system from a traditional, hierarchical structure to a creative, innovated system requires new type of teachers who can bring their creativity to classes. In this global economy, you have to learn quickly to be more innovative, more adaptable and more inspiring to the students. The education system should be as inspiring and inventive as the students who study in the system. That means we need to change the current structure dated from the colonial time of hierarchical control, full of bureaucracy, which discourages the innovation, flexibility and adaptability. To change, we need new teachers who could envision and apply alternatives to the current teaching method. That is why you are here as you are one of few educators who are invited to help us improve our teaching method.”
I ask: “What else do you need? Your education system has improved significantly and your industry is doing well.” Ravi explains: “What we really need is the aspiration. Last time you gave us the vision of what can be achieved but we still need the aspiration. We can do much better if we have the ambition to achieve our vision. Last time you have inspired our students by asking them: “Are you followers or leaders? Do you want to be workers or owners? That excited them and they want to hear more.” I tell him: “Of course aspiration is important as it is about the difference you can make in the world. However to make things happen, the training program must be flexible enough so change can be inserted quickly. That is why every course materials should be modularized so it can be updated as needed. Today technology changes fast, much faster than teachers can master the materials and students can learn so both must develop a lifelong learning. My question is how does this lifelong learning habit fit into the Indian education context? How can we do it when the traditional hierarchy is still a part of your system? You can make students learn but how could you change the teachers?
Ravi explains: “There are thousands of universities in India, many are public but the number of private universities is also on the rise. Today public schools are considered the best but it is changing now. Some private universities have adopted a long-term strategy of using training programs from the top universities in the U.S and U.K. and improved their training methods. With the advancement of information technology, boundaries between public and private schools are blurring and divides are vanishing. New private universities are challenging the old ways of teaching as old training models are becoming obsolete. Today more top students are considering entering private universities rather than public universities. To study the same programs at Stanford, Carnegie Mellon, Oxford and Harvard at private universities from teachers trained in those schools will give graduates better opportunity to get foreign companies jobs or better chance to work oversea than any public schools who are still using the old lecturing method that emphasize memorization to pass tests.”
Ravi continues: “India has succeeded in the development of IT services industry. The next step is to create more entrepreneurial companies to grow faster and expand globally. Of course, it has to start with new way of trainings, new education systems, new teaching methods, and new teachers. We are now a $2 trillion economy. If we continue to grow at this current rate, we will get to $4 trillion in 5 years and $10 trillion in 10 more years. By that time, we will have enough jobs for one billion people. Just imagine a large population country like India with full employment. That is our dream and our vision of the future. The only way to do that is to get people to believe that a technology education can make it happens and that is why having the aspiration is important.”
He smiles: “For many years, India is viewed as a poor developing country but it is changing. We have a large population and many people are still live in poverty, but in the past ten years, the number of rich people has increased rapidly. (Note: Only people with more than $30 million dollars is considered rich in India) Today India ranked 16th on a list of countries with more millionaires and billionaires (Note: According to WealthInsight, an UK research, India has over 350,000 millionaires and the rich list is dominated by young technology entrepreneurs, industrialists, only small portion is from families business.)
I ask: “What do you think will happen next? Ravi answers: “In this fast changing world, we cannot wait but we also cannot change everything quickly. The U.S changes fast because it is a young country with less restrictive but India is an old country with a long history and culture so it will need more time. I think the market force will dictate how the education system will have to adjust. It is no longer that few top universities will stay on top if they do not change. It is possible that private universities will climb up on top and being better schools. Change will take time, but the elements for change are in place and the students will make the change happens. If Indian schools can change their current teaching methods to promote more on independent thinking and problem solving than students can innovate and develop new ideas, new products, new companies and India can become one of the best technology countries. We have to keep moving ahead, we have to create new market, getting new customers and continue to grow else others will catch up and compete with us. Today we must solve the critical market needs and high demand areas for which global companies will be recruiting such as mobility, Optimizing search technology, cloud computing, Cybersecurity, Big data analytics, and The Internet of Everything (IoE). Tomorrow our students will be waiting to hear your first lecture on Big data analytics and I think this time it will be more than 500 students in the auditorium.”
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
