Comments on: India cannot bank on IT

By: Jaya

Jaya — Fri, 31 Mar 2006 18:14:16 +0000

Well… The emphasis on physical infrastructure is fine. And of course it would be good to push on manufacturing. There is only a class of population which are employable in industries like Software of BPOs. But physical infrastructure is not equivalent to manufacturing!! Infrastructure is very important for Service/Knowledge based industries too.

By: Diganta

Diganta — Wed, 01 Mar 2006 12:44:57 +0000

Well, for reverse engineering is more difficult in BMW case. But given the spec, it’ll be easier to reproduce BMW one, rather than Matlab.

By: diwaker

diwaker — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 01:37:09 +0000

@diganta: I think we don’t agree on the meaning of knowledge transfer. All I meant was that re-creating a product given just the functional specification is much easier in the software industry than in other industries. You don’t agree with that? I mean, even looking at a complex software like Matlab, I’m confident that given enough time, I can code it up. I’m not sure my friends in mechanical engineering feel the same about the latest offerings from BMW or whatever (ok maybe not the best example, but you get the picture).

I agree, invention is probably equally hard in all industries. My primary concern is manufacturing, and building core skills and infrastucture in traditional industries.

By: Diganta sarkar

Diganta sarkar — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 12:01:54 +0000

One thing I did not understand – “One of the key differences is that knowledge transfer in software is very easy.” !!!! I thought in manufacturing, the KT is much easier, as you don’t need to understand the logic and you’ve to ‘learn’ from experience how it works. Let me remind you that Chinese are not still inventing, neither Indians, inventing can be a difficult task in both fields. Overall I agree to your point that India should ramp up its’ infractructure and manufacturing bases, at least in coastal areas.

By: diwaker

diwaker — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 18:49:28 +0000

@aaron: I’m not doubting the potential of human capital. But even utilizing that human capital to its fullest needs the appropriate infrastructure. Right now India has a competitive advantage simply because we crank out a whole lot of people who are conversant in english. But thats not a big edge. The education infrastructure is creaking under pressure and the quality of education in a lot of places is just terrible.

The BPO industry took off in India because a lot of young, english speaking “junta” was easy to find. But this kind of human capital does not add much value.

By: Aaron Farr

Aaron Farr — Mon, 20 Feb 2006 17:50:43 +0000

“Now there’s nothing wrong with IT, but just that in the long run India can’t bank on it.”

Neither can any of the other economies you mention bank on any of their sectors either. I think you over-estimate the value of physical capital and under-estimate the value of human capital. Manufacturing has largely left the US, for example. Banking on all those factories and heavy infrastructure did nothing to keep those industries there when cheaper, more efficient, sources arrived. India needs to consider what it’s competitive advantage is and right now that’s people. In particular, educated people. Don’t discount that.