Waiting for the Resident Idiot
Monday, 26. June 2006 - 2:27 PM
Outlook reports on the new opportunity for Indian nurses thanks to globalization. Only the byline got my attention, I didn’t bother to read the whole piece, which expands on this theme.
She’s suddenly being chased by eligible bachelors. She is being wooed by the US government. Meet the new Indian export: the Indian nurse whose destination is now not Middle-East but West, with an average income of USD 60,000…
Give this industry another 5 years or so to really boom, and the results to start trickling in and the nurses’ families to slowly become prosperous, and various educational courses to make their way…. you can’t compare this to the IT boom in terms of both hype and money but undoubtedly, nurses will call shots in terms of asking and getting huge salaries.
Equally, give another 5 years before the Resident Idiot to step in and call them Desi Ayahs serving the Bourgeois West, in the same vein as that infamous Cyber Coolie pamphlet.
27. June 2006 - 2:26 AM
Hi Sandeep,
I appreciate your concern over Resident Indians who foolishly sling mud on the progress of India’s economic sectors. Nonetheless, I am afraid I could relate to some parts of ‘Cyber Coolie’ article that you have linked to.
I dont mean to disrespect the IT operations in India. But the fact remains, that we still dont play the same game and and take the same initiatives as American software manufactures do. I personally am in the US and got myself a Master’ degree a year ago and have recently started my career as a software developer here. I came here right after finishing my Bachelors in Computer Engineering in India. My motivation was not coming to the US, but the fact that I felt I didnt learn much in my Bachelors. Recently I became very enthusiastic about what Indian IT companies are doing. Tom Friedman’s book, “The World is Flat” is very popular and talked about here. But slowly as I am learning more about the software development process I realize that it is a task that needs really high standards of professionalism and expertise. Later my friends here who have worked in Infosys told me that infosys actually does not develop much software, they mostly provide services like testing and maintainance. And doing these two things are EASY and mundane compared to actual software construction.
Please look at what I am saying from the concerns of an Engineer, and that is the only concern I have. I have high hopes on companies like Micosoft etc opening their offices in India. They would let Indian engineers lay their hands on some cool stuff. What I would like to see is Indian companies doing some cutting edge work. But thats not going to happen easily. Software developement projects are so tricky to deal with that even in US so many of them fail. They require a very professional approach and a very professional team.
The engineering education in India also needs to improve if we want to do better than testing and maintanence. Blindly following engineering textbooks from the US is not going to work.
Another thing that you will notice that post graduation in engineering in India is not popular..You wont see many M.E.s or pHds in engineering…People consider doing these things only if they get the IIT and IISc stamp…I also see so many people sending their engineering edcation down the drain by entering MBA programs right after they graduate with a Bachelor’s a in engineering. It has become so common a culture now.
Indians should defintely enjoy the back-office monopoly, but should not stop here and see what things remain to be done next.
I think we also deserve to be the architects, not the just the labourers.
27. June 2006 - 6:36 AM
What I would like to see is Indian companies doing some cutting edge work. But thats not going to happen easily. Software developement projects are so tricky to deal with that even in US so many of them fail.
Dhruv
Excellent point. Rajeev had made a mention of this in one of his articles. Arindam Banerji has written a 3 part series on this issue.
Now this is a reality we have to face in the short term. At present only 2 companies i-flex and Jatayu software come to mind that are making cutting edge products. Can Infosys, Wipro and the like come up with cutting edge products? It may be difficult as they are quite large and this is not their core competency. Even their own employee does not seem very confident about it. He had even written an article on rediff about this. The specialized companies such as i-flex and other companies have a better chance.
After Silicon Valley, Israel is another country that produces cutting edge stuff. Taiwan also folows the assembly model that China is doing.
I feel India can produce cutting edge stuff. We have had a tradition of creating Intellectual property. What we need to build is a user community. After all the main strength of the US is a huge user market. We also need to strengthen the education system.
The second area is something we have to write off especially in the medium term. With this Arjun Singh hell bent on detroying anything good in the education field, the prospects here are bleak.
I think there is a difference between how you and Arindam have approached the subject in a constructive manner compared to the resident idiot who just trashes an entire industry by calling it names.
28. June 2006 - 10:11 AM
Yes, the result will definitely be known in the next five years. But I think, the attitude of western countries is responsible for short supply of nurses and teachers. Its not cool to be a nurse or teacher. My niece lives in Canada. She mostly scores above 95% in most of her subjects. And her classmates make fun of her for this, claiming she has no life, so uncool, so…… Imagine you are made to feel guilty about good scores. NO WONDER,the situation has reached to this level that they are importing teachers and nurses.