The Great Indian Dream

"I'm from India", said Anjali Kumar, an Indian working in London. And she was told, "Ah! Then you must be good at computers!"
Anjali is a liberal arts graduate.

Anjali shares this brand - this stereotype - with 1 billion of her countrymen, 48% of whom are illiterate, leave alone computer savvy. But what makes the world equate technological prowess with Indians? What makes Indians earn this reputation of being global information technology giants? Are Indians endowed with an extraordinary talent and ability to thrive in the silicon grasslands of the globe?

Is there something special about Indians which has led to the astronomical growth of the Indian software industry? (see figure). The country's software industry is growing at a rate of 35% per year. A study conducted by India's National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) with consultancy firm McKinsey & Co. projects the Indian software industry to gross US$50 billion in exports by 2008.



Is it a sheer coincidence that Vinod Khosla - the co-founder of Sun Microsystems, Vinod Dham - the creater of the Pentium chip, and Sabir Bhatia - creator of Hotmail, are all Indians? How is it that 1/3rd of the employees at NASA and Microsoft, 28% of employees at IBM, 17% of employees at Intel, and 13% of employees at Xerox are of Indian origin? Is it not intriguing that there are more than 200 millionaires in the Silicon Valley who are IT entrepreneurs of Indian origin? And that during the tech boom of the late 1990s, 1 out of every 5 startups that sprouted was the brainchild of an Indian?

The fact that the Indian intellect and information technology wizardry powers some of the largest organizations in the world, compels us to look beyond the numbers and figures and explore what lies beneath this astronomical rise of a nation of farmers, into a nation harboring ambitions of global domination. It compels us to investigate what is it about the Indian personality that makes them magicians of the byte code.

In this attempt to find the inherent factors, we discover how history, culture, heritage and the socio-economic landscape over the past 3 centuries has deeply engraved its mark on the Indian way of thinking, on its path to software supremacy.

A Legacy Enumerated

Proficiency in implementation of information technology prefers, if not commands, proficiency in mathematics and engineering - computer science being a subset of the two disciplines. Therefore, it would be fair to say that a strong foundation in these subjects would most likely increase the possibility of high competency in computer science and information technology implementation.

Indian history has ample examples of a tradition of excellence in mathematics. The Indus Valley civilization, which flourished 2500 years before Christ, gives of clues of how Indians used measures and weights with a clear understanding of the decimal system. Dr. Bibhutibhusan Dutta, author of 'Ancient Hindu Geometry' opines that the terminology of numeration has been India's greatest gift to the world. The highest terminology the ancient Greeks knew was 'myriad' which denoted 10(4) and which came into use only about the fourth century BC. The Romans had to remain content with a 'mille' 10(3). But centuries before them, Indians had numerated up to 10(5) or 'parardha' in Sanskrit, which they could easily express without ambiguity or cumbrousness.

Aryabhatta (5th century) had calculated that the Earth revolves around the Sun about 1000 years before Galileo was persecuted for the same claim. It is a known fact that the concept of '0', known as 'shunya' in Sanskrit originated in India, and later taken to the west by the Arabs who called it 'Hindsat' or the science of the Hindus. If one looks at the building blocks of information technology, it is all about '1's and '0's. Considering India was the birthplace of the '0', there sure must be something ingrained in the intellect of the people that makes them excel in information technology.

An interesting aspect of the Indian intellect was highlighted by P.V. Indiresan, Director - Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai. In explaining the exploration of paradigms, he said, "Indians do not proceed the way Westerners do, step by step. Instead of applying deductive logic through painstaking scholarship to extend the paradigm to its breaking point, they look for inspiration through inductive logic." At the cost of scientific fallacy, Indians tend to look at the bigger picture when solving problems, looking for the interconnectedness of things. Instead of studying individual numbers or elements to find solutions, the Indian psyche reflexively tries to find the causal relations as part of the network - the bigger picture. Much like the concept of karma in Hindu theology as one would be tempted to conclude.

It would not be unfair to conjure that over the centuries, the propensity to excel with logic and numbers may have filtered down to the common man and the talent pools. It is an established fact that the Indian education system and society has a strong bias towards brilliance in Mathematics. As recent as April 2006, the masses took to the streets in protest against the Maharashtra State Government?s proposal to make mathematics an optional subject at the 'O' level, an example of the halo around being mathematically proficient. This bias has not been a recent phenomenon, but the result of a curriculum and the importance for it that has been built over centuries.

Thus, the building blocks of information technology - a superior level of math and logic, inherent to the Indian intellect, runs in the veins of the Indian computer science engineer who saves 'Uncle Sam's Wired World' and its dependants, day in day out.

Societal Norms and Education

The upper castes of hierarchal India shunned manual labor, where it was not uncommon to lecture children telling them that they'd 'cut grass' for the rest of their lives if they didn't study well. The Brahmins had social mandate to pursue education while the landlords insulated themselves with their land. The only alternative left for the lower castes to avoid the then considered 'shameful' manual labor like cleaning toilets and garbage, working in tanneries, or landless farming was to pursue an educational degree in the hope that it would alleviate them to a higher social strata. Thus, education became the new social standard that differentiated people from manual laborers.

While the legal profession, teaching or government jobs commanded high respect, India's independence saw people's perceptions towards education changing.

The 'western' educated Jawaharlal Nehru reformed the education system with progressive 5-year plans that focused on higher secondary and technical education. Medical and engineering professions became the hotbeds of Indian talent. Nehru's vision paid off with the founding of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) with branches in 7 cities, and with the establishment of 17 Regional Engineering Colleges (RECs) set up as centers of excellence in engineering. Today, with its 113 universities and 2,088 colleges - many of which teach various engineering disciplines - India produces nearly 350,000 engineering graduates every year. All of Europe produces 100,000 engineering graduates a year, while the US produces only 70,000.

The question is louder than ever. Why does India produce an army of software engineering graduates while the developed world still battles to find concrete solutions to rejuvenate its technical education system? The social landscape of India may partly answer this question.

The year 1991 saw the economic liberalization of the country, opening the floodgates for the IT industry that has since grown with double-digit figures every year. Handsome annual compensations await engineers who embrace this high growth industry. To most aspirants, an software engineering degree equates to a heavy pot of gold in the form of a coveted job in a large software house. As software companies line up at the gates of engineering colleges, the pots of gold awaiting engineering graduates have grown heavier by the year. Hierarchical superiority - a hallmark of Indian society - has a role to play in attracting thousands of students in pursuing software engineering studies. Today, these 'higher degrees' conform to traditional notions of hierarchal eminence, as the ghosts of the caste system have conditioned the Indian psyche to believe that more money in the pocket meant an elevation from the 'degrading' labor class; thus, a higher social standing.

Arguably, India has progressed from the caste system, which determined an individual's standing in society. Today, the number of degrees below one's name, a fat paycheck, and membership to the city's exclusive club have become the new indicators of hierarchy in Indian society.

The Road to El Dorado

Over the past decade, international organizations have seen opportunity in India's information technology revolution. This has led to increased foreign direct investment in the country, high value contracts being awarded to Indian software companies and most importantly, greater job opportunities. The information technology El Dorado finally seems to be in sight.

And Indians are willing to work 18 hours a day to be part of this El Dorado.

The Indian Institute of Technology receives over 200,000 applications annually. Less than 1.8% applicants are accepted. Such competition might compel one to resign to what might seem inevitable to most. However, there has been an increase in the number of applications every year. Parents groom their children with private tuitions from an early age to enable them to take competitive entrance exams. Venky Subramanian, an IIT aspirant, when asked about the competition, replied, "I share the country with 1 billion other people, the only place left for me to go is up! Up to reach for the stars, because competition runs in my blood."

A considerable part of this determination has to do with the light at the end of the tunnel - a campus placement in a big company. Indians respond extraordinarily well to the lure of monetary incentives. While we look for answers by studying the Indian talent for IT, there is no doubt that the prospect of an IT career laced with monetary benefits works best. A fat salary and a chance to go abroad are the strongest motivating factors for Indians in pursuing IT careers. As one IT professional put it, "... everyone wants to get into IT because it is easy money. As most of us don?t have any real passion for any profession, money matters most."

History is littered with success stories of Indian entrepreneurs who made it big in the Silicon Valley. For every IT professional that has left for American shores, there are a 100,000 others in India?s villages who draw inspiration as every successful individual becomes a role model and a benchmark. This is the 'Big American Dream' living 22,000 miles away from American soil in the hearts and minds of every third IT professional and thousands of students in India. Interestingly, 'working abroad' seems to be a status symbol for the rest of the family as well, even if it means leaving Indian shores to simply drive a taxi in a foreign land.

For those who choose to remain in the country, history motivates with successes of Indians like Narayan Murthy of Infosys, and Azim Premji of Wipro who have built IT empires in Bangalore and Hyderabad, and who form part of the Forbes 100 list.

It is this history and the prospect of a bright future that serves like a guiding beacon for the Indian graduate driving the IT vehicle on the road to El Dorado.

Question Time India

Though much has been said about the immense technical talent pool in India, is India really ready for global domination? The Chairman and Chief Mentor of Infosys, N. R. Narayan Murthy himself asked the question, "Why is it that independent India does not boast of any product of international class and with worldwide recognition?" A killer app as is referred to in the markets? Are Indian software professionals simply doing bottom-level technology work for the giants of the IT industry? Where does India fall in the software value chain? Why is it that with all the high potential in software engineering, the largest Indian companies only do contract work for software giants abroad? Are Indian software professionals simply talked about because they are hardworking, low on costs and English speaking? Why is it that it is only when Indians leave for foreign shores that creativity and the spirit of innovation take a quantum leap?

Reality is that though India hosts some of the world's best institutes for technical education, most Indians lack the confidence and initiative to move beyond boundaries of their work. Industry experts are equivocal in their opinion: Of the thousands that step out of the technical institutes, few are probing new frontiers or exploring new horizons. The education system teaches students to code, but do not instill the spirit to experiment, and innovate. As Microsoft Chief Technical Officer Craig Mundie bluntly put it, "India does not produce enough good computer engineers and those it does are good at theory but not very well equipped to handle the practical aspects." (emphasis added)

Yet, there is hope. Many software companies have taken note of the limitations influenced by culture and education of the Indian software professional. Companies like Infosys are actively engaged in retraining staff, redesigning workplaces and work processes towards creating environments that support innovation and invention, and foster a sense of self-worth and pride in one?s work among software professionals. Entrepreneurs of Indian origin in the Silicon Valley are emerging as venture capitalists, investing in low scale software technology projects in India, nurturing creative entrepreneurship among the Indian software talent base. The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has laid down guidelines for compulsory academic research for engineering graduates as part of its ongoing effort in fostering research activities at the university level.

As India transforms itself to become a global superpower, it will need to push the Indian software industry up the global value chain. And it will be its intellectual capital that will drive the country from a service provider to innovator and technological leader.