Indian IT Industry

I met some MBA students of George Wahington University, this week. There was a seminar organized for them in IIMB and my guide was to deliver a talk, which went on for 2 hours. The talk was on the evolution of IT industry in India, and how it had managed to remain globally competitive and viable despite all odds of crumbling infrastructre, crippling economic scenario (the early 90s time), and zero or total lack of domestic demand.
In his famous theory of 'competitive advantage of nations' Porter talks about the competitive excellence possessed by french vineyards, japanese consumer electronics, etc. which are because of factor conditions, Firm's strategy, structure & rivalry, demand conditions, and related and supporting industry.
None of which were conducive for the Indian IT industry to record impressive growth in so little time.
There is no appropriate model, or management theory which can satisfactorily explain the evolution of IT industry in India. The enablers are ofcourse the availability of manpower, our ability to speak "english" and the most importantly "cost advantage" that we offer. But these do not explain the continuing growth rate, given the fact that most of the neighbouring countries are soon catching up on the the enablers.

Then what could be a suitable explanation of things.
Several intellectuals believe that india's cultural, social and historical context is what explains the IT story of India.
What this means is that for long since the beginning (when the vedas were being scripted), people have been inclined towards intellectually stimulating job. Physical work was always looked down upon. Even the caste system had brahmins (the priests & the teachers) as the highest ranking social class.
The establishment of the world's Oldest university, the discovery of zero, the advances in surgery and medicines during the times of "Charak" , at the time when civilizations in most part of the world were still backward (and learning to wrap themselves up), explains the leaning propensity of Indians, and the value Indian society places on learning and higher education. Trade and social links with other civilizations have existed in India since the harappan civilization. Heun tsang's (the fist chinese to come to india) visit to india has been documented and he mentioned the importance of education in the indian society during 3rd century BC.

All these social and cultural factors do explain the rise of IT industry. The work of software development as perceived is intellectual, invloves cotinuous learning which is in sync with the historical and social context. The ability to lean quickly and apply the learnt knowledge does differentiate us from the rest of the world, and this is the reason why we see an exponential growth rate in the industry ,even when there is emergence of competitive countries in our vicinity. Another observation is that the industry operates much like a global industry, with flat organization structure, building relationship with the customer, global delivery model, etc. This factor also explains much of the rise. In todays world of shrinking geographies, orgnaizations which are able to adapt themselves to the chaging environmental conditions can survive. Organizations have to cater to different market places, and to satisfy several conflicting needs to be competitive. The ability to learn is what distinguishes between successful and unsuccessful organizations. And here again we see how Indian IT industry has reached where it has reached.

This was the gist of the talk.
The firangs were obviously too impressed. I got to know this during lunch when I interacted with them. Couple of the students amongst them were 2nd generation desis. Their parents would have migrated to the US of A in search of greener pastures. I could not help but pity these guys. They come here with so much of pre conceived notions about India ( which I am sure their parents have passed onto them), and are quite taken aback when they see what "india" is really like... I was amazed to hear their ideas about what they had thought of this place. I am amazed because I really wonder how can people talk like this and be soo ignorant. The world is getting smaller and smaller. People can communicate, connect and get access to every kind of information. And its not a matter of India. The developing countries are developing at a rapid pace, and hence there is china story, brazil story and an India story.

But even then there is one more context to India's growth..the "desi"ness..people have obsession with WEST..western food, western music, western education, western entertainers, and the likes...
For most Indians, "going to "Umericaah" is a dream....earning in Dollars is fantasy, and living in USA is a result of good karma of previous births, or answer to their mom's devotion towards almighty.

..and hence the bhedchaal over being a "computer engineer" which every 5th/or 6th engineering graduate is

and the intellectuals think that aryan blood has got to do with the growth story.....I have my reservations on this..