Indian IT Industry

Lilo · Post by **Lilo** » 05 Oct 2011 22:02

Any thorough reviews on Akash Tablet yet..??

edit: ok found a quick review by NDTV gadgets

Hardware

7-inch 800x480 resistive touchscreen [18]
Rugged casing with a rubberized feel
Wi-Fi enabled (802.11 a/b/g WiFi)
Mini and full USB
miniSD card slot
Subscriber Identity Module (SIM card) slot
Video out
Headphone jack
256MB of RAM
2 GB of stoage memory. Expandable via microSD memory card. [10][19]
2 Watts of power consumption with solar charging option[19]

Software

Android2.2 operating system[15]
Document Rendering
Supported Document formats: DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, XLS, XLSX, ODT, ODP
Educational software developed at Indian Institute of Technology[15]
Web browsing, video conferencing and word processing software[10]
PDF viewer, Text editor
Multimedia and Image Display
Image viewer supported formats: PNG, JPG, BMP and GIF
Supported audio formats: MP3, AAC, AC3, WAV, WMA
Supported video formats: MPEG2, MPEG4, AVI, FLV
Communication and Internet
Web browser - Standards Compliance: xHTML 1.1 compliant, JavaScript 1.8 compliant
Separate application for online YouTube video
Safety and other standards compliance
CE certification / RoHS certification

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 26 Oct 2011 01:02

H-1B visas to Indians up 24 percent

Published Date : 24-Oct-2011 22:00:00 GMT
New Delhi: In a sign of its burgeoning relationship with New Delhi, the US government Tuesday said it had increased H-1B visas issued to Indians by 24 percent between 2010 and 2011.

The H-1B visas, which allow skilled professionals to work on a temporary basis in the US, has gone up from 54,111 issued in 2010 to 67,195 in 2011.

India has been consistently pressing the US for a prompt resolution of the problems being faced by the IT industry over H-1B visas. The issue was highlighted by India at different fora, including the India-US CEOs forum and in meetings with top US officials.

?This 24 percent increase is tied to the highest ever H-1B application and issuance rates in the history of the US mission to India, and illustrates the booming nature of US-India business relations,? the US embassy said in a statement here.

India is the single largest beneficiary of H-1B visas by a wide margin.

In the past four years, applicants in India have received more than twice as many H-1B visas as the four next-highest countries combined, the US mission said. (IANS)

Vipul · Post by **Vipul** » 28 Oct 2011 21:03

India develops online payment system for consumer subsidies.

The finance ministry has developed an e-payment system for direct credit of subsidies to the accounts of consumers of fertiliser, kerosene and cooking gas.

The system, developed by the controller general of accounts (CGA) of the department of expenditure, is a fully secured e-payment system for direct credit of dues from the government to the accounts of beneficiaries.

The system will operate through the 'government e-payment gateway' (GePG) using the digitally signed electronic advice (e-advice).

Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee will inaugurate the government e-payment system on Monday.

The government e-payment gateway (GePG) is a portal, which enables delivery of payment services from pay and accounts offices (PAOs) for online payment into beneficiaries' accounts in a seamless manner under a secured environment.

GePG serves as middleware between computerised payment and accounts (COMPACT) application at the pay and accounts offices and the core banking solution (CBS) of the agency banks/RBI to facilitate paperless transaction, reducing overall transaction cost and promoting green banking.

"This system will bring transparency and expedite direct payments from central paying units relating to subsidies to the users and consumers of fertiliser, kerosene and cooking gas, which is already a declared objective of the government," an official release said today.

The digitally signed e-advices uploaded by the PAOs on GePG portal are downloaded by the concerned banks to credit the beneficiaries' accounts through CBS, NEFT or RTGS.

The e-payment system will save time and efforts and facilitate elimination of physical cheques and their manual processing. The system will also have online reconciliation of transactions and efficient compilation of payment accounts.

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 02 Nov 2011 01:48

3 Lakh NRIs Likely To Return Home

Amid uncertain job market conditions overseas, as many as 3,00,000 Indian engineering professionals are expected to return home during the five-year period from 2011-15, says a survey.

Global workforce solutions provider Kelly Services India has said that more Indians working abroad would migrate back to India within the next five years, lured by promising opportunities in the country.

"An estimated 3,00,000 Indian professionals working overseas are expected to return between 2011-2015 ... for majority of reverse migrants, job satisfaction levels in India will outshine their previous overseas jobs within the next 2-3 years," Kelly Services India said in a report released today.

The findings are based on a survey of 1,000 respondents from different parts of India as well as foreign countries.

"... the most critical driver of reverse migration trends will be job satisfaction levels.

"Though 48 per cent of respondents who favoured the job satisfaction overseas indicated that the key reason for them was high remuneration, they also indicated that growth opportunities abroad are rather bleak with only 10 per cent respondents feeling that opportunities abroad are favourable," the report said.

India is estimated to have received USD 55 billion remittances from overseas last year.

Going by estimates, the population of international migrants stood at around 214 million in 2010.So it is not impossible to have 100 million Indians migrating to Russia

"The sustained growth of India and the resilience India showed during the slow down also has added dynamic transition and movement back to India," Kelly Services India Managing Director Kamal Karanth said.

As per the survey, one of the key reasons for reverse migration during 2008-2011 period were insecure job market overseas.

"Karnataka is the most preferred Indian state to live for reverse migrants at 88 per cent followed by Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi & Punjab at 72 per cent, 66 per cent, 65 per cent, 58 per cent, 55 per cent and 48 per cent, respectively," Kelly Services India said.

Karanth noted that with the government spending large amounts of capital on infrastructure and living amenities, an increasing number of happy, contented and excited Indians are eager to relocate back. (PTI)

kapilrdave · Post by **kapilrdave** » 05 Nov 2011 17:59

Do you know what is Cloud Computing? Learn from here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IhyGOL7Wo4

Just for laugh

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 08 Nov 2011 03:03

Sad indeed!

Satya_anveshi · Post by **Satya_anveshi** » 08 Nov 2011 06:01

^^is he imposter or really Vishwabandhu Gupta, former IT
Commissioner, that much f'd up?

kapilrdave · Post by **kapilrdave** » 08 Nov 2011 16:11

Satya_anveshi wrote:^^is he imposter or really Vishwabandhu Gupta, former IT
Commissioner, that much f'd up?

Indeed he is. AFAIK he was kicked out of his job for indiscipline. His other videos are also interesting. Looks an outright moron.

JE Menon · Post by **JE Menon** » 08 Nov 2011 16:30

OMG...!!!!

He's talking both about Cloud Computing and Cloud Seeding

(which they subtitle as Cloud CD - ignorant fux there too), and combining it!!! WTF?

God this is tragic!

Pratyush · Post by **Pratyush** » 09 Nov 2011 17:21

Tata Consultancy wins $2.2bn order, shares move up

Vipul · Post by **Vipul** » 09 Nov 2011 21:21

Billion-dollar IT babies emerge.

Several Indian software product companies now command or are close to commanding valuations of $1 billion, a sign that the software products space is coming of age in a country whose strength in technology has so long been in services. Online travel company Makemytrip, which listed on the Nasdaq last year, had a valuation $1.13 billion at close of trade on Monday. Mobile ad network InMobi, which closed a $200 million funding in September, is close to touching a billion dollar valuation .

Bankers say that online retailer Flipkart, which is reportedly in talks with General Atlantic and Carlyle to raise about $150- $200 million in funding , is valued at close to $1 billion.

Sharad Sharma, co-chair of the Nasscom Product Forum, said there are other product companies that could touch the $1 billion mark in the next couple of years. Nasscom is holding a product conclave in Bangalore on November 9-10 . "Every year I expect at least one product company to hit the $1 billion valuation mark. Those like Zoho and Druva Software are in line to become billion dollar companies," he said.

He said that some of the successful product start-ups are now setting templates for others to follow, just like what TCS did for IT services companies in the 1990s. The lower cost of establishing businesses, thanks to cheap online marketing platforms and technologies is helping product companies to grow.

VinodTK · Post by **VinodTK** » 11 Nov 2011 03:20

Indian Tech Firms Look to Hire Abroad

NEW DELHI—India's biggest information-technology companies, long accused by critics of stealing jobs from the West, are ramping up local hiring in the U.S. and Europe.

HCL Technologies Ltd. plans to tell investors and clients at a conference that starts Sunday that it intends to hire 10,000 people, or about 12.4% of its current work force, in the U.S. and Europe by 2015. Infosys Ltd. says it will increase U.S. head count by 1,500 in the next 12 months from 3,000 now. Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. is planning to hire an additional 1,200 people in the U.S. by March, and Wipro Ltd. intends to train and hire 400 American veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

These companies have long derived the vast majority of their revenue from the U.S. and Europe. As their operations have grown, so has the need to bolster functions like sales, marketing and consulting services that rely on personal communications.
:

SwamyG · Post by **SwamyG** » 23 Jan 2012 23:33

http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/supe ... picks=true

Almost two and a half decades after entering the supercomputing race but losing ground thereafter, India is now rebooting with a vengeance. The government has discreetly embarked upon a billion dollar initiative to create next-generation supercomputers.

But unlike the Rs.1,750 ($35) tablet PC, which is unfolding under the glare of high-voltage publicity, the supercomputing programme is shrouded in secrecy. So much so, the plan details have not yet been shared with scientists who have developed such mega machines in the past.

The government has committed Rs.5,000 crore (nearly $ 1billion) for the plan, making it the largest ever grant for a single research programme since Independence.

The money is likely to start flowing during the 12th five-year plan period.

The only jarring aspect of the project is that its reins are being handed over to the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, which has only been a user and not a designer or developer of supercomputers.

There is already some takleef from certain quarters. I just hope, things work out and all the agencies co-ordinate and get the job done.

Yogi_G · Post by **Yogi_G** » 24 Jan 2012 12:39

Its no use building scalable HP systems or using a foreign microprocessor apart from getting the min-is-longer than yours thingy. We need to base our supercomputers on our processors. Whatever happened to our processor which BARC was working on? No, its not a make-lca-100-percent-indigenous-with-even-air-intyres-being-Indian concept, but such powerful platforms will be a big boost for our indigenous process product.

Vipul · Post by **Vipul** » 15 Feb 2012 20:47

Pranav Mistry showcases new technology inspired by mythology.

The research assistant cum PhD candidate at MIT Media Lab and the founder of SixthSense, Pranav Mistry, took the Nasscom Leadership Forum attendees by storm, recently. Science fiction hardly seems reserved for the big screen, but rather achievable at one's finger tips. Pranav is already famous for the legendary SixthSense technology he had showcased at TED. This time around, the latest in his quiver was the SPARSH project. He demonstrated how it would be possible to transfer data from one device by just a touch, and then copying it to another by touching the other device.

Additionally, every device that's connected to a network, essentially, have an IP address. It is that IP address that helps uniquely identify any object and just can be controlled with just a flick of a switch on an electronic device. For example, if a lamp in the house can be identified using an IP address, then it can be easily switch off and on by invoking a relevant application on one's mobile phone. Simple as that! Mistry calls this technology TeleTouch.

He had also showcased a pair of HD glasses that could project any object on the wall, and could also be used to translate any piece of text into one's native language, a copy of a similar project being currently developed by Google.

The idea behind all these innovations, as Mistry puts it, is to move ahead of the technological limitations and provide a humane touch to it. He also mentions that his main inspirations are Hindu mythological characters.

"Every culture has its own problems and solutions. Hence, I believe that every problem may not necessarily have a technology solution. For example, is a tablet really necessary when the people may not even know how to use it?"

Vipul · Post by **Vipul** » 16 Feb 2012 03:35

National Knowledge Network plans to connect over 1500 institutes in next one year.

The National Knowledge Network (NKN) of the Centre is planning to connect over 1,500 institutions across the country in the next one year, a senior official said here today.

The NKN has already covered 670 institutions including universities, NITs, IITs, IIMs, CSIR labs and agriculture labs, R S Mani, Senior Technical Director with National Informatics Centre (NIC) told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar cum workshop on NKN.

NKN project aims at bringing together all stakeholders from science, technology, higher education, healthcare, agriculture and governance to a common platform. NIC is the implementing agency for the project.

The total project cost is Rs 5,990 crore which is to be utilised in 10 years and so far about Rs 1,500 crore has been spent, he said.

"Once the institutions are connected, if there is any collaborative work with IITs or NITs or universities, they will get a boost and at the end of the day, we will get products which can be used by everyone and probably the digital divide can be removed," Mani said.

In addition to network infrastructure, the NIC would try to provide common infrastructure which everyone can use.

Principal Scientific Advisor to Government R Chidambaram, who addressed the gathering via video conference, said the applications of the NKN include delivery of distance education, collaborative research including with international partners, sharing of computing resources among others.

"The NKN is becoming an important part of the huge science infrastructure of India," he said.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 16 Feb 2012 07:21

more than general purpose x86_64 type processors which we can rely on intel or AMD to keep improving, its in area of custom ASICS, DSP and FPGA applications where we ought to become strong in the national lab sense for scientific and strategic projects.

there is not much point reinventing the wheel on x86_64 or MIPS when its all readily available and other than ARM nobody is there to fight the duopoly.

Yogi_G · Post by **Yogi_G** » 18 Feb 2012 11:34

Singha wrote:more than general purpose x86_64 type processors which we can rely on intel or AMD to keep improving, its in area of custom ASICS, DSP and FPGA applications where we ought to become strong in the national lab sense for scientific and strategic projects.

there is not much point reinventing the wheel on x86_64 or MIPS when its all readily available and other than ARM nobody is there to fight the duopoly.

Singha ji, its not about reinventing them, its having indigenous projects not running off processors picked off the shelves like the Russians currently do. You never know where a kill switch might exist.

gunjur · Post by **gunjur** » 28 Feb 2012 11:21

How long and how much can Indian IT service scale up?

A large percent of Indian IT is made up of service companies (like TCS, Wipro, Infy, CTS, IBM(india), Accenture (India) etc). Especially now since top dogs like TCS etc have around 2 lakh people across globe (though atleast 85% of it is in india). Now GM or Toyota also employs similar number (maybe slightly higher) but earns atleast 10 - 15 times more $$$.
Since companies like CTS, TCS mainly provide services and not sell products, to increase revenue they need to get more work from their clients and increase their client base which means putting more people on projects (as more people means more billing). Here comes the problem, this industry is one where people want to move up quickly, earn more quickly i.e. want to have around 10 - 15% hike year on year and a promotion every 2/3 years. So how do you manage a 1.5 – 2 lakh people company with say, around 10 billion revenue? The more you scale up, the more dissatisfaction among employees as the pie is not getting big enough for everyone to have his share.
It is already a big issue to mange each individual’s aspiration with 1.5 – 2 lakh people, so if it grows to 3/4 lakhs it becomes even more problematic. In US or Europe, there may not be a need to have huge IT service company but since our country needs to provide employment to crores and crores of people. Since this sector pays more than many other sectors, so lots of people want to be here. This again burdens the companies even more. So how long and how much can Indian IT service companies scale up?

SRoy · Post by **SRoy** » 28 Feb 2012 12:24

^^

"Scale up" relative to what? Since the IT biggies too often "scale down", "scale up" is oxymoron.

Yes there is a scalability problem (because it drives cash flow), since Indian "IT" "industry" is essentially service industry.

Yearly pay raise is only possible if only there is an additional work (offloaded to rookies) compared to previous year and supplemented by shafting of senior techies. This works in theory, but it practice when the shafted senior techies leave (since it also happens in peer "IT" companies), it sets in a atttrition wave across the sector. So the "IT" companies are back to square one with respect to profitability every 2-3 years and the cycle repeats.

One should not expect anything better in an "industry" that has cowboys in its ranks and files, managed by con artists and front ended by snake oil merchants.

An alternative would be to go in for hi tech product development carried on by people with realistic carrer goals. That would ensure long term revenue, staff satisfaction and relative monetary stability (for employers and employee...both) . Scaling up is not required unless product portfolio demands driven by resource requirements.

But then the alternative model has no place for cowboys, con artists and snake oil merchants.

The idea is that services only "IT industry" has no future for the rank and file unless the sector matures into a good mix of product and services based real IT industry. Services can always be offered off a solid product base.

gunjur · Post by **gunjur** » 28 Feb 2012 17:59

SRoy wrote: The idea is that services only "IT industry" has no future for the rank and file unless the sector matures into a good mix of product and services based real IT industry. Services can always be offered off a solid product base.

Yes, IT service has reached a certain point of saturation. But more or less most of the IT product companies like intel, yahoo, SAP or even companies like target, ABB, caterpillar have lot of people working here as part of their IT division here in india. IT employing a large number or an ability to scale up (not any one company but industry as a whole) is limited. Next 5 - 10 years is crucial as to how IT service cos will behave/adopt.

So people(i.e. employees) have to temper down their expectations w.r.t goodies which will be rolled out to them by industry. Now the important Q is, can they?? As many would have got huge car loans/ house loans or need to pay their children's tuition fees to international school etc. Hope all these commitments can be taken care of with even these reductions( or rather non-increase) in pay/goodies being rolled out.

SRoy · Post by **SRoy** » 28 Feb 2012 19:05

The pay in Indian "IT industry" is enough to handle home loans, car loans and education expenses of kids studying in reasonable schools.

However the industry may not be paying enough to handle "huge a.k.a. my d!$K is bigger than you" car / farm house loans; the pay may not be good enough to handle the educational expenses of an international school.

Salary levels getting saturated is a good things. It will weed out those that got onto the bandwagon for the gold rush.

KJo · Post by **KJo** » 28 Feb 2012 19:29

Wow it is amazing that Indian IT companies are giving 10% raises minimum to all. Looks like there is some way to go before growth slows. Or are they increasing salary for H&D reasons?

gunjur · Post by **gunjur** » 28 Feb 2012 20:30

Eventually younger folks will move to more productive fields.

Hope right policies make those sectors "productive" enough. Recently was speaking with desi IT guy settled in Melbourne from 20 years. He was saying IT is not a sector which aussie youth prefer as the opportunities are less(as most would have been off-shored i suppose). Mining is bigger than IT. Anyways with aussie population, whatever IT jobs are left even those should be enough. But in india, even 40-50 lakh jobs would not suffice.

there is still scope for growth

Agree

Also since seeing IT people with certain lifestyle for past 15-20 years, things also depends on how the society would now accept a SDRE IT guy.

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 02 Mar 2012 12:24

Gunjur wrote:Since this sector pays more than many other sectors, so lots of people want to be here. This again burdens the companies even more. So how long and how much can Indian IT service companies scale up?

My gut feeling (from what I see around me) is that slowly companies are tightening the pay scale etc. I dont think hikes of 10%-15% etc. are sustainable models, with the type of work which is coming in here. Many companies have started with annual assessment schemes, and some have even brought in stringent guidelines (including proficiency in English language) for onsite postings. The idea seems to be ensure that no one can claim ridiculous hikes and also onsite postings (in order to pay off his flat/villa EMI back in India).

So people(i.e. employees) have to temper down their expectations w.r.t goodies which will be rolled out to them by industry.

I have been whining about this for quite some time (in BRF as well). Many people who join the IT industry is here not because of their love for computers or programming. It is clearly because it is shown as a cash cow, and a place where people get too much money too easily. My company has a sizeable support projects, and this means working in shifts. You should see the frown on the faces when they are informed that they would be working in the evening shifts

.

As many would have got huge car loans/ house loans or need to pay their children's tuition fees to international school etc. Hope all these commitments can be taken care of with even these reductions( or rather non-increase) in pay/goodies being rolled out.

I also see that if there are no takers for such heavy financial commitments, schools, banking establishments would have to rethink their strategies.

Yogi_G · Post by **Yogi_G** » 02 Mar 2012 17:53

Having been involved a lot in recruitment my opinion on this is you need to see where the recent direction towards hiring is. Most companies are now openly scouting for BSCs from the market and give them pay packets 50-60% lesser than the Btechs. Experienced BSCs and freshers completely make up teams which are the routine maintenance/monitoring types. I know of several companies doing this and that includes TCS as well. The ignite program of theirs is a step in this direction.

Next big step coming up is moving to tier-2 cities. Coimbatore, Vizag, Madurai etc. Expect to see greater IT companies presence in these places in the coming years. Companies offer slightly lesser pay in these places (in some cases no difference at all), but they save 30-40% on the infrastructure and operation costs as providers/vendors in these tier-2 cities are vying for contracts as against the spoilt types in the big cities. Most companies in the OMR area in Chennai source water from water tankers.

This is essentially an effect of globalization. Companies continually move to cheaper areas, wait until these areas have their living standards spike up and they move on to other lower cost destinations. This is both good and bad. Good because poorer areas get to move up the ladder, bad because the saturation point also brings with it fall in pay and living standards, though not drasitc. You can visualize outsouring companies in the globalized world as the aliens in the Independance Day movie. They move to new planets, consume all resources and move on to other planets.

That is the menace of capitalism and the inherent globalization which comes with it. Humans have not found a better model than capitalism so until they come up with a better one we will have to live with it.

Yogi_G · Post by **Yogi_G** » 02 Mar 2012 17:56

What's with this news of Argentina being the new shining star in the IT-Vity space? Heard from some friends in other companies that they are up against contracting software companies from Argentina. Recently ran into a competitor from Argentina who have a 15 member team back home.

pgbhat · Post by **pgbhat** » 02 Mar 2012 21:34

Yogi_G wrote:Having been involved a lot in recruitment my opinion on this is you need to see where the recent direction towards hiring is. Most companies are now openly scouting for BSCs from the market and give them pay packets 50-60% lesser than the Btechs. Experienced BSCs and freshers completely make up teams which are the routine maintenance/monitoring types. I know of several companies doing this and that includes TCS as well. The ignite program of theirs is a step in this direction.

Good move IMHO. Having a engg degree myself and in ITvity, IMHO, a LOT of work does not require any core engg knowledge, in fact I believe many of the so called "ITVity" fields don't require a degree at all. You will need skills but not necessarily a degree.

Vipul · Post by **Vipul** » 02 Mar 2012 23:28

Very true, what is required is an apptitude towards programming. Have seen excellent programmers who are BCom/BA's onlee.

SRoy · Post by **SRoy** » 02 Mar 2012 23:42

^^

Its really a combination of IQ, initiative, open mindedness, out of box thinking, analytical ability that makes a good programmer. Some of the best programmers I've worked with were B.Sc Maths guys.

As we go higher at architect levels, this becomes even more pronounced. Some guys are adept at sitting through a problem description and follow it up immediately with a very high level architecture diagram. They are able to recognize patterns, relate to past experience and are able to put them togather in a whole picture,...lets say a 30,000 ft view.

No matter whether one is a BE/BTech/Master/BSc(or any grad) among the best programmer lot (we are excluding the mediocre ones) there seems to be mental threshold beyond which only a few are able to progress to be able to work as architects.

pgbhat · Post by **pgbhat** » 03 Mar 2012 00:04

Vipul wrote:Very true, what is required is an apptitude towards programming. Have seen excellent programmers who are BCom/BA's onlee.

This is what we see in massa, people NOT having engg. degree and flourishing in ITVity. They are not rocket scientists but as, Sachin says, good at their jobs and are a great way to avoid attrition and still get the job done.

negi · Post by **negi** » 03 Mar 2012 02:49

The degree or qualifications are only used as a filtering mechanism to select candidates, ITVTY during it's initial days used to act like a spoilt brat and only ask for CSE grads with 1st class or even distinction , now that the volume of work has increased and a lot is being offshored companies are trying to keep a tab on costs by increasing their recruitment pool.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 03 Mar 2012 03:35

The BE != BS != BTech is a purely Indic construct like the unmentionable classifier for this thread ! In the US or other western educational system the UG courses are setup in such a way that cross pollination is allowed. You can do a BS with Physics and take up lots of CSE courses if you care and have the energy. It is simply an cultural difference, and does not measure any skill level. It was interesting that BE with non CS majors like civil were preferred over even BSc math, which beats all logic ! That is the Indian system for you.

Though a degree is not required to be a good programmer, I still believe a degree in basic sciences/engg will help with getting the fundamentals right.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 03 Mar 2012 08:56

well indian culture is high on the designation/title thing. people put up signboards outside their homes with their names and BA/LLB/MSC/Mtech in brackets!

btw is the MCA still there...in my era that was the other alternative to recruiting BE/ME

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 03 Mar 2012 09:08

I almost had a revelation sorta

revisiting my post above. Is it the reason that we seldom have product companies. Just happened to see the movie social network and kind of reinforces how cross-pollination right from University days fosters new product ideas. The compartmentalization of all aspects of Indic lives including education is making us only coolies, sometimes very efficient and capable and highly skilled ones but with little to show for new ideas, while we waste our time barking up the wrong tree on macaulite hangovers and other such false constructions without looking at the easy and obvious solutions to fix our real problems.

Raja Bose · Post by **Raja Bose** » 03 Mar 2012 09:08

SRoy wrote: No matter whether one is a BE/BTech/Master/BSc(or any grad) among the best programmer lot (we are excluding the mediocre ones) there seems to be mental threshold beyond which only a few are able to progress to be able to work as architects.

Going by the quality of the average architect I have met, I am skeptical whether such a mental threshold exists in practice.

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 03 Mar 2012 11:11

Raja Bose wrote:Going by the quality of the average architect I have met, I am skeptical whether such a mental threshold exists in practice.

+1. Most of the Architects are cases of "ഹേഡ് മൂത്ത് എസ്.ഐ." (Head Constable promoted to Sub Inspector), i.e the architect designation is given as a promotion, though he/she is not good at the job of an architect, or in very many cases the project is kind of support work where you don't have to invent any thing new.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 03 Mar 2012 11:16

a lot of people have used langotia yaari contacts at higher levels to game the system and get promoted much beyond what their real work deserves. this devalues the guys who went up the hard way and proper way.

in my previous unit the director had blatantly promoted his chacha bhatija friend to a architect role, never mind nobody in the team knew what his contribution was for past N years, he never led any project, was always -ve to new ideas, and there existed two other very good candidates for the role he was given. neither small or big cos are immune for the nepotism thing. nobody wants to work with him, so he sits there happily doing nothing and eating a fat salary better distributed down the line to the needy troops.

its such issues and blatant -veity against the india team by the desi mgrs there that made me and many others shift out.

Sachin · Post by **Sachin** » 03 Mar 2012 13:11

Singha wrote:a lot of people have used langotia yaari contacts at higher levels to game the system and get promoted much beyond what their real work deserves.

Had faced a similar issue in my previous organization. 99% of people in my team were these kind of langoti yaar chaps from various Management Institutes. Called it a day there, when I found out that either you should be in the good books of these folks (by bending over backwards), or speak in Hindi and kind of "adjust with the system".

Yogi_G · Post by **Yogi_G** » 03 Mar 2012 13:38

IMHO, a product company has revenue per employee several times higher than service companies. I know of many companies who do outsourced product development but dont develop products themselves. They have everything they need to create and market a product successfully but never get to it. They would then lose out on the outsourcing part as they would be deemed a competitor by the customers even if from a different domain.

India needs a healthy mix of both product and service companies. service companies for the job creation and volumes, the product companies for the innovation and the brand building + revenue.

TCS has 200,000 employees and a revenue base of 6-7 billion while I remember about a few years back Microstrategy had a employee strength of around 120 and a revenue base of 100 million and growing.