Good Editorial By T. Friedman on Indias Tech Growth: The Great Indian Dream

[tnitsuj]

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March 11, 2004
OP-ED COLUMNIST
The Great Indian Dream
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

ANGALORE, India

Nine years ago, as Japan was beating America's brains out in the auto industry, I wrote a column about playing a computer geography game with my daughter, then 9 years old. I was trying to help her with a clue that clearly pointed to Detroit, so I asked her, "Where are cars made?" And she answered, "Japan." Ouch.

Well, I was reminded of that story while visiting an Indian software design firm in Bangalore, Global Edge. The company's marketing manager, Rajesh Rao, told me he had just made a cold call to the vice president for engineering of a U.S. company, trying to drum up business. As soon as Mr. Rao introduced himself as calling from an Indian software firm, the U.S. executive said to him, "Namaste" ? a common Hindi greeting. Said Mr. Rao: "A few years ago nobody in America wanted to talk to us. Now they are eager." And a few even know how to say hi in proper Hindu fashion. So now I wonder: if I have a granddaughter one day, and I tell her I'm going to India, will she say, "Grandpa, is that where software comes from?"

Driving around Bangalore you might think so. The Pizza Hut billboard shows a steaming pizza under the headline "Gigabites of Taste!" Some traffic signs are sponsored by Texas Instruments. And when you tee off on the first hole at Bangalore's KGA golf course, your playing partner points at two new glass-and-steel buildings in the distance and says: "Aim at either Microsoft or I.B.M."

How did India, in 15 years, go from being a synonym for massive poverty to the brainy country that is going to take all our best jobs? Answer: good timing, hard work, talent and luck.

The good timing starts with India's decision in 1991 to shuck off decades of socialism and move toward a free-market economy with a focus on foreign trade. This made it possible for Indians who wanted to succeed at innovation to stay at home, not go to the West. This, in turn, enabled India to harvest a lot of its natural assets for the age of globalization.

One such asset was Indian culture's strong emphasis on education and the widely held belief here that the greatest thing any son or daughter could do was to become a doctor or an engineer, which created a huge pool of potential software technicians. Second, by accident of history and the British occupation of India, most of those engineers were educated in English and could easily communicate with Silicon Valley. India was also neatly on the other side of the world from America, so U.S. designers could work during the day and e-mail their output to their Indian subcontractors in the evening. The Indians would then work on it for all of their day and e-mail it back. Presto: the 24-hour workday.

Also, this was the age of globalization, and the countries that succeed best at globalization are those that are best at "glocalization" ? taking the best global innovations, styles and practices and melding them with their own culture, so they don't feel overwhelmed. India has been naturally glocalizing for thousands of years.

Then add some luck. The dot-com bubble led to a huge overinvestment in undersea fiber-optic cables, which made it dirt-cheap to transfer data, projects or phone calls to far-flung places like India, where Indian techies could work on them for much lower wages than U.S. workers. Finally, there was Y2K. So many companies feared that their computers would melt down because of the Year 2000 glitch they needed software programmers to go through and recode them. Who had large numbers of programmers to do that cheaply? India. That was how a lot of Indian software firms got their first outsourced jobs.

So if you are worried about outsourcing, I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that a unique techno-cultural-economic perfect storm came together in the early 1990's to make India a formidable competitor and partner for certain U.S. jobs ? and there are not a lot of other Indias out there. The bad news, from a competition point of view, is that there are 555 million Indians under the age of 25, and a lot of them want a piece of "The Great Indian Dream," which is a lot like the American version.

As one Indian exec put it to me: The Americans' self-image that this tech thing was their private preserve is over. This is a wake-up call for U.S. workers to redouble their efforts at education and research. If they do that, he said, it will spur "a whole new cycle of innovation, and we'll both win. If we each pull down our shutters, we will both lose."



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[tnitsuj]

Cliff Notes; Indians had good timing, and an incredible work ethic and motivation which has brought them where they are (with a long way to go). Americans; stop whining and improve yourselves, make new opportunities.

 

[bozack]

Originally posted by: tnitsuj
Cliff Notes; Indians had good timing, and an incredible work ethic and motivation which has brought them where they are (with a long way to go). Americans; stop whining and improve yourselves, make new opportunities.

yup...nothing that can be done about it now that wouldn't stifle progress or technology...time for Americans to look into other sectors or focus on industrial training instead of liberal arts education.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: bozack

Originally posted by: tnitsuj
Cliff Notes; Indians had good timing, and an incredible work ethic and motivation which has brought them where they are (with a long way to go). Americans; stop whining and improve yourselves, make new opportunities.

yup...nothing that can be done about it now that wouldn't stifle progress or technology...time for Americans to look into other sectors or focus on industrial training instead of liberal arts education.

"How did India, in 15 years, go from being a synonym for massive poverty to the brainy country that is going to take all our best jobs? Answer: good timing, hard work, talent and luck."

Good Timing my A$$, Hard Work my A$$, Luck my A$$.

Wrong. Wrong Wrong again. The very same Companies setting up shop over there have done so with American Tax payer money and incentives as well as extra profits at the expense of Americans.

Time for Americans to stop subsidizing the Foreign Companies like "Texas Instruments" and the rest. They must be
re-named India Instruments and kicked the hell out of here.

Then a NEW REAL Texas Intruments can be re-fired up by REAL Americans.

 

[lozina]

Its a good article.

I became a CS grad after seeing all the propserity in that field in the 80's to 90's and unfortunately came ot the party late, and don't blame any of the shortcomings in this field lately on Indians. I do hold a decent job in my field and I'll see how things go but I'm ready and willing to go back to school and study something else as soon as my career gets shaky. I just hope I show up at the next party on time

 

[KGB1]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: bozack

Originally posted by: tnitsuj
Cliff Notes; Indians had good timing, and an incredible work ethic and motivation which has brought them where they are (with a long way to go). Americans; stop whining and improve yourselves, make new opportunities.

yup...nothing that can be done about it now that wouldn't stifle progress or technology...time for Americans to look into other sectors or focus on industrial training instead of liberal arts education.

"How did India, in 15 years, go from being a synonym for massive poverty to the brainy country that is going to take all our best jobs? Answer: good timing, hard work, talent and luck."

Good Timing my A$$, Hard Work my A$$, Luck my A$$.

Wrong. Wrong Wrong again. The very same Companies setting up shop over there have done so with American Tax payer money and incentives as well as extra profits at the expense of Americans.

Time for Americans to stop subsidizing the Foreign Companies like "Texas Instruments" and the rest. They must be
re-named India Instruments and kicked the hell out of here.

Then a NEW REAL Texas Intruments can be re-fired up by REAL Americans.

We can't really, America is not a industrialized country. It POST-Industrialized which means we provide SERVICES in the United States, its the next logical step in the make up of the socio-industrial chain of events. I'm sure some American's would love the jobs the indians are doing. But with high costs of living, high wages, health care make it nearly impossible for corporations to make a profit when so many are smooching off of their work.

And don't start with "AMERICAN HARD EARNED TAX Money" tell your congressman or senator to do something about it, don't b!tch to the indians why you're not doing so well. Remember also corporations HAVE no national boundaries, where they produce, sell, invent is entirely up to them. We CONSUMERS have no say in how things should be developed, we buy the damned thing.

 

[bozack]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674


"How did India, in 15 years, go from being a synonym for massive poverty to the brainy country that is going to take all our best jobs? Answer: good timing, hard work, talent and luck."

Good Timing my A$$, Hard Work my A$$, Luck my A$$.

Wrong. Wrong Wrong again. The very same Companies setting up shop over there have done so with American Tax payer money and incentives as well as extra profits at the expense of Americans.

Time for Americans to stop subsidizing the Foreign Companies like "Texas Instruments" and the rest. They must be
re-named India Instruments and kicked the hell out of here.

Then a NEW REAL Texas Intruments can be re-fired up by REAL Americans.

Dave is it only BS because you don't want to hear it?? you cannot come to terms with the fact that you're obsolete?...and with re. to your proposal, as long as other companies offshore and offer lower cost products you could start as many US companies as you like but the avg. consumer will always gravitate towards the lower price.

 

[SherEPunjab]

its a good article. i think its pretty fair, doesn't over credit the indian side, doesn't overcredit the american side.

I particularly agree with this statement,

" This is a wake-up call for U.S. workers to redouble their efforts at education and research. If they do that, he said, it will spur "a whole new cycle of innovation, and we'll both win. If we each pull down our shutters, we will both lose."
"

Thats what I've been saying from the get - go. look, jobs to india won't stop. why? because this country, like many others, is driven by big business. what big business wants, big business gets. i remember a few years ago, there was some legislation to restrict giving H1 B (worker visas). Big business got involved, and not only did they not stop, they increased. Indians were a major beneficiary. Jobs to India won't stop, and India doesn't need us. if we aren't there, they have their own technical ability to develop what they need to - and if they don't, there are plenty of other western nations that will put their money in that country. the savings we realize (a very obvious example can be dell's low computer prices) help this country. Does it take away jobs? yes. But thats what has always been happening, and there is no point in whining about it as far as im' concerned. Lets improve our education, lets make it to where we are in control again. but i don't think there is one winner in this, i think there will be several winners, particularly, India, the U.S., and maybe some other Asian nations.

lol @ dmcowen's "india instruments"

hehe.

 

[dirtboy]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

"How did India, in 15 years, go from being a synonym for massive poverty to the brainy country that is going to take all our best jobs? Answer: good timing, hard work, talent and luck."

Good Timing my A$$, Hard Work my A$$, Luck my A$$.

Wrong. Wrong Wrong again. The very same Companies setting up shop over there have done so with American Tax payer money and incentives as well as extra profits at the expense of Americans.

Time for Americans to stop subsidizing the Foreign Companies like "Texas Instruments" and the rest. They must be
re-named India Instruments and kicked the hell out of here.

Then a NEW REAL Texas Intruments can be re-fired up by REAL Americans.

So if this started 15 years ago, Dave & Co can't blame Bush... hahahahahaha nothing like the ignorant liberals being proved wrong yet again.

 

[athithi]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: bozack

Originally posted by: tnitsuj
Cliff Notes; Indians had good timing, and an incredible work ethic and motivation which has brought them where they are (with a long way to go). Americans; stop whining and improve yourselves, make new opportunities.

yup...nothing that can be done about it now that wouldn't stifle progress or technology...time for Americans to look into other sectors or focus on industrial training instead of liberal arts education.

"How did India, in 15 years, go from being a synonym for massive poverty to the brainy country that is going to take all our best jobs? Answer: good timing, hard work, talent and luck."

Good Timing my A$$, Hard Work my A$$, Luck my A$$.

Wrong. Wrong Wrong again. The very same Companies setting up shop over there have done so with American Tax payer money and incentives as well as extra profits at the expense of Americans.

Time for Americans to stop subsidizing the Foreign Companies like "Texas Instruments" and the rest. They must be
re-named India Instruments and kicked the hell out of here.

Then a NEW REAL Texas Intruments can be re-fired up by REAL Americans.

Dave, I am so glad you are the one bashing Indians - whatever you say, the opposite naturally becomes true.

The longer this goes on, the more I begin to fear for my personal safety.

Read the one where the guy says he will deliver a NOT GUILTY verdict if he were on the jury....

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: athithi

Originally posted by: dmcowen674

Originally posted by: bozack

Originally posted by: tnitsuj
Cliff Notes; Indians had good timing, and an incredible work ethic and motivation which has brought them where they are (with a long way to go). Americans; stop whining and improve yourselves, make new opportunities.

yup...nothing that can be done about it now that wouldn't stifle progress or technology...time for Americans to look into other sectors or focus on industrial training instead of liberal arts education.

"How did India, in 15 years, go from being a synonym for massive poverty to the brainy country that is going to take all our best jobs? Answer: good timing, hard work, talent and luck."

Good Timing my A$$, Hard Work my A$$, Luck my A$$.

Wrong. Wrong Wrong again. The very same Companies setting up shop over there have done so with American Tax payer money and incentives as well as extra profits at the expense of Americans.

Time for Americans to stop subsidizing the Foreign Companies like "Texas Instruments" and the rest. They must be
re-named India Instruments and kicked the hell out of here.

Then a NEW REAL Texas Intruments can be re-fired up by REAL Americans.

Dave, I am so glad you are the one bashing Indians - whatever you say, the opposite naturally becomes true.

The longer this goes on, the more I begin to fear for my personal safety.

Read the one where the guy says he will deliver a NOT GUILTY verdict if he were on the jury....

Ah No athithi, I am not "Bashing Indians", far from that, I am in fact "Bashing Americans" specifically the fake Americans, those in Money, Power and Political Positions that would sell their Mother's if if would make them an extra buck.

 

[Tom]

Originally posted by: tnitsuj
Cliff Notes; Indians had good timing, and an incredible work ethic and motivation which has brought them where they are (with a long way to go). Americans; stop whining and improve yourselves, make new opportunities.

I agree for the most part. For me the real issue with outsourcing is when the economic advantage comes as a result of drastically lower standards of living, poor enviromental policies, and unfair government subsidies.

 

[BaliBabyDoc]

Nine years ago, as Japan was beating America's brains out in the auto industry, I wrote a column about playing a computer geography game with my daughter, then 9 years old. I was trying to help her with a clue that clearly pointed to Detroit, so I asked her, "Where are cars made?" And she answered, "Japan." Ouch.

Now that's funny . . . and sad. Of course, many Japanese (and European) cars are made in America while many American cars are made in Canada/Mexico. Friedman is a stud . . . most of the time. Good article.