IT Is Not A Magic Wand

Anand

IITians ane shabbily dressed, stink like sh *t! and yet well groomed, highly polished people(including Americans) flock to these very stinking people offering them astronomical salaries and top posts. You see, if you`ve got brains, they will come to you :-)

Cheers

PS I know that there is a lot of hostility against IITians even among Indians. May be because some of them are arrogant. If this is the reason, I agree with you. This is one such area in which IITians will have to improve upon themselves beside excelling in their respective fields.

Re #37

Mr. Anand

``

Hey, I have tons of IIT friends :) The first day this semester, when I was in the project and excitedly making plans with these people, they were studying in the Engineering Library from the first day. I don`t know what they do, but they keep reading the same stuff over and over again.

They do some other small research stuff and other

trivial involvements, but nothing comparable to

that creative freshman group.``

Mr Anand, IITians are known to crack the exams without putting too much of effort. They are known as ``Chaapus``(intelligent, smart) and not ``muggus``(people who cram). They dont need to go over ``the same stuff again and again`` and even if they do sometimes, believe me they do it to gain deeper understanding of the subject rather than a mere superficial knowledge. Oh,and by doing ``some trivial research`` they have become Professors in most of the leading US universities and are developing new technologies, bringing out patents by the truckloads. Talk about research, go and find out the standing of IITians in the academic arena of USA. You tell me some very strange things my dear Mr Anand. Okay, how is it that most of the highly successful Indo Americans happen to be IITians(or Roorkee/REC) guys and that too from mainland India and not second generation Indo Americans. The list is endless: Desh Deshpande(Founder of Sycamore), Rajat Gupta(CEO McKinsey), Director of AT&T labs,CEO United Airlines, Vinod Gupta, Vinod Dham ..........., I dont want to repeat all that is already well known and documented. Any preliminary survey will reveal that most of the global Fortune 500 companies have at least some IITians in their top management. Tell me Mr Anand, Is it possible for the alumni of a particular group of institute to attain such exemplary success without a superior combination of analytical and creative abilities!

Ragarding shabby clothings, you may be right. Actually ``showing off`` has still not become a part of the IIT culture. If you visit a typical IIT campus, you wont find students driving cars or motor-bikes. All that you would find is the rows of cycles. More than 90% of the IITians come from average middle class and they can not afford costly things. Many of them go tho the classes in hawai-chappals and dont care about there looks. Afterall, the sons of Biralas/Tatas dont need to burn their blood for two years preparing for arguably the toughest exam of the world at college entrance level, IIT-JEE. So your contention that they do not have polished manners does hold some water afterall.



Mind you, I am not saying that second generation Indo Americans dont do well. Manoj N. Shyamalan is a gem that every Indian, first or second is proud of. But I dont agree with your persistent efforts to misrepresent some facts.

Another point where I agree with you is when you say that the educational system in India does not provide the people sufficient outlet for their genius. Most of the IITians dont stay in India because there are not sufficient opportunities in India that could provide them some challenge. I will discuss about it later. There are many aspects of educational system in USA that I found to foster creativity more than educational system in India. Will discuss about them later.

Sincerely

I`ve now been glued to CNN for the past 15 hrs., watching and feeling what everyone here has spoken of. However, the first 4 hrs for me, were like being on the gallows, for my Dad was missing in this chaos that engulfed NY today.

Fearing the worst, hoping for the best, I kept dialing his work: Midtown Manhattan, and when got through after 3 hrs., was told by one of his colleagues, ``he didn`t make it to work,`` I think I collapsed at those words, and it was then, that I let the tears go. Fortunately, Papa called an hour and 15 minutes later. He had made it home Safe! I can`t thank Allah enough. Turned out I`d been given the wrong info. He had left the office when all hell broke loose, and was searching for a way to get out of the city.

I wish everyone`s story had a happy ending like mine. But for the 800+ unconfirmed deaths, all we can do now, is say a prayer, and hope the animals who did this are brought to justice swiftly. It`s beyond imagination that the NY skyline is altered for who knows how long. I used to live there; I love that city. As I saw the live picture of the second tower crashing to earth, I couldn`t stifle my scream. It took a few madmen just hours to bring the world`s capital to its knees. May they die a heinous death as well!

Let`s take a moment and say a prayer for all those perished, and please guys: try not to make this board your venting area. You know who you are!

Grief-stricken,

Kiran

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Re#24

``. When it actually comes to programming, how many Indians do you see contributing to the GNU project? The only Indians who are good at CS here are the ones who have lived here all their lives. The mainland Indians who immigrated here are only good at memorizing algorithms and spitting them out on answer sheets``

Total BS!. From what I`ve seen, the second generation Indian Americans lack the fire in the belly so required to succeed that the mainland Indians have. I wonder have you ever met IIT CS students or even REC CS guys who are so highly valued here for their innovative solution developing skills. You are probabaly talking about the trucks full of gult programmers who come from some average to below average standard engg college from India. Just a few days back, an American girl asked me why second generation Indians aren`t generally so smart as their first generation compatriots. I smiled in reply.

Sincerely

Another article from, ``Nation,`` Pakistan. As I stated earlier, all the right moves. It is refreshing to see that for the first time, in as far back as I can remember, multiple articles regarding S&T are appearing on a daily basis in all the Pakistani newspapers. There seem to be two to three in every newspaper, everyday. Dr. Ata is probably the most widely followed and covered Federal Minister in the Pakistani press, now. Who would have thought, two years ago, that an S&T minister would ever get so much attention in Pakistan:

``Govt considering 10-year tax holiday for software cos: Ata

ISLAMABAD (APP)-The government is seriously considering to extend tax holiday to 10 years for software companies to promote investment in IT sector, Minister for Science and Technology Dr. Ataur Rehman said here on Friday.

``We have already given 5-year tax holiday and now seriously thinking to extend it to 10 years to attract more investment in the IT sector,`` he said while launching the IT Commerce and Network (ITCN) Exhibition and Conference.

The mega event - ITCN Asia 2001, jointly organised by Ministry of Science (Pakistan), CommerceNet Singapore, Ecommerce Gateway and US Publishers, will be held in Karachi from March 24-26.

The government, he said, intends to make Pakistan the Export Processing Zone for the IT and has offered a number of incentives to attract the foreign investors.

The duty has been reduced on computers and its spare parts and the Internet bandwidth rates have been drastically reduced to $3000 per megabyte per month from $15,000. This rate stood at more than $100,000 last year, he added.

The Minister described a comprehensive infrastructure as indispensable for the growth of Information Technology (IT).

He said that several teams from China, France and other countries are carrying out studies for a high-speed internet access in the country.

The internet facility is now available to some 350 towns and cities which were restricted to only 29 cities 10 months ago, he said. ``Now 80 per cent population have access to the Internet``.

The internet Kiosks are being installed at 118 petrol stations, as part of the policy of universality of internet, and by March 21, some 71 such Kiosks will be set up at the airports, he added.

Dr. Ata also informed the delegates that three Software Technological parks have been set up in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi and there were a couple of similar parks being established in Karachi and Lahore.

The Minister underlined the importance of quality education and said, Pakistan cannot be a serious player of IT without having the requisite number of IT professionals. ``We have therefore allocated 70 per cent of the available funds towards education,`` he added.

He said seven IT universities are in the process of being established. Two universities, FAST and COMSTECH, have already been granted.

Dr. Ata said, we are making efforts to bring the IT professionals, working abroad back, to Pakistan to help us develop the required number of skilled manpower.

He said, some 200 Ph.Ds and Masters in IT are expected to return during the next two months.

Three channels are coming up for distance learning of computer education. PTV-2 is already airing IT-related programmes while PTV-Shaheen will start airing 6-hour programmes on IT from March 23, he said and added a full-fledged TV channel for IT education will be put in place later this year.

Dr. Ata said, the efforts to make Pakistan a hub of IT in this regions has started bearing fruits and multi-companies are committing huge investment.

These include Motorola, IBB, Cisco, Oracle, Nortel and Akhter Computers.`` (Nation, Pakistan)

If Pakistan can get five to six good IT universities going, I think we are in business. Pakistan is already fourth on the list of sending IT professionals to the USA, behind India, China and Canada (these professionals will payback big time in around ten years. That is about how long it will take them to get to same positions that Indians and Chinese IT professionals, who have a ten year lead, are at in Silicon Valley).

I am not sure whether this company counts as a pure Pakistani company, but it is the second Pakistani company on the Nasdaq (with 137 million dollars of funding.)

``Pak IT firm on New York bourse

By Javad M Goraya

ISLAMABAD: A $647 million Pakistani company has launched itself on the prestigious New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, despite the fact that IT stocks are not doing so good in the market.

The US-based health sector company, Align Technologies, with its back-up IT development centre in Lahore, has done a successful initial public offering (IPO) and was valued at over $647 million last week.

Align Technologies was co-founded by a 29-year-old Lahore origin ex-investment banker Zia Chisti in 1997 and he is the company`s chairman & CEO since then. Zia Chishti worked for Morgan Stanley`s investment banking division from 1992-95 before this venture.``

``Align Technologies employs nearly 700 people at the Lahore IT centre which not only does the graphic design of the Align Technology main product but also attends the queries of Aligns customers in the US through a call centre. The call centre uses a 2 MB bandwidth link and is manned by 100 members.`` (NEWS, Pakistan)

An interesting statistic: 85% of Pakistan`s software businesses are in Karchi, but 80% of the software export revenues are generated from Lahore based businesses.

brand new jeep Cherokee, Brioni suit, Cerrutti shoes, Ray-Ban Glasses, and a YSL tie

Thats embroidering it quite a bit isnt it ??!!!

aicha

URstruly,

That was hilarious!

But why specify that the IT consultant was Indian?

Grapes are a teeny weeny bit sour are`nt they?!:)

Sameer #21: I believe Dr. Ata received his Ph.D. from Cambridge in Organic Chemistry. For a chemist, his knowledge of IT is really impressive. The following is his academic career:

ACADEMIC CAREER DEGREE YEAR UNIVERSITY DIVISION

Overseas School Certificate 1958 Cambridge 1st division (Ist position)

Overseas Higher School Certificate 1960 Cambridge ``A`` Level (Ist position)

B.Sc. (Hons.) (Chemistry) 1963 Karachi 1st Division (2nd position)

M.Sc. (Organic Chemistry) 1964 Karachi 1st Division (Ist position)

Ph.D. (Organic Chemistry) 1968 Cambridge

Sc.D. 1987 Cambridge

``RESUME

Prof. Atta-ur-Rahman has over 467 publications in leading international journals in several fields of organic chemistry including 9 patents and 53 books published by major U.S. and European presses, as well as 59 chapters in books .``

Remaining details available at: http://www.most.gov.pk/minister.htm

I do not know much about computers. Infact, I am a physician working in U.S.I remember in the early 80s computer was much talked about in India. Apple and NIIT were the names I often came across. Only the people talked about it. The government if i am not mistaken,said nothing. What i am trying to say is that the computer revolution happened in India without government intervention initially. Of course the government came in later and i remember Rajiv Gandhi made computer a big issue. If Pakistan has to revolutionise its IT, for God`s sake do not let the babus and bureaucrats control the IT.

Sridhar

In response to Urstruly (Reply # 26):

A humorous fable! But, what is so Indian about it. Would a Pakistani IT consultant be able to distinguish between a sheep and a dog?

Sincerely, Bilal Ahmad

URS:

Hilarious!

Probably, you should send your contributions to ``Joke a day`` Or look into joining them in your spare time!

INDIAN IT SPECIALIST AND A SHEPHERD

Once upon a time there was a shepherd looking after his sheep on the edge of a deserted road. Suddenly a brand new jeep Cherokee screeches to a halt next to him. The driver, a young man dressed in a Brioni suit, Cerrutti shoes, Ray-Ban Glasses, and a YSL tie gets out and ask the shepherd: If I guess how many sheep do you have, you give me one of them? The shepherd looks at the young man, then looks at the sheep which graze and says all right. The young man parks the car, connects the notebook and the mobile, enters a NASA site, scans the ground using his GPS, opens a data base and 60 Excel Tables filled with algorithm s, then print a 150-pages report on his high-tech mini-printer. He then turns to the shepherd and says: You have exactly 1586 sheep here. The shepherd answered: That`s correct, you can have your sheep. The young man Takes a sheep and puts in the back of his jeep. The shepherd looks at him and asks: If I guess your profession, will you return my sheep to me?

The young man answered : Yes, why not.

The shepherd answers you are an IT CONSULTANT !
How did you know? Very simple, answer the shepherd:

``First, you came here uninvited.

Second, you charge me a sheep to tell me some thing I already know

Third, you do not understand any thing about what I do because you took my dog!``

Two days before the New York bombing -- on Sunday -- two Arab suicide bombers posing as ``journalists`` -- died -- trying to eliminate Ahmed Shah Masood.

Their bomb hidden in their video camera exploded during the interview killed one of Masood`s aids alonwith the two ``journalists``-- Masood survived the assassination and is now in critical condition.

The Arabs traveled to Kabul on visa issued to them in Pakistan. From Kabul the “journalist`` crossed into the Northern Alliance territory asking for the nearly fatal interview with Masood. They got their wish on Sunday.

Nobody paid much attention to that assassination attempt in the US press.

Now the question being asked is -- was that suicide bombing by the two Arab ``journalits`` (another creative idea) -- to eliminate Mr. Masood -- a payoff to Mulla Omar -- for providing Mr. Ladin with a daughter plus Bed & Boarding privileges – till his ``final`` Jihadi mission against the Satan United States was succesfully accomplished.?

For IT to grow in pakistan what is needed more than the Univerisities and PhD` are good schools.

Schools that can provide good, relevant education to children.

India has a fairly dismal school infrastructure at the village, taluka level. However , the school system at town,city, metropolis level is fairly good. Large numbers of children have access to numerous average to good schools.

This section of children are really the driving energy behind the Indian IT effort.

if madrassas are going to dominate the Pakistani educational scene, this whole effort of promoting IT will go waste. A strong connection between good schools to good technical education to good career to good money has to be built to foster IT.