Is IT the Panacea?

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RSexana # 13 ``Neither IT nor democracy are good for Pakistan.``

Actually both IT (immdiately) and democracy (in the long run) are very good for Pakistan. However, ARD, PPP, and PML are definitely not good for Pakistan. I am surprised you equate democracy with the ARD. Perhaps you are unfamiliar with the group of people who constitute the ARD. These people love democracy about as much as you love Pakistan.

Scout:

The example that you brought up was highlighted in New York Times about Banglore. Pakistan has not reached that level yet. I suggest before you utter your random points you realize the context.

Thanks!

Zahra #19,

My ``IT mahal`` example related to Pakistan was a hypothetical, read my post again.

Don`t be so defensive about anything negative about Pakistan.

Zahra #19,

My ``IT mahal`` example related to Pakistan was a hypothetical one, read my post again.

Don`t be so defensive about anything negative about Pakistan.

Studebaker #18

I don`t think Pakistan should let such stories come in the way of its IT program. Every industry goes through phases of rapid advancement and slowdown. At the level of national policy what matters is not short-term cyclic behavior but trends over longer periods of time.

I agree with Scout on this one. Both India and Pakistan need to make a two-pronged attack: one at the forefronts of IT, the other at the basic education level, deploying resources generated from one to feed the other.

The only democracy good for Pakistan is Government of the military, for the military and by the military.

And will remain good until Pakistan will have its Military democratic Government restricted to Northern Punjab.

RSaxena if you can annihilate Pakistan Military without harming people of Pakistan. I will join hands with you in eliminiating the curse on Pakistan for 53 years.

But IT is good for Pakistan. It is politically correct to say these days.

In Tiloon Mein Ub Tel Nahin Hai.

Hamidm #2: Good post, as usual!

ROmair #8: I think you have said it all. We need to look at the benefits of IT with a clear eye. Providing software services at low cost to US and Europe can be a major revenue earner and create some jobs. If the money is wisely spent, it may invigorate the local economy.

However, there are other uses of IT too. If you increase the access to the Internet to a larger percentage of the populace, you can have more transperancy in governance, freer access to information, and lower transaction costs.

For example, Indian Railways web-site provides information on train timings, seat availability, latest RAC/waiting list status of your ticket etc. Probably Pak Railways has something similar too. This is N times more important and useful to the common man than any hi-fi stuff.

Isa,

Another aspect that is totally missing in pakistan is the openeness of the society. In india, many have asked, why did the IT flourish in bangalore and not in the `literate` state of kerala. Kerala is a repressive state, they do not encourage people of other states, it is not a `melting` pot, rather a rigid segmented place, not ideal for the confluence of ideas needed for an emerging human activity.

The image of the leader of the IT uno country, Clinton, drving on the wrong side of the road, after a decoy assisted flight, is not the best of invitation to any one.

regards

jay

Re: Zahra

Chill out sista. I think scout`s post was meant to illustrate a point, not necessarily to be taken literally, word-for-word.

Re: AAmir

What has got you shakin in your shalwar? As for the story, I read an identical story about an incident in Pakistan. But there was a difference. There the daughter was actually killed by the father and brother in a karo-kari festival.

Re: ROmair

In democratic systems, all political parties are allowed to exist and participate in elections. If they are indeed horrible, the voters will take care of them and eliminate them. The voters decide, not the military. Simple concept, isn`t it?

And surely the mighty Pakistani army can ensure fair elections if it wanted to, right? Sure it has lost several wars to India but an election is much easier to manage.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/26/technology/26BANG.html?pagewanted=all

March 26, 2001

A New Kind of Software Company for India

By MARK LANDLER

BANGALORE, India — At a time when the term start-up evokes images of crashing stock prices and collapsing business plans — here as much as in the United States — Ashok Soota might not seem to be a man to watch.

But Mr. Soota`s 19-month-old venture, Mind Tree Consulting, has been celebrated by technology analysts and journalists, even though it is privately held and has all of $15 million in sales.

Part of the buzz stems from its pedigree: Mr. Soota, 58, had been the vice chairman of Wipro, one of India`s largest software concerns. He helped lead India`s drive in the early 90`s into the back-office end of the computer business, writing software code for big American companies.

But most of the excitement stems from Mind Tree`s ambition: Mr. Soota wants his new company to leap several links up the technology food chain. Rather than supply programmers for the humdrum work of writing routine software code, he wants to design and build sophisticated computer networks for customers.

``In the early days, there was no need for Indian software companies to differentiate themselves,`` said Mr. Soota, an intense man given to philosophical musing. ``Now, companies are starting to set themselves apart.``

In Bangalore, a southern Indian city that has been called the Silicon Plateau, Mind Tree is viewed as something of a leading indicator. Its success or failure could say a lot about India`s ability to graduate into the more advanced, lucrative realms of the technology industry.

Other Indian companies — Infosys Technologies, Satyam Computer and Wipro itself — are trying to make the same jump. But nobody has set out to do it from scratch, nor with quite the audacity of Mr. Soota.

``By inserting themselves at a higher level in the value chain, they are creating a mind-set in the company,`` said N. R. Narayana Murthy, the chairman of Infosys, arguably India`s flagship software company.

``The question is whether they`ll have credibility,`` he added. ``Where do they get the experience to do higher-level work for clients?``

Despite India`s reputation for superlative code writing, which has won it a blue-chip roster of customers like General Electric and Nortel Networks, some analysts question how successfully the country can compete in the more-rarefied digital fields of strategic consulting or systems integration.

Infosys is eager to offer high-end services, too. But Mr. Murthy is not about to discharge his army of software writers, who work at a sprawling, verdant campus outside Bangalore. His strategy is to continue writing code while gradually building expertise and to appeal for more complex assignments. ``It is a longer-term process,`` he said, ``but it has a higher likelihood of success.``

India`s technology industry will have $6.2 billion in exports this fiscal year, and total sales of about $8 billion. That is extraordinary growth, given that the services industry did not exist a decade ago. But it still accounts for just 2 percent of India`s total economic output.

India also faces rising competition in the low end of the business from other Asian countries like China, Vietnam and the Philippines. With salaries in software companies here rising at more than 15 percent a year, India must expand into new areas that promise a higher return.

``What gives us an edge is that our education system has a bias toward mathematics and engineering,`` said Vivek Paul, the current vice chairman of Wipro. ``But China will be a real threat in a few years.``

Enter Mr. Soota, who had already steered Wipro through a transition from making PC`s and minicomputers in the 1980`s to providing software services. Determined to have a ``third inning`` in his career, Mr. Soota left Wipro in 1999 and began hunting for seed capital to start his own business.

Unknown to him, another Wipro refugee, Subroto Bagchi, had also been promoting the idea of a high-end software consultancy. A partner at a venture capital firm in the United States, Walden International, put the two men together in March 1999 and suggested they merge their plans.

With $9.5 million from Walden and an Indian venture firm, Sivan Securities, Mind Tree Consulting hung out its shingle six months later. From the start, it behaved differently from a typical Indian company.

First, the founders pledged to donate 3 percent of Mind Tree`s after-tax profits to primary education. The company`s initial donation went to a center in Bangalore for children with cerebral palsy.

The company logo, a stylized tree, was designed by the children, and their artwork adorns the walls throughout the headquarters, which are two glass boxes in a clamorous residential neighborhood.

Mr. Soota said he chose not to build a suburban campus, like that of Infosys, because he did not want his employees to spend three hours a day commuting on Bangalore`s horrendous roads. Likewise, he noted, Mind Tree`s philanthropy was part of a broader business strategy.

``It will attract a certain kind of employee, which in turn will attract a certain kind of customer,`` he said.

So far, Mind Tree has won assignments from Lucent Technologies, Avis and BP Amoco. Though the company is cagey about the project`s details, it is designing a Web-based reservations system for Avis, a unit of Cendant. It is also advising Harvard University on ways to promote sports events on the Internet.

In addition to e-commerce projects, Mind Tree advises equipment makers like Cisco Systems, Alcatel and Fujitsu on network management issues. To be close to its mostly American clientele, it has built a development center in Somerville, N.J., and a branch office in Santa Clara, Calif.

``We`re not building a small company,`` said Mr. Bagchi, 44, who plans to move to New Jersey to run those operations. ``We`ve built large successful companies for other people. We`re comfortable with growth.``

So far, Mind Tree has hired 437 employees. It plans to add 1,000 more in the next year. The company has a five-year revenue target of $231 million. Yet Mr. Soota said he would not pursue a stock offering for three years. He also wants to have 100 clients before going public.

In part, he is only being realistic. The appetite for information technology start-ups is as sour here as in Silicon Valley. But, his philosophical side showing, Mr. Soota sees a lesson in starting his company in such an unforgiving climate.

``It`s a good reminder for India`s I.T. industry not to take what we have for granted, or become too greedy,`` he said.

Dr. Isa has made some very valid points. However, as hamidm pointed out his approach is very academic and lags rather than leads in describing the realities of the IT marketplace.

IMHO Pakistan has pretty much lost its battle for IT dominance due to insistence of the government to act as the sole know-all. All the talk about 7 IT universities and how brilliant the technology minsiter and his minions are is bullshit. The government`s foremost responsibility is to provide a secure environment for business and its people. Instead of trying to fill-up the kitty by trying to regulate telecommunication and software businesses, it should concentrate on delineating rules of business in the capital and judicial arenas. At a time when the Pakistani economy is perceived to be one of the five riskiest economies in the world and Morgan Stanley is pulling out its investments from Pakistan(with a corresponding removal from the MSCI index which will have a cascading deleterious affect on the stock market), what Pakistan needs is a semblance of order and stability not a bunch of jaded technocrats looking for their golden parachutes with the esteemed Ata-ur-Rehman in tow. What else can you expect from a bunch of khakis(ex and current) out to discover El Dorado using IT as the preferred form of transportation....

Pakistan will go the Irish way. All the ones with ambition will/have left for greener pastures. When the local populace gets tired of potatoes it will elect some consicable scoundrels that will allow those expatriates to come back in droves and rebuild the shattered economy with the help of the ever hopeful and brilliant common Pakistani. This may take a few decades though.

later

-sac

Q. Isa:

Your careful analysis has a number of excellent observations as well. I extracted the ones I really liked – 3Ps – practical, pertinent and penetrating!

[I believe it could but, for that to happen, there would have to be a radical rethink of national priorities. And this would require our education, science and technology and IT policies to directly address the acute problems that the majority of people face.]

The educational policies must emphasize on the application as well. Education, by itself is nothing. Yes, you can equip a human being with some basics: tools and techniques, but you need to give him/her a roadmap as well.

[In our country, we seem to be forever rushing forward without carefully thinking through many of the critical issues, or fully recognizing the global game plan, which may not necessarily work to our advantage.]

Very ironic, but true!

[It is superficially agreed by all, if not deeply appreciated by those in power, that the foremost problem facing Pakistan today is the general level of education. Without widespread access to the basic right of education at the primary and secondary levels, particularly for girls, we cannot make significant and lasting progress. Coupled with this is the need for teachers ` training, adult education and the use of the ever-pervasive electronic media for transforming minds.]

[Lastly, since one is dealing with a very large system with several unknown factors, it is best to
tread carefully, doing small scale experiments to test our theories, learning lessons, and then scaling up.]

[Unfortunately, the IT policy - like much of our developmental thinking - relies on attacking problems at the `top end`, hoping that benefits that accrue will trickle-down to the lower levels, such as villages and small towns.]

Very Insightful thoughts!

[The lesson is clear: one needs to define training areas where there are Pakistan-specific needs and to put money into training people primarily in these subject areas. This would automatically reduce the brain drain that results from a training program that is geared to the needs of other
countries.]

Why not explore the agricultural needs? There is a significant percentage of population that relies on agriculture. Why not introduce the IT tools and techniques in that area than completely relying on hi-tech and other industries? Going back to your point that many of these problems are sought at ``the top end`` – I feel that’s where the disconnect lies. The ebusiness strategies and tools can be utilized in reengineering the current agricultural processes and improving the exports. How many rice or wheat farmers have access to vendors oversees? How many channels, they have to go through, in order to reach someone? How many can initiate and close deals? Many may have crops ready to rot, but they don’t have a prospective customer to buy. Well, to know your way around you ought to have basic education – fine. Life does not finish there. You ought to find an alternative – Consult! Well, that’s where your IT gurus and magicians must go out and illuminate the agriculturalists. Going back to your point that Pakistan needs to identify its specific needs: Pakistan also needs to leverage its small industries, arts and crafts and agriculture. Many of the hi-fi strategies’ results may not seem applicable in-house, but there is a lot of room to implement such solutions and introduce your world to the rest of the world.

Well, this needs to happen at the governmental level than on individual level. If the top hierarchy is hanging upside down, then that’s an issue. If it is even slightly shaky, the results will trickle down to the lower levels. If it balances itself somehow or other, there will be some hope for such implementations and well thought out plans.

Your article is of academic nature, but in each country you need all kinds of people from all walks of life to create a vision. There have to be thinkers, planners, and strategic advisers who can think through a problem and then the implementers appear – to act on the advised strategy. There are times when the issues are crystal clear and the implementers can take charge. But there are times, when the implementers better not be at the forefront and let the thinkers analyze and evaluate first. In our country, probably a hybrid would work out the best ?


Thanks for a good read!

Pakistani culture is notoriously insular, and their key motivators are their bretheren from across the border in neighboring India. ``If the Indians can do it so can we``. Since the
prevailing mindset for the past 40 years is essential a military one, it is a natural corollary that it is a neanderthal one. Ever hear of the Spartans, ourshining the Athenians....

Having said that, I would also reiterate any education is better than no education, atleast we are coming to realize that the most important resource of any nation is the human one. And any attempt to cultivate the human minds, is bound have spill over effects in our culture. Perhaps they will leave Pakistan for greener pastures, perhaps overseas remittances will increase as a consequence....

Sometimes I think we ned to be pragmatic, Pakistani`s have no sense of collective interests, - you cannot get 6 pakistanis in Silicon valley to form an association to promote networking on a regular and consistent basis, - you expect the morons back home to think logically. Despite the haphazard fashion of IT education, - atleast ther is some promotion of something tangible and progressive. Even it just gets Pakistan connected into the global reality- it might just provide the requiste impetus for he country to move out of the dark ages.

I agree with ``sac`` when he correctly points out that govt is the problem of what ails pakistan, - and it is certainly in a position to screw up anything it attempts in the beaurocratic and corrupt quagmire. The biggest boost that Manmohan Singh And Swetambaram ( sp ?) provided in India was their ``hands-off`` policy in the IT arena. Ataur Rehman`s efforts are like the whore trying to teach the virtues of chastity to a teenager. But perhaps in a perverse sense atleast the whore is not overtly corrupting the said teenager.