What Cricket has done to all other sport in India is similar to what IT has done to all other technologies!!!
- There is nothing basically wrong in giving emphasis to IT today… in any case use of Computers and Cell Phones today has become like driving ( a vehicle ) skills which all young folks must have.
- BUT, it would certainly be called abnormal if all professionals quit their parent domains to only become drivers.
- Students from all branches of Engineering have been increasingly gravitating towards IT to eventually work for overseas clientele based primarily on “lower cost proposition”.
- Most of them end up doing low end work and very seldom do they get a pioneering / premium niche jobs that could challenge creativity.
- It is like having sacrificed all other sport for the glamour of Cricket … and not doing great there either.
- It was a Leadership function to have ensured a balanced commensurate growth in various faculties…. as “Lopsided Growth” is never in any nation’s long term interest.
Quit India Movement
- There has been annual exodus of “brilliant technical grads” … for doing MS followed by Ph.D following by taking up a job overseas … ultimately to become green card holder there.
- Those who did not / could not go abroad for PG … are automatically deemed to be “unworthy” and “mediocre”
- For Leadership positions in Technology (Professorship in premium institutes, R&D and Design) the entry route is often through overseas only.
- Not only we do not have enough opportunities to inspire technocrats to grow here; we ourselves have doubts about our own education system as well as assessment … that we must depend on recognition tagged on returnee from overseas.
B School Culture hammering down technology
- It is a weird but candid observation … the countries where B-School Culture dominates Industry … technology development takes a back seat.
- Consider technology development and innovative products shown in trade fair from US, UK, Australia … there is a clear trend of decline visible … today most of innovative and niche technology development products are reported from Germany, Italy , Spain, China and surprisingly Turkey.
- B School boys have a terrible tendency to go for global outsourcing rather than pursuing a case for developing technology in house.
- Chinese have acquired many leading Corporates …. who once did technology development in the Western World … and see today they have the whole range of exotic technologies and the whole ecosystem in their back yard.
Whether it makes business sense or otherwise; the pursuit for technology development deserves such passionate bold strategies with clear vision, foresight, drive and plan and certainly it cannot be left to wanton market forces alone.
AVINASH KHARE