Bharath came down to my place on sunday, and the discussion started with traffic cops in Bangalore planning to use simputers to record traffic offences, and quickly moved to economy, industries, india shining, india inc., colonial india and what not. At the end of it I guess there was a point we agreed on. This is an attempt at paraphrasing all that transpired. Coherence cannot be gaurenteed coz that how 3 hour long converations are :)
The indian industry is largely a service industry and less a manufacturing or products based industry. Considering the maturity the industry has reached, it is time to move towards a products’ business model. This is not a statement arising out of a prejudice against, or contempt for, the service industry. The basic argument against services industry is that, by predominating our economy on the services industry, the factors influencing our economy tend to be less under our control and more under the control of the economies that we service. This lopsided dependence puts our economy more at risk of turning turtle like that of Brazil in the nineties.
This not a propaganda of the “swadeshi” movement that RSS has been attempting to promulgate. This is reality.
India’s economy has what it takes to look inward to fuel itself. There is sufficient captive market to keep the money circulating, and with the partially open economy India Inc. cannot afford to slack on quality either.
The unfortunate fact is that, the indian companies seem to wake up to gobal competetion only if that the last resort. There is very little proactive investment for striving towards redefining global standards.
Take the motorbike industry for instance. Till 1995 Hero Honda was the only 4 stroke bike around and there was very little choice for anyone who wanted to buy one. Then came the roumour that china was planning to dump really cheap bikes into the indian markets for a price upto Rs. 20k less than average indian bike. This jump started the innovation in the indian bike industry, and now we are at the forefront with immumerable patents to the credit of TVS, Bajaj, and Hero.
The same arguments hold true for indian software industry as well. Consider the software services companies, the kind of talent pool that is at their disposal, they are still happy with software consulting. Which means they are in business only as long as the industry in the US, the europe are willing to spend money for services from them. There is nothing that they can offer off the shelf for firms looking for a solution. There is nothing that these cos lack to do the latter. But they choose not to. Now with huge anti-outsourcing sentiments making waves, may be its time these companies wake up and smell the coffee.
Also, we have seen a huge influx of MNCs into India providing much needed employment. But it would be stupid to expect MNcs to work anywhere towards the health of indian economy. They are here to make money, their survival depends not on the health of our economy, but on the health of the economy of the country they are based on. So if anyone needs to look out for our economy, it’s gotta be India Inc. and there is nothing altruist about it. If India Inc. has to survive, indian economy needs to be in good shape.
They are the ones who gotta build india, coz no one else is gonna bother to.Not sure if this makes much sense, let alone if the flow of ideas is coherent. But then, when has it ever been that way? It’s my blog… what more proof do need?
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