Wall Street Journal: Column: India's Blossoming Infotech Industry
Thursday, February 17 11:09 AM SGT
BANGALORE, India (Dow Jones)--Some things don't change. Just as the software company's vice president launches into his spiel about a cutting-edge software application, the lights flicker and the room goes dark. Power failures may be pretty ordinary experiences across India. Yet here in the capital of the country's infotech industry, they are also reminders of how quickly India is leap-frogging into the new economy-sometimes over awesome obstacles, but often because the path ahead is so free.
So it is that two parallel universes coexist in Bangalore. Within the campuses of this city's software service providers, 25-year-old programmers are happily pulling all-nighters just like their Western counterparts. At one of the larger firms, Infosys Technologies, workers stroll across a well-manicured lawn to socialize with colleagues at a Dominos Pizza outlet. On the poorly paved main roads outside the science park, meanwhile, lunchtime traffic grinds to a halt behind a rumbling line of ox-carts.
So why did Asia's closest thing to Silicon Valley erupt here of all places?
Many observers look for the answer in the technical realm, but in fact the most important key to decoding the Bangalore mystery is cultural: an atmosphere of freedom in which the pursuit of individual achievement is encouraged.
First a caveat. It's true that without huge "overflow" demand for software services from Western companies Bangalore would never have taken off. And the highly educated graduates of the Indian Institutes of Technology and other top-flight universities are an essential resource. The two combined explain a lot of what has happened so far.
But they don't explain why India's software exports are now approaching $4 billion a year. Local firms long ago moved beyond the stage of simply executing projects conceived and directed in the developed world. Now, local programmers are doing their own thing: conceiving and implementing large companies' approaches to e-commerce, creating software that allows mobile phones to browse the Web, or designing modems that can bring broadband over an ordinary telephone line. In these areas, competitive advantage comes not from low-cost labor, but from insight into customers' needs and time to market.
And when it comes to these higher-margin businesses, the open nature of Indian society becomes a crucial advantage. For example, the free movement of engineers to Silicon Valley and elsewhere has created networks of overseas Indians within the industry-networks that keep India's programming fingers on the pulse of the Internet. And now the diaspora is bringing its expertise and capital back to India to start new companies.
This ends one debate about the merits of personal freedom. A couple of decades ago the "brain drain" was a major concern. Many Indians worried that the government was wasting resources by educating scientists only to see them leave the country. Today that investment in a meritocratic education system and the freedom to emigrate are paying off for all to see.
Given India's deeply rooted democracy, there has been much less argument about the free flow of information. Authorities here see little to fear in terms of the content available on the Internet. So infrastructure bottlenecks and protectionist obstacles are being cleared away, partly as a result of lobbying by the industry. Ultimately, that means many ordinary Indians will be able to take full advantage of the new technology. Inexpensive network computers are already coming onto the market.
Difficult as it may be to imagine when you're stuck in traffic behind an ox-cart, it all means that online communities will spring up in India as they have elsewhere in the world. Here, too, once the excitement over selling material things over it has settled down, the Internet will be better known as the enabler for new connections between people based on their interests, or even their religious and political beliefs. While that kind of absolute freedom is bound to rock partially closed societies, India's chaotic but ultimately stable society may be the perfect match for the Internet.
Freedom within companies is crucial, too. Just as in the U.S., India's infotech players try to encourage free-thinking; they don't impose standard working hours or dress codes. The country's computer industry workers are looking for places that let them break new ground. Stock options have become important in keeping good staff, but so are sabbaticals for research and retraining.
What it all adds up to here is a corporate culture which values achievement over money. The successful entrepreneur is revered above all, but not because of his wealth - most captains of the IT industry, even the multimillionaires, drive to work in Opel Astras, not Mercedes. It's hard to imagine them splashing out on a Bill Gates-style mansion. Their motivation, and the admiration they receive, derives from what they are creating.
That ethos seems to hold true down the line to the new hires. Much of Bangalore is hooked on achievement like a drug, and getting the next success fix is the ultimate motivator. It's all happening here because of freedom, both to ride the wave of the Web without limitations, and to turn a company on a dime to take advantage of the next new thing. If Bangalore continues to grow at its breakneck pace, credit the marriage of Silicon Valley's iconoclasm with India's liberal democratic tradition. |
