Hi group,
This is a nice article and thanks Chandu for putting
the points together and sharing it with the group.
Here are my responses.
Please ignore any spelling or mechanical errors, as I
have not done a proof-reading on my responeses.
Thanks,
Sagar Yerramsetti.
1. Indians are less interested in politics and more
interested in growth opportunities.
It has been the trend but it looks like that the
things are changing for better. We now see Bobby
Jindals, Aneesh Chopras and etc. here in USA and we
see Kalams, Manmohan Sings in India. However we need
more and more such dynamic people who are willing to
contribute their mite towards the development of the
Country/State. I think this group has some ambitious
people who are very much interested and willing to
take on
to contribute their mite via public service either
through active political participation. Let us try to
encourage them and influence them to catalyze the
development back-home.
2. Creation and distribution of wealth depends on
infrastructure, education and governance.
This is really an important point. We collectively
need to address all these 3 important areas which form
the backbone of the overall development of the
country.True we are marching on with our success in
Services Sector in IT and Outsourcing but
a lot is there to bring the rural India into this
development by creating necessary infrastructure -
roads, communication facilities, increasing the
education among rural India and providing them the
fruits of the development through good governance.
3. India has a prime minister who really gets it. You
don't have to start by explaining it to Manmohan
Singh. He's the Deng Xiaoping of India. Who you need
to explain it to is half the Congress party and others
who, in this coalition, are like the ball and chain
around his ankle.
Can we hope that in next generation or two we would
have the successive governments running the affairs of
the
State/Country based on real issues relevant to people
rather than to the party? As we have seen, when the
door for liberalization is opened in early 90s,
irrespective of the party spectrum successive
governments had to join the bandwagon and continue to
follow the path. Things would change for better and
let's be optimistic.
4. I think India's most debilitating liability is the
third leg, it doesn't have the governance. .. Terrible
corruption. Good people-all my dynamic and exciting
Indian friends-wouldn't think of going into politics.
Because they see it as a waste of time, energy and
also as violent and corrupt.
As seen today's article in USA newspapers about
possible involement upto 20 or so Congressmen in a
corruption scandal,
backhome - Questions Scam and MPs Development Fund
Scam and ever growing public corruption - it's
everywhere and only the
degree differs. However, how much is too much is a
debatable question. As long as we have an established
system and the
checks/balances with rule of law and respect to the
authority of the government, the country/society move
forward with
the development. The point number 4 has great
relevance to the point number 2 - good governance.
Let's hope the entry of
dynamic and dedicated persons would tilt the scales in
favor of more development with lesser corruption (no
corruption world in
the Utopian State, which is just a day-dream!).
5. Capitalism makes people unequally rich, socialism
makes people equally poor. India was an expert at
making its people equally poor. It now moves to
capitalism to make people unequally rich. But as a
general phenomena, it has also lifted the floor. India
wouldn't have the largest number of middle class today
if that weren't true.
We need a benevolent capitalism - that is Capitalism
in its ideal format, where the fruits of the free
market economy and individual success or industry
success is shared
by giving back to the society. We need more good
corporate citizens. We have a dubious distinction of
sharp line dividing both afluent and down-trodden
sections, which needs to be
bridged through some massive rural development - may
be we need another white or green revolution that
would help
our farmers, villages to be the part and mainstay of
our development model.
6. My daughter is in love with her iPod. Do you know
where the MP3 chip in her I-pod was designed?
Hyderabad. Not made, not put together by a bunch of
cheap Indian workers, but designed.
7. Microsoft just opened its fourth research centre in
the world-in Bangalore. You think they are there for
cheap labour. They are there for, what they call, an
'IQ suck'. They want to, like a straw, suck out as
much IQ as they can from India.
Both points 6 & 7 are related. Our journey started
providing our brain power for the development of
already developed countries but future looks bright as
things are changingn for better. Recent report
indicated that after China, India is the most favored
destination of FIIs investment. We see more and more
R&D investment is flowing towards India and we are
getting a good breed of new enterpreneurs who
are willing to take risks and innovate. We need to
produce the systems/applications/products using our
abilities and
market them to develop our economy further rather than
keep supporting the products produced elsewhere in the
world.
We see Infosys/Wipro transforming from services
provider to product developers/marketers and same is
true with our Pharama
industries (they used to produce drugs for bulk orders
and now they are a force in the drug industry by
developing generic
drugs). As we move along the road we continue to see
reliance on the servicing model but there would be
surely
a transition from services reliance to the product
development/marketing model with an equilibrium
achieved after a
few decades. I think that some of the people in this
group have some dynamic ideas and enterpreneurhip
tendencies which we
could rarely see 2 decades back and hopefully such
motivated individuals bring fresh air and oxygen to
this transformation.
8. You give a farmer a cell phone and you'll see the
biggest leap in anti-poverty that one can possibly
imagine. This isn't about everyone becoming a call
centre worker in Bangalore. Poverty will really be
alleviated when India, when people who live on the
land in agriculture, become more productive. And
technology has the greatest chance to do that in the
shortest time. You look at the number of farmers in
India
who want their kids to study English.
Points 8 and 10 are kind of related. We need to bring
our rural India in the fold of the global development.
India really shines when the rural India is really
shining. We have to utilize our natural resources to
the
fullest extent to control our drought and flood and
provide the benefit of the new and hybrid variety
seeds and
technological advancement to the farming sector.
Unfortunately we have huge fragmented holdings (the
farm lands as small
as a quarter acre or even smaller) which hinder the
introduction of any massive technology introduction
into the cultivation.
May be like in milk/dairy industry - cooperative
farming can be considered - just a thought for further
discussion!
9. The fact that Indians can now innovate without
waiting in line at the US embassy, without having to
come to cold Minnesota and look for an Indian
restaurant to get their chapati and curry, the fact
that they can stay home, live in their culture, be in
their extended family, eat their native food, wear
their native clothes, take part in the most
cutting-edge innovation, that is really cool.
We know a lot of friends leaving this country for good
to India. This trend would continue as we would
continue to see
more growth opportunities. However, there would
initial hiccups like in any transition mode and those
persons/companies who
stand tall and keep putting their genuine efforts in
the right earnest for the development would reap the
fruits of this
budding and bulging 1 Billion market with vibrant
democracy.
10. When farmers can get more from their land, when
they can understand global markets better, when they
can produce niche products for different markets,
that's when India will really turn around.
--- Chandu Sambasiva Rao <srchandu@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Dear Friends,
>
> In my mind the top ten points made by Tom are as
> below. CliffsNotes
> verison, if you will) I think these are very good
> points for this group
> to take up for discussion. First of all, do you
> agree or disagree? What
> of these you agree with or disagree.
>
> How best to address these cencerns?
>
> Regards,
> Chandu
>
>
>
>
> 1. Indians are less interested in politics and more
> interested in
> growth opportunities.
> 2. Creation and distribution of wealth depends on
> infrastructure,
> education and governance.
> 3. India has a prime minister who really gets it.
> You don't have to
> start by explaining it to Manmohan Singh. He's the
> Deng Xiaoping of
> India. Who you need to explain it to is half the
> Congress party and
> others who, in this coalition, are like the ball and
> chain around his
> ankle.
> 4. I think India's most debilitating liability is
> the third leg, it
> doesn't have the governance. .. Terrible corruption.
> Good people-all my
> dynamic and exciting Indian friends-wouldn't think
> of going into
> politics. Because they see it as a waste of time,
> energy and also as
> violent and corrupt.
> 5. Capitalism makes people unequally rich, socialism
> makes people
> equally poor. India was an expert at making its
> people equally poor. It
> now moves to capitalism to make people unequally
> rich. But as a general
> phenomena, it has also lifted the floor. India
> wouldn't have the
> largest number of middle class today if that weren't
> true.
> 6. My daughter is in love with her iPod. Do you know
> where the MP3 chip
> in her I-pod was designed? Hyderabad. Not made, not
> put together by a
> bunch of cheap Indian workers, but designed.
> 7. Microsoft just opened its fourth research centre
> in the world-in
> Bangalore. You think they are there for cheap
> labour. They are there
> for, what they call, an 'IQ suck'. They want to,
> like a straw, suck out
> as much IQ as they can from India.
> 8. You give a farmer a cell phone and you'll see the
> biggest leap in
> anti-poverty that one can possibly imagine. This
> isn't about everyone
> becoming a call centre worker in Bangalore. Poverty
> will really be
> alleviated when India, when people who live on the
> land in agriculture,
> become more productive. And technology has the
> greatest chance to do
> that in the shortest time. You look at the number of
> farmers in India
> who want their kids to study English.
> 9. The fact that Indians can now innovate without
> waiting in line at
> the US embassy, without having to come to cold
> Minnesota and look for
> an Indian restaurant to get their chapati and curry,
> the fact that they
> can stay home, live in their culture, be in their
> extended family, eat
> their native food, wear their native clothes, take
> part in the most
> cutting-edge innovation, that is really cool.
> 10. When farmers can get more from their land, when
> they can understand
> global markets better, when they can produce niche
> products for
> different markets, that's when India will really
> turn around.
>
>
Thanks,
Sagar Yerramsetti.
__________________________________________
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