Thread: India's game plan - American jobs

I think it is so surrealistic for a country to base so much of its plan for prosperity on taking in work from other countries, wherever the work is performed. Doesn't India have its own data to process? Its own back offices for its own businesses? But no, they want ours too. Both India and Mexico should be well-to-do, pleasant countries to live in, having resources, large swaths of agricultural land, a tropical climate, and many other natural resources. Yet they continually cry 'poor' and come banging on our door for jobs. Let the exchange rate adjust a bit between the dollar and the rupee, that's all I wanted for Christmas.

This site also allows comments, although mine hasn't been posted yet. Note the equation of young=good workers.

I hit them on the age discrimination angle, but my comment hasn't shown up yet.

http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full ... _id=150435

Hungry, capable, and determined

If we play our cards right, we can now influence the global business agenda

NANDAN NILEKANI
Posted online: Monday, January 01, 2007 at 0029 hours IST

The world of business is being flattened by four mega-forces. First is the rise of emerging economies. Second is the trend in global demographics. Third is the ubiquitous and pervasive spread of technology. And lastly, there is the sharp rise of regulations that are governing businesses. To compete and win in this flat world, organisations have to align themselves favourably to these mega-forces and shift their operational priorities.
India is at the centre of this action. The economy is approaching the magical milestone of double-digit growth. The average age is twenty five. We add five million mobile phones every month. This combination of economy, demography and technology makes us naturally aligned to the flat world and gives Indian businesses a tremendous opportunity to disrupt traditional models in every industry.

The story of the Indian IT industry disrupting the services delivery model is well known. We leveraged India and technology to create a cost structure that was far more efficient than that of the legacy players. We leveraged the large talent base of young engineers to set the highest standards in quality. And we leveraged the resulting profits to invest in building new capabilities and providing a great customer experience. This created an unprecedented value for our clients and forced the legacy players to come and compete on our turf, on our terms.

This model need not be, and is indeed not, restricted to the IT industry. We are witnessing the growth of telecom, retail, banking, bio-technology and other sectors, which are using the same building blocks of low cost structure, talent and technology.

There are many people who try to dismiss the low cost structure advantage as mere labor arbitrage. It goes far beyond that. In a flat world, there is nothing intelligent in having your production base in a high-cost economy. A lower cost structure allows you to invest in innovation that drives customer loyalty. A lower cost structure allows you to invest in analytics of unstructured data which helps you in making money from information. A lower cost structure allows you to negotiate business cycles more effectively. And, a lower cost structure serves a domestic economy that is far more demanding in its concept of value. This produces the thirty dollar cell phone and the two thousand dollar car, whose markets are global. Indian businesses know this instinctively and are using it to their advantage; many commentators brought up on the western model don’t get it.

In the flat world, access to talent is half the battle. Indian businesses have a robust supply chain of talent; both Indian and global. We are home to the largest young population in the world. We have to integrate them into the economic engine. Youth is the source of energy, creativity, taking on challenges, overcoming odds and overturning the established global order. Indian businesses are fast becoming a magnet for global talent too. The best global talent realises that the rules of business success are being re-written and they have started hitching their wagon to the Indian star.

Technology networks talent in the flat world. It has also revolutionized how things are done in India. Technology has enabled our capital markets to become one of the most efficient ones in the world. Technology has made it possible to check the location of any train at any given point on the Internet. Technology has brought transparency in the interface between the government and the citizen. Technology has amplified the voice of the people against injustice. Beyond enabling businesses, technology has created an environment for businesses to thrive in India.

Success breeds success. We have shed our fears and complexities about competing with the world. We have stopped underestimating ourselves. The growth in our confidence index has far outstripped the GDP growth. We have started benchmarking ourselves globally and have realized that we can set the new global benchmarks. We have started dreaming on a global scale and we are executing on it. We have got the critical mass of globally successful role models to fire the imagination of the nation. We have the ecosystem for entrepreneurship falling into place. We are emerging as the global challengers.

But to be a global challenger, we need to overcome our own challenges. We have to focus on our education system and ensure that we provide quality primary and secondary education to all. And, we have to provide jobs for them through economic growth otherwise we risk social unrest. We have to create the infrastructure required for a decent quality of life. It’s not enough for people to earn enough to buy a car; we need to create roads for them through sufficient investments. It’s not enough to have the buying power for consumer durables; there should be reliable power supply to run them.

The end goal for us is to lift a large number of people out of poverty. To do so, it is important that we practice compassionate capitalism. As a nation, we have come to understand supply and demand but we ignore law and order. We are focusing on unit costs but are fragmented on issues of social equity. These are issues that need to be tackled independent of political positions.

In per capita terms, we may still be a poor country, but we are hungry for growth, we are capable and we are determined to succeed. At the start of the industrial revolution, India and China contributed close to 45% of the global GDP. By 1970, it had shrunk to 7%. By 2040, it’s expected to climb to 30%. As recently as fifteen years ago, we were largely ignored by the world. If we get our act in order, we can influence the global business agenda and achieve our objective of providing a life of dignity to every citizen.

—Nilekani, CEO, Infosys Technologies, coined the phrase “the world is flat”.

Originally Posted by BetsyRoss

I think it is so surrealistic for a country to base so much of its plan for prosperity on taking in work from other countries, wherever the work is performed. Doesn't India have its own data to process? Its own back offices for its own businesses? But no, they want ours too. Both India and Mexico should be well-to-do, pleasant countries to live in, having resources, large swaths of agricultural land, a tropical climate, and many other natural resources. Yet they continually cry 'poor' and come banging on our door for jobs. Let the exchange rate adjust a bit between the dollar and the rupee, that's all I wanted for Christmas.

Yes I agree. The Mexico of Asia.

There was a story in the business section of my paper today concerning large banks eating the added costs of having their call centers here, rather than India, because customers are extremely put off by discussing their accounts with foreigners. It went on to say that call center workers make a decent wage (if you consider $10.50 - $14.00 an "decent wage") whereas Indian call center workers typically make about 7% of that! That's like .75 to .98 cents and hour, how can Americans compete with that?

Betsy Ross wrote:

Both India and Mexico should be well-to-do, pleasant countries to live in, having resources, large swaths of agricultural land, a tropical climate, and many other natural resources.

Remember, both India and Mexico are overpopulated as the have exceeded what is considered a comfortable carrying capacity for people. Unfortunately for us, we'll be in the same situation within the next 50 years if our government doesn't bring a halt to illegal immigration and act to reduce legal immigration to replacement levels only. We're already beginning to suffer many of the effects that comes with fast pace population growth. What makes our population growth exceptionally bad is the fact that it is being forced by our own President and U.S. Congress (federally forced population growth)! Basically, we're headed down the same road as China, India, Mexico, etc. regarding overpopulation.

Originally Posted by MW

Betsy Ross wrote:

Both India and Mexico should be well-to-do, pleasant countries to live in, having resources, large swaths of agricultural land, a tropical climate, and many other natural resources.

Remember, both India and Mexico are overpopulated as the have exceeded what is considered a comfortable carrying capacity for people. Unfortunately for us, we'll be in the same situation within the next 50 years if our government doesn't bring a halt to illegal immigration and act to reduce legal immigration to replacement levels only. We're already beginning to suffer many of the effects that comes with fast pace population growth. What makes our population growth exceptionally bad is the fact that it is being forced by our own President and U.S. Congress (federally forced population growth)! Basically, we're headed down the same road as China, India, Mexico, etc. regarding overpopulation.

Yes without doubt!

Hmmm, I guess in a flat world 35% of your population is
totally illiterate.

I'm one of those who raised a fit when I got called, or called, and India, Inc. was on the other end. Some of them were incomprehensible, others were rude, and I complained. They have a very high opinion of themselves, and when they are the hiring managers, we don't get hired, so that's something to fight.

It's actually pretty easy to get your call transferred to the USA if you reach a foreign country on any business call. They will try to convince you they can't transfer the call, they will try to provide the service for you. All you have to do is ask for their ID and tell them you will call the corporate office (which is ALWAYS in the US) and file a complaint against them because they wouldn't transfer you. Sometimes they will transfer you immediately. Sometimes they will transfer you to a supervisor, who will try the same "I can help you" approach.

I just keep saying, "I want to talk with someone in the United States of America."...90% of the time, it works and I get to help keep Americans working. The other 10% of the time it doesn't work, so I look up the corporate number and file a complaint, telling them if my American dollars can't support my American 'brothers and sisters', then they won't be getting my AMERICAN dollars anymore. They tell me more and more people are complaining but they NEED us to call and voice our displeasure.

Just a thought...(but it DOES work)

I emphatically agree that it is not enough to 'buy American' or complain, that we have to contact corporate and tell them why. And to multiply the communication using different media. After Sears announced that big IT outsourcing deal a few years back, every time I got junk ad mail from them, I'd cross out my address, write 'return to sender' and scribble something on the outside as to why I was unhappy with Sears for outsourcing American IT jobs. That way, the post office employees and others along the way would see it too.

Hello,
First my introduction, which all of you would love to hate
An Indian Programmer on H1-B earning 6 figures salary at a Fortune 500 company.
Sure, I must have taken some deserving American job.Rt?And now here I am , leaving abject poverty in India behind and explointing americans of their livlihood.This is all what this forum says.
I grew up in India.Unlike normal kids here in USA, Education is only means for upward mobility.So, I used to study 6 hours every day (after 8 hours of school) in last 5 years of my school. So, prime teenage years of 13-18 when typical american kids have dating ,fun, activities, is not applicable.Read that again-14 HOURS OF STUDY EVERY DAY FOR FIVE YEARS. I went to normal government school there.
Indian Higher education system is broken so that's why I had to come to US to my Masters in Computer Science.
Show me an American who puts in this kind of effort in his /her growing years when and who is not a millionaire (at least) today.
When we advertise for a position in our company-Irony is that , we are looking for resumes having "white flavour".We do reverse screening of resumes-to make sure that enough White/Hispanics candidates are there.
But unfortunately-there are NO resumes.NONE. Only from Chinese and Indians.Even for Management positions.
What do you do?
Why do Indians care so much? India was a UK colony for 200 years. We know what "being left out" and under representation means.
US technically belongs to native Indians , but unfortunately you killed them all.So now have to deal with this mess of Immigration as Europe wasn't enough for White people.
I really liked US initially for my first 5 years stay here. And then I learnt about evil thing called "Corporations".
I will follow up later with this "outsourcing" and why everyone in US is missing piece of outsourcing. Isn't it amazing that one thing combines US businesses and politicians is this outsourcing.What are they seeing that general public is not seeing.?
No, Indian economy is not driven by outsourcing. 70% People in India still subside on agriculture and it is as poor as Sub Saharan Africa.
USA and India can not be compared.US is light years ahead in terms of military might.