Bangalore Slashdotted.

Bangalore Beats Silicon Valley

I guess it was bound to happen eventually. I expected everyone to do the Bangalore/India bashing on slashdot. surprisingly they haven’t ( not till now anyway). But I guess bangalore beats the valley in terms of number of jobless s/w engineers too. Out of the big numbers in bangalore more then half of them work in call centers and that is just cheap labor and not really a s/w job.

I just hope the number of decent software development/research jobs to call-center jobs ratio goes up in bangalore. That will be the real sign of success.

22 Comments

  1. mannu · January 6, 2004 Reply

    Heh, so people in the US don’t know what a lakh means. Interesting 🙂

  2. eddd · January 6, 2004 Reply

    u need sleep don’t u ?

  3. mannu · January 6, 2004 Reply

    Not right now. I slept enough during my 9-day vacation. Now I’m back to my geeky ways. It’s only 3:00 AM now. Way to go!

  4. jace · January 6, 2004 Reply

    Two things:

    1. America’s incredible self-centredness. “We are the centre of the world. In fact, we are the world.”

    2. India’s craving for approval from America. “But they think we’re crappy. But Bangalore is nowhere as innovative as Silicon Valley because no American has ever said so.”

    I don’t know what to say.

  5. hserus · January 6, 2004 Reply

    > no American has ever said so

    Peter Drucker has, for one.

  6. mannu · January 7, 2004 Reply

    Peter F. Drucker. Economics d00d.

  7. jace · January 7, 2004 Reply

    Which brings me to…

    3. Craving bashers. People who will tell you to not take euphoric articles like this one seriously, because the euphoria is at having got the approval we were craving, and the craving is the real problem. It’s surprising how these people can’t mind their own business. They just have to tell everyone how proud they are for not needing approval from Americans.

    4. Pundits arriving when the party is almost over and starting a debate on whether the evening ahead will be fun or not. Like this guy, who seems to be between one and five years late on everything (you should read his editorial in the Jan ’04 issue of IC Chip; he believes SCO’s case will be a major setback for open source because it mixes commerce with what started as anti-commerce).

  8. Anonymous · January 7, 2004 Reply

    craving for American approval

    is it an awakening or what
    its not just IT, its everything an Indian does, lifestyle, food, music, entertainment, apparel, name it.
    People in the US dont give a rats ass about being the center of the world, now wouldnt you accept an offer in the US tomorrow?
    I am not defending all US actions, but the US is different from European minnos who know their limitations.
    Coming to India, stop comparing everything indian to American, it just doest work that way, take pride that people still enlist for the Indian army though they have no benefits and are treated like crap after retirement.
    on outsourcing, an average indian SWE make 20K/yr, %500 USD, average US SWE makes $5000/month, outsourcing is good in the short run, fallouts, can somebody making $500 a yr be the same consumer as somebody who earns $60k? Who is going to buy the 2005 Toyota Camry or 2005 RSX? Whats going to happen to H1B aspirants?

  9. Anonymous · January 7, 2004 Reply

    outsourcing…….hmmmmmm…….

    y is it that outsourcing, in ppl’s minds, is limited only to s/w….it came first ‘cos that’s what THRY thot v were good at!!…only the beginning….medical…edu…auto….telecom…that also has to b counted…. “Toyota Camry or 2005 RSX” may b soon made in India…cos its cheaper….u can c as the market improves…what is available in the Indian market for us is also improving…
    …japan too started this way…in the 50’s their products sucked!!…quality-wise…but when faced with international challenge (self-brought)…..they improve….so too India….normal growth process…
    If the process was not working….it would not be reflected in the share market!!….only thing of concern is that…we too must grow…not b happy with what is accomplished…lot more to do!!

  10. Anonymous · January 8, 2004 Reply

    Re: craving for American approval

    One dangerous trend of OutSourcing is, whatever be the economic gain out of this. Quality is bound to suffer if you look at it as a whole. Immediate need is to upgrade the quality of ppl here.
    Also, the new Toyota will be sold at a much lesser cost here, and ppl earnign $500 itself will buy it 😉

  11. Anonymous · January 8, 2004 Reply

    Re: craving for American approval

    Outsourcing is bound to be here .. It affected the low-wage american in the earlier years. There was not much noise then because there was no voice. Now that white collared workers and so-called geeks (real geeks get thro ;)) are facing the brunt .. there are more than necessary noises abt it 😉

  12. Anonymous · January 8, 2004 Reply

    Re: craving for American approval

    IT is true that the cost of manufacturing is low in developing countries, why is it low, is it not related to poor work environment, sweat shop like conditions and the low living cost adds to it,

    if the toyota camry is manufactured in india or china, it would be cheaper, the new indian middle class can afford them, but are you forgetting that the primary customers for the Indian IT industry are americans? you think if HP loses its customer base due to geeks not being able to find jobs in the US< HP would still keep call centers in Bangalore?
    Are you implying that the Indian middle class nourished by outsourcing would eventually replace American consumers in the long run, 5 years down the road?

  13. Anonymous · January 8, 2004 Reply

    Re: outsourcing…….hmmmmmm…….

    And right here, in the parent comment, is proof on why outsourcing will fail in India on the long run.

  14. Anonymous · January 8, 2004 Reply

    Re: craving for American approval

    isn’t that the aim?…so that there r not many H1-B aspirants few years down the line!!…

    Only problem, as someone indicated, is that the quality of ppl ( by that I mean their work-attitude, env. and ambitions) need to be upgraded to keep up with the market. The sec v say v r done and econ has stabilised, it’ll head down!!

  15. Anonymous · January 9, 2004 Reply

    Re: craving for American approval

    h1b aspirants are an undying lot, even if bill gates moves to bangalore tomorrow. this coming yr there certainly will be legislation passed as far as outsourcing is concerned, i think thats when the real movie starts. outsourcing right now is a very small percentage, its not a big deal for United States but a big deal for India. I also fail to understand this anti US sentiment, as everything you do is American, what more the United States is also providing a livlihood to millions in India.

  16. Anonymous · January 9, 2004 Reply

    Re: craving for American approval

    it amazes me, for somebody who is eating crumbs, (an over statement) has such an attitude towards his master(United State), people forget, that when India starved it was american wheat that saved the day for you.

  17. Anonymous · January 10, 2004 Reply

    Re: craving for American approval

    In essense, someone has made a very valid point here. All these years (past few decades), US was a big-time, Huge, consumer for the goods and resources of this world. America has grown with the concept of taking in whatever is good no-matter where it comes from (probably a reason for their success). The sink is bound to become shallower, if ppl are unemployed. But, why shud we see this as an US-specific problem ?

    If its not the US consumers (consumers bcoz they drive demand) who are getting software written from indians, then it can be the Europeans, Chinese or even indian consumers. The whole chain of production and consumption has to stay on. But, the nodes (links) will be changing. If India needs to be there as a production node, then the QUALITY has to improve. Stress again, QUALITY is what will seperate the geeks from the so-called geeks. There are poorer countries than India where ppl know english and write not-bad kinda software. So, QUALITY is the key.

  18. Anonymous · January 10, 2004 Reply

    Re: craving for American approval

    please go back to 2001, and ask your PM, CEO, COO, if the american slowdown did affect your company

  19. Anonymous · January 10, 2004 Reply

    Re: craving for American approval

    I think a more valid question is:

    If US is to face another slowdown, how affected will v b? and what r v doing to prevent ourselves from getting so drastically affected?

    A slowdown in any market affects the other….to what degree, and its capability to bounce back….these r factors v shud control!!..That is what the true “global” market….

    no offence to any US citizen, but there is a “rest of the world”

  20. Anonymous · January 11, 2004 Reply

    Re: craving for American approval

    no offence taken, i only feel glad that millions of people can cross the poverty line and be part of a developing middle class,
    we are pushing for legislation to control companies like TCS which run sweatshops not just in India, but here in the US. there is a rest of the world, but guess the US economy leads the rest of the world, you cannot have a rest of the world that is prosperous without the US involved, being as influenced by United States as you are,

  21. Anonymous · January 17, 2004 Reply

    Re: craving for American approval

    >it amazes me, for somebody who is eating crumbs, (an over statement)

    >has such an attitude towards his master(United State), people forget,

    >that when India starved it was american wheat that saved the day for,

    >you.

    Well the wheat was from CARE and it was artificially created scarcity just like we had last monsoon with thousands of tons of grains rotting in the Silos!

    Leave it…remember what we got free with the imported wheat ?
    Chieftain’s tuft aka Voodoo’s bloom aka Congress plant – all popularly known as Parthenium!!
    The ragweed of India!

    ravi at india dot com

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