Priceless professionals going cheap

As per Senator Spencer Abraham, who has been one of the movers behind thebill this remains unaddressed it may result in a 5 per cent fall in the US GDP which translates to about $20 billion – a 1000 dollars for every American.

What remains not very much noticed is the fact that this would have also resulted in the high tech sector. Companies in the US moving their software development facilities to the lands of software milk and honey (read India as a major beneficiary).

The software services industry is driven more by demand than supply. A cap of 65,000 on the number of visas would definitely have an impact on the competitiveness of the US high tech industry. It would have also resulted in the salaries in the local market shooting up and more people would get incentivised to join software industry which can not happen overnight as there is simply no qualified manpower available. The only viable option left would have been to go offshore specially due to the time bomb nature of the Y2K problem.

This gives us a god sent opportunity for our industry to show its mettle andclearly establish – yes, India can do it in India. In the current situation what happens to all the additional workers who land up against these visas in the US after the problem is licked and the availability of local workers improves thanks to the proposal of introducing 20,000 scholarships an year for skill enhancements of American students is anybody’s guess.

Americans can’t be criticised for taking the best business decisions for themselves. They seem to be doing a much smarter job than India anyway. They spotted the talent and they gave Indians the break, see the possibilities and taste blood.

India today is perceived as a cheap labour country only by Indians. Our software skill are really respected by the people who know their stuff and Indians are regarded as best software developers world-wide. This is the reason why they will get picked up for assignments even if they are high priced.

The poor man’s programmer today is coming from the former Eastern Block. Companies that can afford to haveprofessionals with poor language skills are concentrating on that region for their supply. Our notional positioning at the bottom the value pyramid has already been lost to these guys by us and we are actually getting pushed upwards – still the mourning seems to be prolonged where actually this should have been a celebration.

Manpower availability even in India is becoming a serious issue and even if the work is started on a war footing on this a lot of ground has already been lost. Most software professionals still available today are from the third tier of colleges.

Lack of standardisation in our schools and colleges and lack of exposure to the industry while undertaking studies hamper Indians. While the industry is happy enough consuming manpower and associations back slapping them for doing so, it does not make any serious attempts or drive investments towards creating it.

The need to change the cheap-labour mind set has never been so urgent more so when it is in short supply even in India. We mustshift gears to position ourselves as a country which is capable of handling turnkey projects off shore.

The naysayers will raise the infrastructure bogey. This is one industry which has shown such tremendous lobbying ability in the past which resulted in unfettered access for software to the Indian market at zero tariffs. If it really puts its heart and mind to it they can lobby the government for some software enclaves where infrastructure is there for the asking.

Actually, even the Government may not be required but for the telecom infrastructure and gateways and enough people may be willing to pump in enough investments to make the rest happen if nudged in the right direction. The cap on visas could have well been that gentle nudge.

Body shopping simply means brain-drain. It was the need of the hour so we did it. Now is the time to use this to build off shore strength. It takes more guts and commitment from the industry but it surely pays off because major margins are in the offshore business. Bodyshopping must be used only as a means to enter into a relationship and then transition on to an off shore assignment. India can gain only if every body it exports, creates 23 jobs offshore.

A major portion of world’s software is developed or maintained by Indians, how much of it is reflected in India Most companies showing multi-million dollar revenues earn them by spending them outside India.

The path of least resistance for the industrialist is to sell bodies cheap. Sadly enough we seem to be doing just that. Our intellectual capital today is working for the competitiveness of the American industry and not our own.

What suffers is the larger industry perhaps even the country as software is the only hope for India to become a developed country from a developing one.

There is a need to involve end users, developers, consultants and educationists too when planning for the future of the software industry and not just look at an industrialist’s perspective. Only then can a bigger and perhaps betterpicture emerge and be see by ever body including the government.