Why this hue n cry over the mumbai blasts, isn't it routine affair now? Doesn't it throw a blanket of ignominy over the hapless citizens for condoning the hopeless politicians in the every elections. Terrorism is an integral part of this so-called democracy or i have started calling it a "TAMASHA DEMOCRACY" in the hands of worthless scoundrels.
India has always been a target of cross-border terrorism and has failed to wield the hammer against the lowly terrorist, often letting its citizens down. And despite what our leaders would have us believe, we are a soft state: a fact fully understood and exploited by terrorists. After every such attack, the political establishment makes some threatening noises, hails the spirit of the civilians, holds aloft the pennant of peace, even launches buses to inimical nations, and then sits tight on its backside till the next wave of bombs rips the stuffing out of its citizenry. Delhi, Ayodhya, Varanasi, Mumbai, its time to have some action, some fireworks, how many cities can we let these terrorists destroy?If India wants they can hit them where it hurts the most: squeeze the breath out of their networks, starve them for funds, take out their leaders (who we claim to know are hiding in this country or that), smash their hideouts, terrorise their associates. As soon as such an opinion is voiced, human rights groups, self-styled negotiators and strategists jump into the fray to say: 'We should engage these 'people' in a dialogue. We are a peace-loving nation and terrorism needs to be resolved through peaceful means, through tolerance, through negotiations, abiding by international laws.'A quote from an article I read: 'We need to fight terrorism by understanding what triggers it and then remedying the situation. And by making 'them see reason.' Reason, my foot! The next thing you know that bloke will be stuffing a dynamite stick down your throat and lighting the fuse.'Many people who will read this will agree that international terrorism cannot be brought to an end only by the use of bombs and military might, but neither can it be ended with mere talk. Have'nt we been talking with them for the past 40+ years? What is needed is a heavy dose of ruthless action to go hand in hand with tactical and strategic negotiations.Just because the citizens are brave and spirited doesn't mean they have to keep suffering? Everytime I open channels like CNN-IBN or NDTV, I am moved to see the guys in Mumbai showing the resilence, I have never been a fan of Mumbai, but the way the common man from kids to adults have come out in open to help each other has touched me. Hats off to Mumbaikars, may the soul of the guys who died in the accident rest in peace and may god give the family strength and courage.
The common man wants a strong message be sent out: if any Indian is harmed in any manner, we will hunt you down. Sounds uncivilised? barbaric? But ask a newly-wed girl whose husband was blown to pieces in the blasts, ask the old widow whose only earning son will walk no more, ask a child of 8 years whose parents are no more. India needs to be ruthless in its vengeance.
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
Sports Sunday!
Zizou showed how a great player can lose control and arguably the chance of regaining the prestigious gold. Italy deserved it more than anyone else, believe Azzurri's were way too good for "Henry - the cribstar" studded French whinners.Was catching up with Wimbledon finals and the score looked something like this:-
15-0
30-0
40-0
Game, set, match and championship Mr. Roger Federer.
Had my life been so easy. :-)
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Desi Inc. - Booming or Booing!
IT sector in India has been working on the Chinese management belief of low cost, reasonable/low quality and minimal innovation - that is why I brand myself as a "cheap outsourcer". I am an employee of one of the biggest IT company in India and in the years of employment, have developed my perspectives on India's IT revolution.
IT companies in India hire engineers like cats and dogs, not depending on their educational background but on the basis of whether they can write a few lines of code in C/C++. After all, they can't afford brilliant engineers because they won't do the cheap work for crap salaries. Heck of it is that they make Mechanical/Civil Engineers work on developing "end to end solutions" for banking, finance, inventory management, website development, etc. Fyi by developing I mean coding, not designing. Individual interests are a part of past if you are working in one of these companies, for them generation of revenue is more important that individual interests.And then the HR's wonder why is the attrition rate so high!!!
Most of my friends ask me what is the nature of the work? Most projects in indian IT companies are maintenence - i.e someone else has already developed an application. All you need to do is to add more features/change behaviour as per client's request . Then there's production support, which is worse. It is almost call-center work - ensure that the application runs normally and if it fails, get it up and running ASAP. In a sense, like a car mechanic - I didnt get an engineering degree to be a car mechanic - I got it to design the car! Finally, if you are lucky you get development or analysis (in my case, I got it and it was the best analysis project for a long time, which senior FE Analysts from across tell me). But then, analysis is easy, designing the system is what is important. Typically, customers get the design done by the powerhouses likes of Abaqus, Altair, Accenture etc. The designs are then sent to "desi companies", who actually do the meshing and view the plots defined by them for cheap. Thus, all we do is donkey work. It is not technology - it is programming.
Technology is a way of creating a new idea, paradigm or design - programming is implementing that design. Thus, most of the people in IT waste their engineering degrees, doing mundane programming, waiting for an onsite requirement with a hope of becoming project managers - after which they spend their lives approving timesheets, conducting appraisals and sucking up to the client . Shouldnt an experienced IT professional be doing advanced stuff and leave the bullshitting to MBA's? Are'nt there enough of management schools in India which produce tons of MBA's every year?
Every now and then a question props into my mind, why is it so hard for desi companies to do design? Indians are doing hardcore design in many of the top consulting companies, but when it comes to desi inc.they've not tried hard enough to get into this space. Or worse they dont have the competence to get the job done.Desi companies dont have the brand equity like KPMG/McKensey to attract IT consulting projects , which is largely a reputation driven business. In order to build an image, desi companies need to hire high-flying consulants who dont come cheap and dont work for cheap projects. Even after all this, there is no guarantee of results?
How many software products come out of Indian companies? IFlex is one, but its the only company to have a product successful worldwide. Making products is expensive has no guarantee of success. Companies think of why risking it when services will give them an assured income?
What is the need to get products or strive for high-end consulting when companies are breaking billion dollar barriers and climbing in the global ratings? I remember the lines from a song"November Rain" by GnR "nothin' lasts forever, And we both know hearts can change". Simply because today India has an advantage of using the algorithm of low cost, low margin services will run it's course in the future. In due course the payscales are rising in india and rupee is appreciating wrt the dollar, margins are becoming more and more slim. In time, India may not be as competitive Brasil or Russia - the American cos will take their projects out there! Who knows companies out there may provide more value added work with added security (India has been guilty of which). Similar history can be seen in the manufacturing sector - earlier Taiwan then SouthKorea and now, China. For too long have we been stuck in the field of cheap outsourcing now time has come to invest in consulting and products, and take Indian IT to the next level, or else I fear we will remain stuck in this low end nonsense.
Indian companies have 2 choices - Identify and set shop in countries (Brazil/Uruguay/Hungary) where the low cost, low margin algorithm can be applied or enter into high end IT, which is independent of geography. I believe later as high margin fetching business. What could be even better, is coming up with products - like Java, operating systems (Like Sun, Oracle or Microsoft) or probably a new technology (like SAP). That is real tech. it's not that we can't do it, it's just that we dont want to risk it.
It reminds me of a quote by Sir Benjamin Franklin:
“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement and success has no meaning."
IT companies in India hire engineers like cats and dogs, not depending on their educational background but on the basis of whether they can write a few lines of code in C/C++. After all, they can't afford brilliant engineers because they won't do the cheap work for crap salaries. Heck of it is that they make Mechanical/Civil Engineers work on developing "end to end solutions" for banking, finance, inventory management, website development, etc. Fyi by developing I mean coding, not designing. Individual interests are a part of past if you are working in one of these companies, for them generation of revenue is more important that individual interests.And then the HR's wonder why is the attrition rate so high!!!
Most of my friends ask me what is the nature of the work? Most projects in indian IT companies are maintenence - i.e someone else has already developed an application. All you need to do is to add more features/change behaviour as per client's request . Then there's production support, which is worse. It is almost call-center work - ensure that the application runs normally and if it fails, get it up and running ASAP. In a sense, like a car mechanic - I didnt get an engineering degree to be a car mechanic - I got it to design the car! Finally, if you are lucky you get development or analysis (in my case, I got it and it was the best analysis project for a long time, which senior FE Analysts from across tell me). But then, analysis is easy, designing the system is what is important. Typically, customers get the design done by the powerhouses likes of Abaqus, Altair, Accenture etc. The designs are then sent to "desi companies", who actually do the meshing and view the plots defined by them for cheap. Thus, all we do is donkey work. It is not technology - it is programming.
Technology is a way of creating a new idea, paradigm or design - programming is implementing that design. Thus, most of the people in IT waste their engineering degrees, doing mundane programming, waiting for an onsite requirement with a hope of becoming project managers - after which they spend their lives approving timesheets, conducting appraisals and sucking up to the client . Shouldnt an experienced IT professional be doing advanced stuff and leave the bullshitting to MBA's? Are'nt there enough of management schools in India which produce tons of MBA's every year?
Every now and then a question props into my mind, why is it so hard for desi companies to do design? Indians are doing hardcore design in many of the top consulting companies, but when it comes to desi inc.they've not tried hard enough to get into this space. Or worse they dont have the competence to get the job done.Desi companies dont have the brand equity like KPMG/McKensey to attract IT consulting projects , which is largely a reputation driven business. In order to build an image, desi companies need to hire high-flying consulants who dont come cheap and dont work for cheap projects. Even after all this, there is no guarantee of results?
How many software products come out of Indian companies? IFlex is one, but its the only company to have a product successful worldwide. Making products is expensive has no guarantee of success. Companies think of why risking it when services will give them an assured income?
What is the need to get products or strive for high-end consulting when companies are breaking billion dollar barriers and climbing in the global ratings? I remember the lines from a song"November Rain" by GnR "nothin' lasts forever, And we both know hearts can change". Simply because today India has an advantage of using the algorithm of low cost, low margin services will run it's course in the future. In due course the payscales are rising in india and rupee is appreciating wrt the dollar, margins are becoming more and more slim. In time, India may not be as competitive Brasil or Russia - the American cos will take their projects out there! Who knows companies out there may provide more value added work with added security (India has been guilty of which). Similar history can be seen in the manufacturing sector - earlier Taiwan then SouthKorea and now, China. For too long have we been stuck in the field of cheap outsourcing now time has come to invest in consulting and products, and take Indian IT to the next level, or else I fear we will remain stuck in this low end nonsense.
Indian companies have 2 choices - Identify and set shop in countries (Brazil/Uruguay/Hungary) where the low cost, low margin algorithm can be applied or enter into high end IT, which is independent of geography. I believe later as high margin fetching business. What could be even better, is coming up with products - like Java, operating systems (Like Sun, Oracle or Microsoft) or probably a new technology (like SAP). That is real tech. it's not that we can't do it, it's just that we dont want to risk it.
It reminds me of a quote by Sir Benjamin Franklin:
“Without continual growth and progress, such words as improvement, achievement and success has no meaning."
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