All These Short Journeys

Recently, the big boys were in the news once again-Craig Barrett of Intel,

Steve Ballmer of Microsoft, Samuel Palmisano of IBM-these global industry

leaders were in India, one of the biggest and fastest growing markets in the

world. But apart from the run-of-the-mill photo opportunities given to the media

and some high profile meetings with ministers, these visits do not really yield

much. There are hardly any big announcements.

These visits are also of very short durations, with the big bosses, in some

cases, not stay beyond 24 hours. It is a well known fact that when they visit

China, for instance, they spend many more days-sometimes even more than a

week. Which begs the question: what is the reason behind these little

here-now-gone-now trips to such high potential markets like India?

No doubt the sudden spurt of these visits is a pointer to the fact India is

on everybody's map. But such short visits also give the feeling that India is

still not the most preferred destination, but one among several preferred ones.

So those of us who thought that India was the hottest buzzword the world over

need to rethink our notions.

For instance, whilst India is surely emerging as a huge market, so are other

countries in South East Asia, South and Central America, and Eastern Europe. In

fact, the governments of many of these countries are taking very active interest

in their information technology and related sectors. The Indian government must

immediately respond too and send out the message that they plan to play a big

role in the growth of IT in the country.

Secondly, while many of these other countries mentioned above are being

looked at as a strategic partner, India is, on the other hand, sadly perhaps

only a big market for them. Which means that in China, besides selling,

companies will also consider manufacturing, component sourcing, software

localization etc, while India will primarily be considered for selling the

produce. A flying visit by a leading industry light only adds to the hype and

branding, thereby directly helping sales. Essentially such large companies

primarily look for economic and political stability. Coalition governments at

the center have unfortunately lead to the creation of an unstable image, albeit

a false one, for India. The current government must go out of its way to project

that stable days are ahead.

The MNCs also feel that while India has been able to do wonders with software

and IT-enabled services, the country has hit a bottle-neck in terms of manpower

availability, or in terms of availability of economical office space, or roads

and power supply. For instance, the rates of development of our infrastructure

has been far outstripped by the rate at which both our software and IT-enabled

services have grown.

So is it only lip service and maybe pushing sales that the big bosses are

trying to achieve with these high profile visits? No. I think they are trying to

send signals to everybody here-the industry, the government, the enterprise

users, as well as masses. And the message is "Move Fast."

While it is a good idea to make the place as conducive as possible for these

MNCs to widen their partnerships in India, it is also an opportunity to once

again work out some terms and conditions so that local initiatives, whether in

manufacturing or software development, are not destroyed. Terms and conditions

that help create more job opportunities in India, and that will help us in

absorbing as well as producing new innovations in technology. Just becoming a

big consumer will not take us anywhere in the long run.

The author is Editor of Dataquest IBRAHIM

AHMAD