Indian IT and Indian IITian

Thomas Friedman, the triple Pulitzer winner and celebrated New York Times

columnist, was very serious when he said the inspiration for his current best

selling book "The World is Flat" came from a chat with Nandan Nilekeni

outside the latter's office. Nilekeni talked about the leveling of the world's

economies and cautioned him about the need for Americans to understand the new

economics, rather than rant and rave against the outsourcing phenomenon.

Freidman was speaking at the pan IIT Global conference held in Washington DC

recently, where IITans from every corner of the USA and, of course, India came

together in celebration of one of India's most successful institutions.

The conference itself was no great shakes: more people in the foyers chatting

with each other than in attendance at the multiple speaking sessions. But the

importance of the movement, led so admirably by the brothers Shenoy and Rajat

Gupta, was the fact that it underscored the importance of the IIT movement

specifically and the general air of new found confidence among Indians globally,

which is beginning to have an influence on global policy.

Ganesh Natarajan A few strong collaborative companies would be the next major success of the pan IIT movement

This was also underscored in a scintillating conference opener where Rajat

Gupta chatted with the indomitable Jack Welch and former Minister Arun Shourie

and brought out many points that have significance for both Indian pride and the

future of Indian corporations. The pride was very much in evidence when Shourie

pointed out that the Indian Space Research program, with a budget of $475 mn,

had taken the country to a position of supremacy in space research while major

US corporations like GM had research budgets of over $9 bn. And the lessons for

global Indian corporations came fast and furious from Welch, as he spoke about

the need to reward the successful managers, develop the middle, and weed out the

poor performers in any management team. In a very visual metaphor, Welch spoke

of a boat spinning in circles if the rowers on one side failed to match the

strokes of strong rowers on the other side, implying that good performers in a

team would themselves resent and eliminate others who prove to be a drag on the

overall performance.

What direction can the IIT movement take to graduate from an enjoyable

networking opportunity to being truly relevant to the future success of Indian

corporations and the country at large? This forum, which brings together some of

the best academic brains (most of the IIT directors were also present), Indian

and American CEOs, and professionals graduating from the sixties to this decade,

can surely prove to be a potent force for harnessing contribution and

collaboration. A few strong collaborative companies in software, biotechnology

and bioinformatics getting established would prove to be the next major success

of the pan IIT movement.

Finally, another stunning metaphor for the new success of India and China in

the world was provided almost in jest by Tom Friedman. He spoke about the past

when American children were encouraged to finish their food by reminding them

that somewhere in India and China children were starving for a single morsel.

Today, he said, children are being told "eat up your food fast because

somewhere out there is an Indian or Chinese kid waiting to take your job and eat

your food." Well said, Ron. Let the hungriest mouth win!

The author is Deputy Chairman & MD of Zensar Technologies and Chairman

of the NASSCOM Innovation Initiative Ganesh

Natarajan