point
Menu
Magazines
Browse by year:
March - 2011 - issue > Editor's Desk
Can We Unlearn?
Christo Jacob
Thursday, March 3, 2011
In India, if you ask most politicians about IT, they say, “We are not interested in IT.” May be they still believe that it is rocket science. President Obama’s recent meeting with the technology leaders Like Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Elison, Eric Schimdt, Steve Jobs and others reminds me of the contrast to our politicians back in India and Indian IT veterans’ participation in nation building. When will the Indian leaders learn to exploit the multifaceted skills of our corporate leaders?

India has built a $73 billion-per-year information technology service business and has been offering IT services of steadily increasing sophistication. Its engineering R&D industry is now a $10 billion business — a three-fold increase in four years. It develops sophisticated products for western firms in the aerospace and automotive industries, telecommunications, semiconductors, consumer electronics, and medical devices. And most significantly, there are thousands of new startups that are building web technologies, clean-tech products like low-power lighting, and mobile applications. Taking these aspects into concern, the Indian industry leaders who have leveraged such a great ecosystem have great potential in nation building as well.

We have leaders like Nandan Nilekani, Shailesh Gandhi, Arun Maira taking big roles in the Government initiatives; we need more of the same league. The state and Central Government should initiate active dialogues with the corporate heads to hear about their ideas and suggestions and also learn the management and execution powers of such leaders. In India, Infosys, TCS, Wipro and Cognizant employees enough people to be combined to small Indian city. Organizations with these many employees cannot be built without proper administrative skills, management skills and a sheer focus on growth and execution from grass root level and Indian IT organizations have put in lot of efforts in all the levels to be successful. Building a nation is also a similar process. And Indians who have built the best of the world class companies can play a crucial role in making, India the SUPERPOWER. Its time Indian politicians start unlearning the traditional model they always followed!

Please do share your thoughts with us.
Christo Jacob
Managing Editor
editor@siliconindia.com
Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
facebook