China Syndrome

I have read Romi Mahajan’s last two columns in siliconindia, the one about the hubris of Indian IT leaders. This column made sense because success always brings arrogance be it Wipro,Microsoft or Vivian Richards. They normally get away with it too because they continue to succeed. I agree with your chastising Indian IT leaders, though the behavior is not India IT specific. But in my opinion your second column on our China syndrome is amiss.

First, I think you are trying to create a syndrome where none exists. Yes, India is jealous of chinese progress but is not consumed or obsessed with it as you make it out to be. Is this jealousy so deep and and wide that it is preventing India from doing what needs to be done objectively for its progress. NO.

If the answer was yes then your criticism would have been understandable. If you believe the answer is yes then you have not substantiated it with reasons why you believe so. On the contrary, Both on political and business front India in recent months has exhibited eagerness to work in partnership with China.

Infact Infosys has run into red tapism in China to set up a development center. This shows India recognizes China is ahead of us and is smart enough to accept that and work with them to its benefit, which is totally contrary to what you depict. Jealousy is quite understandable but then jealousy is good too.

There is bias in your views in the way you highlight China’s positives and downplay and hammer down India’s achievements. Yes, maybe lesser number of Chinese have emigrated when compared to Indians but that has more to do with China’s totalitarian regime there than anything else. Chinese do cook up their GDP numbers. Chinese do hide diseases like SARS under wraps. Chinese have a problem with English.

Narayanmurthy has berated Indian successes some months back, claiming no other country boasts as much as India with so little to show. It is really surprising coming from him, for the amount of media PR INFY gets for less than a billion dollar company is huge, when a billion dollar company like TCS quietly goes about doing its business. Strange indeed.

Muralidhar Ambekar
Omaha,NE


Tech Trends

Why haven’t you taken up topics like nanotechnology, bio-sciences and so on, which are also redefining our lives and future. But I agree that some of the techs you have featured are very good, though wireless seems to be a much-written topic.

Akther Shah
Baroda, India


Merhotra True Leader?

While Sanjay Merhotra was instrumental in co-founding SanDisk, he accepts he does not play the definitive leadership role at SanDisk. I wonder why you have chosen him. It is also a common feature to see many Indian-founded startups bump off the founder at some level of funding. Is there a secret?

Santosh Joseph
Seattle, WA