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Re: India: A Country of Beggars
Ranjan wrote:
> The Indian government does not send students abroad to study. All the students
> who go abroad come after getting scholarships from universities or are funded
> by family and work done at the universities. This education is not being wasted
> even if the people stay here. Many Indians have returned to set up companies
> in the computer fields. Others help through advise, money or change in
> perception and stereotypes.
It is too sad that Indians still believe that the "Indians" who've migrated to
the USA can be of any help at all to India. About 90% (this is a conservative
estimate: it might actually be higher) of the Indians who make America their
home don't lift a finger to help India. Most are interested only in their own
cosy lives. Of those who do help, only help financially. "Don't wanna soil my
hands!".
> India does not have any dearth of talent in the technical
> or management fields. What is lacking is capital and infrastructure. Over the
> past few years there has been much improvement in that direction.
Another sad belief. There was an article in the IEEE Spectrum (Institute of
Electrical and Electronic Engineers) about an Indian engineer who came to the
USA to market a third rate electronic item produced in India and heard someone
claiming that they had reached the "0.25 micrometer technology". The Indian
proudly announced that in India, they already had the 0.5 micrometer technology,
without realizing that the smaller the transistor, faster the device! Talk about
making an ass of yourself!
I can give you first-hand information on the kind of engineers that the Indian
industry has working for it: I know a professor from the Indian Instutute of
Technology (IIT), Madras, who regularly helps recruit engineers for many of the
Indian companies. He has interviewed a jillion engg. graduates and he tells me
that most of the candidates are "shocking" to put it mildly: no fundamentals in
their field, and no good grades in their college-life. And they are the ones who
work for India: no wonder Indian products are so lousy!
Of the 35 students who graduated from the IIT-Madras in Electronics in the
year '95, 27 are in the USA; 5 went on to do their MBA's in the IIM's; and the
rest 3 are software professionals in Bangalore. Which means that there is
virtually no student from this institute who graduated last year and is
contributing towards India's technical advancement in the field of Electronics.
The Indian engineering graduates who do stay back in India to work in the
industry as engineers (NOT managers) are normally people who work not because
they like their job, but because they had no other option. You can imagine their
enthusiasm. An engineer's job in India is not a dream: it's a no-win situation.
As you may be aware, USA is well-ahead of practically all other countries in the
field of microelectronics. I know of a really GOOD electronics student from the
IIT-Madras who refused to go to the USA: he stayed back in India and planned to
start an industry to manufacture IC's (Integrated Circuits). Guess what? He
didn't succeed. The first reaction to this is probably that there was "too much
red-tape" or "too less help from the Government". It was none of those reasons.
It was just that before he could even think of manufacturing IC's, there were
other instruments to be manufactured which were a pre-requisite to the
manufacture of IC's, which postponed his pet project by ten years. As if this
were not enough, to his dismay, he discovered that *no one* in India had
even the basic *know-how* (let alone have the dough for it) for constructing a
microelectronic plant! BTW, America has about a hundred. India has none.
>
> The literacy rate will improve as time goes on. It will follow and not precede
> economic development in India's case. The 100 percent literacy rate did not
> do Russia any good, for example.
Are you suggesting that 100% literacy is bad ?!
Don't you think it's pathetic how, in the twentieth century, even after 40 odd
years of independence, India still has to suffer illiteracy?
>
> In case you want to help, there are many charitable organizations trying to
> improve conditions in India. For example check out ASHA, an organization
> supporting education in India at
> http://www-leland.stanford.edu/group/asha/
Though I appreciate ASHA and other charitable organizations (like Association
for India Development - AID) which are doing good work, it would indeed be
better if Indians open their eyes and realize that about 90% of those who've
turned their back to India are not interested in India's future, but only in
making big bucks for their own selfish selves.
>
>
> Ranjan
>
-Kartik
