Are we really the IT super powers?

Just a few days back many of my friends got recruited into some of the prestigious Information Technology companies like TCS, WIPRO, INFOSYS, HCL, etc. They were all happy to get selected into those companies, even without getting their Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) degrees. Their initial salaries are above 20k per month, quite a handsome package. And yes, even I felt happy then to see my friends getting such jobs in the most happening companies in the most happening field today, in India . And some of them even threw a party. We all enjoyed it.

But later, one question really troubled me and is still troubling me. And that question is are we really the IT super powers which, we think we are? First, I thought the answer is YES. IT, today, contributes a substantial part to our economy, it gave India a new identity in the global arena, it gave jobs to lakhs of Indians, and what's more, its all set to grow even larger. So I thought the answer is YES.

Now looking at the other side of the coin, yes we do export a lot in the BPO sector. But of late, a substantial part of these exports are coming from call centre end of the BPOs. Also our forte is services sector. We are yet to bring out a great IT product. Yes, we gave a few really nice products to the world, especially in the financial sector. But all those came from the subsidiaries to foreign companies. True, its hard to bring out a product solely from India, especially in this age when the operations of the companies are spread all over the world. But what is worrying is that in most cases, I think, we are putting the enormous capabilities of our work force to abeyance.

Even more than any of the above mentioned things, one thing that really puzzles me is, why have we, despite being a lot advanced in this field, failed to harness the power of IT for the good of common man. For example, we still pay our current bill at one place, our phone bill at another place, and various other bills at many other places. Can't we, with the help of IT, create a system to make easy all these payments. And take the case of education field, to begin with, our state (Andhra Pradesh) technical education board doesn't have a solid, fool proof centralized counseling system to allot seats in various colleges. We do have a centralized system, but it doesn't allow the prospective students to choose the colleges and courses they want at leisure. They are expected to make decisions on the spot. And this, in many cases, results in the students regretting their decisions at a later stage. And our university still prefers the age old approach of sending the results to our colleges via fax or phone, instead of posting them on the university website. Or take the case of our police force. It still doesn't have a national wide database of the records of, leave alone the normal criminals, even terrorists. If we have one, it can help our forces a lot in fighting the terrorism. Even better, if can maintain one with records of most wanted criminals. One need of paramount importance to any democratic country is the voter list. But we, boasting to be biggest democracy in this world, still grapple with the discrepancies in the voter lists and photo id cards. True, the sheer no. of voters makes it difficult to bring out a perfect system, but having the IT prowess we have , with the right will, I think, we can accomplish the task of bringing out a good, if not the best, system.

Now, after thinking over all these arguments, I find it hard to answer the question, I raised first, YES. Nor is my answer a NO. May be we the IT Super Powers in deep slumber. What do you think? Post your comments.