Fact or Fiction: IIT/IIMs in India are superior to the top-universities in US/UK (Harvard, MIT, Oxford etc.)

batterinram Wrote:
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> Adding to my previous post, IITs were the single
> most important factor in transforming India’s
> economy from an agrarian one to something that was
> driven by IT services. People who passed out of
> IITs started companies (some of them are billion
> dollar companies) in India and in silicon valley.
> They created wealth and employment and transformed
> an economy. Yes they did not win nobel prizes, but
> made a difference to lives of people, which I
> think is just as impressive.
This is only partially true. Most of the IT Companies and it’s work force are represented by non-IIT and non-IIM alumni. TCS would have existed without IITs, so would have Wipro, Satyam and a host of other companies. Infosys had 2 of it’s founders from IIT but the rest (4) were non-IITians.
Indian IT services exists because of availability of a large number low-pay, low experience, computer savvy workers, who are willing to toil away their days and nights.
 
batterinram Wrote:
——————————————————-
> Adding to my previous post, IITs were the single
> most important factor in transforming India’s
> economy from an agrarian one to something that was
> driven by IT services. People who passed out of
> IITs started companies (some of them are billion
> dollar companies) in India and in silicon valley.
> They created wealth and employment and transformed
> an economy. Yes they did not win nobel prizes, but
> made a difference to lives of people, which I
> think is just as impressive.
This is only partially true. Most of the IT Companies and it’s work force are represented by non-IIT and non-IIM alumni. TCS would have existed without IITs, so would have Wipro, Satyam and a host of other companies. Infosys had 2 of it’s founders from IIT but the rest (4) were non-IITians.
Indian IT services exists because of availability of a large number low-pay, low experience, computer savvy workers, who are willing to toil away their days and nights.
 
CareerChange Wrote:
Indian IT services exists because of availability of a large number low-pay, low experience, computer savvy workers, who are willing to toil away their days and nights.
—————————————————————————————————————-
Yes this is true now. In the mid 80s and early 90s when the IT industry was much smaller the IT firms recruited mainly from the IITs and RECs 1. Because of the low numbers required they could afford to be more selective 2. There were very few quality engineering colleges.
The initial phase of outsourcing was critical as Indian companies needed to prove that they can do quality work in order to get more business from the foreign companies. The IITians who were working for the IT companies played an important role in achieving this and helped in the growth of the Industry. As the IT industry grew a number of colleges came up and produced computer savy workers that you talked about. Without the quality of engineers IIT produced and the work they did initially the industry wouldnt have grown. I still stick to my statement that the IITs were the single most important factor for India’s IT boom.
Pls note: I did not go to anyy IIT (was not good enough)
 
batterinram Wrote:
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>…I still
> stick to my statement that the IITs were the
> single most important factor for India’s IT boom.
Plus rohufish leaving India - the general morale and self esteem of the country went up :-)
 
> batterinram Wrote:
> ————————————————–
> —–
> >…I still
> > stick to my statement that the IITs were the
> > single most important factor for India’s IT
> boom.
The single most important factor was that in 1991, PV Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh started liberalizing the economy. Nothing else comes even close as the single most important factor for India’s IT (or non-IT) boom.
 
CareerChange Wrote:
The single most important factor was that in 1991, PV Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh started liberalizing the economy. Nothing else comes even close as the single most important factor for India’s IT (or non-IT) boom
—————————————————————————————————————-
Infosys, TCS etc started their operations way before the liberalization. Without quality engineers and companies who do you think would have outsourced IT work to India just because they liberalized. . Liberalization helped but without quality engineers and companies there would not have been any IT boom.
 
Most of the IIT engineers in the 70s and 80s were mainly based in silicon valley/route 495 or academia pursuing their own careers.It is a stretch to credit them with the rise of the IT boom of late 90s-2000s.
The IT boom was clearly because of lack of govt interference (due to ignorance rather than not trying) accompanied by a simultaneous boom in the number of private engineering colleges in India -especially south India - and guess where the epicentre of the boom is situated?
If IITs were responsible for the IT boom it would have happened way earlier. IT outsourcing/offshoring was made possible on a massive scale, especially by the availability of cheap bandwidth once the telecom bandwidth glut of the internet boom (MCI/Global crossing/Tyco) played itself out. and ofcourse the advent of VoIp and cheaper switching technologies.
Initially there were more IIT/REC folks at IT shops -essentially those waiting to earn a littl pocket money while their F1 visas arrived. Now with the general boom in colleges ,more people get recruited . Lack of quality is overhyped. IT is not rocket science and all you need (in general) are hard working people ready to learn new stuff.-and these attributes are no preserves of IIT/RECs.
 
batterinram Wrote:
——————————————————-
> CareerChange Wrote:
> The single most important factor was that in 1991,
> PV Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh started
> liberalizing the economy. Nothing else comes even
> close as the single most important factor for
> India’s IT (or non-IT) boom
> ————————————————–
> ————————————————–
> ————
>
> Infosys, TCS etc started their operations way
> before the liberalization. Without quality
> engineers and companies who do you think would
> have outsourced IT work to India just because they
> liberalized. . Liberalization helped but without
> quality engineers and companies there would not
> have been any IT boom.
We’ll have to agree to disagree.
I honestly don’t see that India has received a good enough RoI on investments in IIT/IIM. Brain Drain was a big problem in late 60s to early 90s. Most of the IITians left the country for better returns (I won’t fault them). To attribute India’s IT success to them is highly misleading.
Nandan/NRN, clearly attribute their success to the liberalization and I am sure so would Azim Premji and Ramadorai/Rata Tata. I am yet to see an ackowledgement from them which would attribute India’s success to primarily IIT or IIM. IIT/IIM have capitalized on the change rather than being the instrument of change.
I work in an large Indian IT services firm and I don’t believe the quality of the work force is a great differentiator. It’s mostly the quantity which is making a difference.
 
I agree @the ROI part. The Indian govt should stop subsidising the IITs -in fact all of higher education should be privatized. What business do a few babus in delhi have deciding how to fund higher education?.
Why should the taxes paid by my maid fund the education of someone who has no incentive to return (other than probable emotional attachment).?. Not blaming the IITians -they are just making use of a system which is unfair to begin with.
 
Dsylexic Wrote:
Most of the IIT engineers in the 70s and 80s were mainly based in silicon valley/route 495 or academia pursuing their own careers.It is a stretch to credit them with the rise of the IT boom of late 90s-2000s.
The IT boom was clearly because of lack of govt interference (due to ignorance rather than not trying) accompanied by a simultaneous boom in the number of private engineering colleges in India -especially south India - and guess where the epicentre of the boom is situated?
If IITs were responsible for the IT boom it would have happened way earlier. IT outsourcing/offshoring was made possible on a massive scale, especially by the availability of cheap bandwidth once the telecom bandwidth glut of the internet boom (MCI/Global crossing/Tyco) played itself out. and ofcourse the advent of VoIp and cheaper switching technologies.
Initially there were more IIT/REC folks at IT shops -essentially those waiting to earn a littl pocket money while their F1 visas arrived. Now with the general boom in colleges ,more people get recruited . Lack of quality is overhyped. IT is not rocket science and all you need (in general) are hard working people ready to learn new stuff.-and these attributes are no preserves of IIT/RECs.
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1. Other countries had open economies and cheap labor why didnt the western companies outsource work to those countries?
2. Why do you think so much of ER work is outsourced to India today? It is because a lot of Wall st Firms have Indians in management positions who are driving this. Similarly all the IITians you talked about who worked in Silicon valley in 80s and 90s played a direct or indirect role (through brand building) in outsourcing work to India. It didnt happen earlier because nobody in the US had a clue about India before these guys went there and proved themselves.
3. The bandwith, colleges etc came because of the demand for Indian IT services. In other words demand came first then the supply not the other way round.
We can go on and on about this but at the end of the day as Careerchange said we will have to agree to disagree
 
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