Taut, tested arguments falling into place at long last are beautiful to behold. 
Like any good debater, Nandan Nilekani, CEO of Infosys, has finally got his case down. First, talk smack about India’s place in the world:
Q. Are you worried about the outcry over outsourcing in America?
A. What’s happening is pretty fundamental. If you go back to the 1830’s, India and China were 50 percent of the world’s G.D.P., and then they missed the entire revolution of industry. So if you take a long view of this game, it’s just part of the process. [Link]
That ‘missed the revolution’ turn of phrase is a nice little euphemism for the Gothic horror of the British Raj.
Second, deftly position the inevitable outsourcing question as non-unique, overheated arm-flapping:
Q. What do you say to people who think that globalization will inevitably harm the United States work force?
A. Every time Wal-Mart replaces a person at a checkout counter with an automatic machine they’re eliminating thousands of jobs. This is one more facet of that, except it’s more emotional because instead of a checkout counter machine replacing Steve Smith, some kid in Bangalore is replacing Steve Smith. You can point to that kid and say, “He took my job.” [Link]
If you go back to the 1830’s, India and China were 50 percent of the world’s GDPFinally, remind Americans of their own core values:
Q. Does it feel odd to find yourself lecturing Americans on the joys of capitalism?
A. You guys told us for so many years to cut out this socialist rubbish and go to free markets. We came to free markets and now you’re telling us, “Stop, don’t come…” [Link]
This guy is better at jawboning than the politicians. Next step: mayor of New York? 
Argus_nj… meant mass manufacturing of small items, like electronic goods and the general merchandise you find in WalMart with a made in China stamp. Again, this is not the only big opportunity for India. I believe India’s real growth will come from small scale mass manufacturing and the food/biotech sector. AFAIK this has been tried before. My father was a banker and I remember the days when SSI ( Small Scale Industries) were deemed a savior of the masses. SSIs were funded by the nationalized banks , most of them defaulted on the loans. The result was Joe Taxpayer ended up footing the bill. We do not have the laws and regulations to control the rampant corruption which is pervasive everywhere (not just in Government). And things are not going to change anytime soon.
Indian have been beaten comprehensively in this small scale manufacturing game by South East Asian countries (Korea, Vietnam etc) in past, even Sri-Lankans were giving us a beating till the LTTE crap started. And most recently China has crushed just about anybody. We are way behind in this game and losing. Wal-Mart is not the only buyer of Chinese goods, Indians are too. You can even see “Made in China” stamp behind the little idols of Hindu deities. Its becoming very tough for SSIs to survive in India. I meant mass manufacturing of small items, like electronic goods and the general merchandise you find in WalMart with a made in China stamp. Again, this is not the only big opportunity for India. Some one rightly asked what is this “Small Scale Mass Manufacturing”. In general lower cost is achieved by producing an item in massive quantities. A small scale industry cannot produce massive quantities, at least not massive enough to be competitive with entities which are producing the same thing but are not “small scale”. If you were talking about the components ( like chips, ICs and even transistors ) you have to first figure out where we are in this game. Taiwan (many others) is way ahead of just about anybody.
I have strong opinions about the recent “IT Boom” too, (e.g. we do not produce a single world class packaged-software, we often exaggerate our capabilities). The deal is “IT Consultancy” is what we able to sell. We are a big player in this game and have some degree of brand recognition. I am also cautiously optimistic that some of the practices of this business will rub off on other business (may be even Government) and help them to be more efficient. ArgusÂ…some of your arguments are so “blast from the past” that I sometimes wonder you started this just to irk others.
so it says here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N.R._Narayana_Murthy
..lots of people getting blind sided. Argus_nj spread the word around
The environment then and now are completely different. I am not talking about government sponsored projects.
My point is, we are so caught on in the offshore feeding frenzy, we are missing a lot of opportunities. That is why South-East Asian countries have started to look so formidable. They ate our lunch and at fault are these body peddlers.
Sure, I will do my best.
oai! you still here?
The environment then and now are completely different. I am not talking about government sponsored projects. .
I was not talking about the Govt. sponsored projects either. I was talking about the cases where a nationalized bank funds a group based on the group’s business plan/proposal.
My point is, we are so caught on in the offshore feeding frenzy, we are missing a lot of opportunities. That is why South-East Asian countries have started to look so formidable. They ate our lunch and at fault are these body peddlers,
South East Asians have been formidable for a long time. This was before outsourcing was synonyms with “offshoring”. Nobody ate your lunch. When SEA countries were investing in manufacturing people like you were touting the virtues of cow-dung.
Check this out, your views are similar to Lalu Prasad Yadav’s…then maybe you are a fan.
That was the problem, this was before the opening up of the economy and in the era of the license raj. Those days we had an antiquated financial/monetary system, very high interest rates (~12-18%).
Now things are totally different. Apart from low interest rates, I believe the VAT reforms are almost in place, save perhaps seven-eight states. Liquidity is high, so are forex reserve levels.
Ireland was (and still is) formidable too. Despite their being low cost, Infy penetrated the market with even lower cost. Fortunately the Irish are much more ambitious and do not resort to idolatry the way we tend to do. They also did solid work in software product development.
Urge your father to read up on recent literature on Indian/global economy before he feeds you lots of misinformation.
Argus_nj all services are “body shopping”. Your use of the term shows that you have been asleep for some years now. Considering that these guys didn’t have a phone for a whole year when they started working on their first project 18 years ago, they have done pretty well, eh! Chin up young person, envy is corrosive. Let’s see you show some guts and produce some good work in “small scale” agro or manufacturing.
Some people say argus_nj could be the next Lalu. I would like to differ here. I have lot of faith in argus_nj. He will be much better than his master Lalu…….
Last heard: Lalu is very much proud of argus_nj 🙂
Sure, the problem is a body can only generate so much revenue. Given the total Indian skilled professional base of 1.2M, this is bound to saturate. On the other hand, say in chip manufacturing, a skilled engineer can supervise many skilled workers and garner so much more revenue. Needless to say, the skilled worker base is much more. This is of course a very simplistic depiction.
How much Infy stock did you buy from the open market?
I would, but I can’t, sorry.
Let’s just say I can’t reach where he is. I know you would like to help, with the kind of venom you are spewing, but sorry I have other plans.
KIT, this guy is in his own ‘special’ corner of the universe. (see my comments 25 and 28) it isn’t worth pissing of the mutineers.
You guys are both way out of line with these comments — statements like that are going too far in any culture or community, let alone South Asian society where we already know that one does not make personal comments in that vein about people’s family members, especially total strangers.
Your arguments and counterarguments are fine, but keep the personal comments out of the equation, please; let’s keep this civilised 😉
I saw jack welch during a q & a section today, he stated the same thing
it is beginning to come around full circle. This is the time for americans to take oppurtunity to work with them and also take into account the sheer size of their markets. I trust Jack…GE is considered one of the best managed companies in the world, and since welch brough it from 13 billion in 1981 to 400 billion in 2001, i’ll say he knows what he’s talking about…
He also told me to quit my job and move to the valley…which i plan on doing tommorrow
Lalu was so far thinking only Bihar/Indian politicians fight like cats and dogs. After reading last few comments here, he thinks his fellow politico’s are not that real bad.
argus_nj, Jai Singh, Lalu Fan and all.
Sincere apologies for the crap that I posted. I lost my head..should have moved away from the keyboard
sooo shook