Stereotypes
"What do you want to be?"
How often do we come across this question from parents, peers, appraisers and who not? It could a genuine eager to know the other person, mere snoopiness to mock the present status or a mere "kill my time" question.
If you ask a twelfth grade guy, he would "instinctly" say that he would want to become an Engineer or Doctor. It would make futile sense if I gonna churn a para of crap as to why we have created such a stereotype answer. To be short, we have not even tried to get out of the hang over which procreated cocoons of security, illusionary pride and questionable materialism for toooooo a long. We have miserably failed be unique.
If you ask this question "what are you doing?" or "what was your background?”Maybe, I am skewed with my social conglomeration. You can be blind, deaf or even insane to guess it. Our current generation is far smarter, we would lop side the opponent with a mere objective answer "Analyst" (the prefixes may change- research, business, software, this and that...)
Not that we cannot do different jobs with same suffices, analytically it translates to "Cut, Copy & Paste" according to the mandates of the bully sitting in a different time zone, taking an outsourcing ride in this Flat world. Nobody wants to dare beyond the IT profiles to make a living, its kinda taboo, if you say that you want to be a journalist, civil engineer or a geologist.
The recent strengthening of the rupee was not a sweet spot to be, particularly for the companies which have thrived on low labor cost "advantage”. Infosys reported the first earnings dip as the rupee seems to be happy, flirting at around 40.Its going to be the same story which is to be reported across industries which built exchange rate as their source of competitive advantage.Kudoos to RBI, It's high time somebody teaches some real lessons to Corporate India which was buoyant with a dirty float!.
There is a buzz that we have to spend about $450 bn in the next couple of years in India , I am not even considering the private investment which is going to flood our country, the infrastructure boom is all set to hit us. The question is, do we have a talented pool or domestic competence to take this forward? There is such a deficit of civil engineers to execute such mass scales! There aren't able politicians or talented policy makers who can march us to the next level. Irrespective of their background, they have all been "Cast Away” in the IT Island, happily replicating "Ctrl X, Ctrl C, and Ctrl V" and that is what they could achieve out of their rigorous education.
Iam not denying that the surge in the economy started with such low value adding jobs and it kind of even catered to the mass employment of people who completed professional education. It’s time to wake up, maybe, we can survive for some more time, and we can be the back office for the world but for how long?. The world has billions of people who are willing to work at even lower wages. It is just a matter of time till somebody gives a taste of our own medicine.
We are trying to build hugeeee towers with a vacuum basement, we would eventually collapse. Our Indian companies don’t have a product we are just highly paid coolies.It high time to map Porter's model for India.
We need Products, Intellectual property and Indispensable talent pool.
Let's get rid of this stereotyping. We need to retain core talent and diffuse a more pragmatic approach to education. America is the superpower not because it has it dollar as the reserve currency of the world. It is because; it has the intellectual hegemony which is nurtured in their universities and corporate research labs of their country!
If you ask a twelfth grade guy, he would "instinctly" say that he would want to become an Engineer or Doctor. It would make futile sense if I gonna churn a para of crap as to why we have created such a stereotype answer. To be short, we have not even tried to get out of the hang over which procreated cocoons of security, illusionary pride and questionable materialism for toooooo a long. We have miserably failed be unique.
If you ask this question "what are you doing?" or "what was your background?”Maybe, I am skewed with my social conglomeration. You can be blind, deaf or even insane to guess it. Our current generation is far smarter, we would lop side the opponent with a mere objective answer "Analyst" (the prefixes may change- research, business, software, this and that...)
Not that we cannot do different jobs with same suffices, analytically it translates to "Cut, Copy & Paste" according to the mandates of the bully sitting in a different time zone, taking an outsourcing ride in this Flat world. Nobody wants to dare beyond the IT profiles to make a living, its kinda taboo, if you say that you want to be a journalist, civil engineer or a geologist.
The recent strengthening of the rupee was not a sweet spot to be, particularly for the companies which have thrived on low labor cost "advantage”. Infosys reported the first earnings dip as the rupee seems to be happy, flirting at around 40.Its going to be the same story which is to be reported across industries which built exchange rate as their source of competitive advantage.Kudoos to RBI, It's high time somebody teaches some real lessons to Corporate India which was buoyant with a dirty float!.
There is a buzz that we have to spend about $450 bn in the next couple of years in India , I am not even considering the private investment which is going to flood our country, the infrastructure boom is all set to hit us. The question is, do we have a talented pool or domestic competence to take this forward? There is such a deficit of civil engineers to execute such mass scales! There aren't able politicians or talented policy makers who can march us to the next level. Irrespective of their background, they have all been "Cast Away” in the IT Island, happily replicating "Ctrl X, Ctrl C, and Ctrl V" and that is what they could achieve out of their rigorous education.
Iam not denying that the surge in the economy started with such low value adding jobs and it kind of even catered to the mass employment of people who completed professional education. It’s time to wake up, maybe, we can survive for some more time, and we can be the back office for the world but for how long?. The world has billions of people who are willing to work at even lower wages. It is just a matter of time till somebody gives a taste of our own medicine.
We are trying to build hugeeee towers with a vacuum basement, we would eventually collapse. Our Indian companies don’t have a product we are just highly paid coolies.It high time to map Porter's model for India.
We need Products, Intellectual property and Indispensable talent pool.
Let's get rid of this stereotyping. We need to retain core talent and diffuse a more pragmatic approach to education. America is the superpower not because it has it dollar as the reserve currency of the world. It is because; it has the intellectual hegemony which is nurtured in their universities and corporate research labs of their country!
Labels: India
i still remember the shabby look on an uncle's face when i said i want to do MBA instead of MCA which is believed to take guys across the borders
Posted by
Parthasarathy S |
11:28 pm
It has gone to greater heights now. If you are in IT and you have not gone onsite, you are not worth more than bullshit. Heck, I cant make a simple choice. Nobody knows what these guys at onsite do.
The family bondage, cultural setup and weak economic status are a few reasons we are made stereotypes. We dont live independent and hence cant think that way... That being said, we could now see a host of tech startups in India which could be considered as a progression towards that direction.
Posted by
Anonymous |
5:25 am
I was once a victim of this steoreotype when my parents and others said that I would be doing MBBS. But I'm not now. I have broken out of that circle. I told them that I want to do a BSc honours in Life Sciences. They didn't approve at first. But I stood firm and finally they ahd to accept it. Now, I'm on my to becoming a great scientist!
Posted by
Priya |
10:36 pm