Over the last decade India has evolved into an IT powerhouse, with a strong international demand for its IT personnel and services. Intrestingly, the country's strengths in the IT field have developed inspite of the poor infrastructure and ironically now growth in the IT industry is providing the much needed impetus for infrastucture development. Though the IT industry is one of the fastest growing  industries in India, there are several factors that could decide whether India's IT success is just a flash in the pan or the emergence of an IT super power. Some of the weaknesses and strengths that are important factors on this judgement ruling are listed below.

Weakensses

Lack of Entrepreneurial Spirit
The past and current Indian education system id set in a way that it does not promote creativity among students.  Creativity is the key driver for innovation and entreprenureship.The Indian government and IT institutes are waking up to this realiztion and are trying to change the curriculum to encourage entreprenuership.

Overseas Demand
According to Micheal Porter, one of the key factors to a country's  strength in an industry is strong customer support. However, in the case of India the domestic market overall is fairly weak and the country does not have a strong home country customer base. In addition, the absence of a strong domestic market can cause  hinderance to the growth of competition with leads to innovation and competitive pricing. In addition, it also shows that India is dependent on overseas demand for the growth of its IT industry, which, could be a major downfall if the demand for IT services overseas decreases.

Poor Communications Infrastucture
Currently only every 3 out of 100 people have access to a telephone line, computer penetration per family is fairly low as well. Overall, India's data communication infrastructure is expensive and limited. In order to see itself grow as an IT super power, the country definitely has to cross some major hurdles in terms of its communication infrastucture.

Funding
It is only recently that the country has changed policies to encourage overseas and private funding. This has been another hurdle for the development of IT as the government has to realize the role private funding plays in the development of new innvovative technologies.

Weak Management System/ Cultural Barriers
The current Indian system promotes managers on the basis of seniority rather than skill. Most clients view this as a big problem along with unwilligness of Indian software professional to point out problems up front, and a general unwillingness to say no to clients for fear of offending them.
 
 

Strengths

Indian Education System
The Indian education system places strong emphasis on math and science, resulting  in a large number of  of science and engineering graduates. Mastery over quantitative concepts coupled with English proficiency has resulted in a skill set that has enabled the country to take advantage of the current internation demand for information technology.

Cheaper labor
Compared to the wages demanded by IT professionals in the United States, Indian programmers demand much cheaper wage rates. It is cheaper for international companies to outsorce thier work to companies in India.

Quality
Indian programmers are known for their strong technical skills and their eagerness to accomadate clients. In some cases, clients outsource work to get access to more specialized engineering talent, particularly in the area of telecommunications.

Indians Abroad
The large influx of Indians settled outside the country provides companies within the country with lifelines abroad by matching suppliers to buyers. This community of immigrants has been very supportive of its home countries ventures in IT. They are also the key people that gather information about new technologies and go back to the country to invest in new ventures related to IT.

Government
After realizing the potential of India as a major IT power, the government has taken several initiatives to promote the developmet of IT. The Ministry of Information Technology is playing an active role to develop the infrastructure that supports the development of information technology.
 
 
 

Return to:The Information Technology Landscape in Nations around the world
Report created for: INITEB in the program of MoGIT at the Kogod School of Business, American University,Washington D.C.