What are the key emerging areas and trends in the technology sector in India that we should be looking at? Where will the action, so to speak, be happening next?
Currently, definitely mobility, cloud, social networking and social media, and big data. These are the four areas where there is a lot of interest and a lot of activity happening. In the next five years the ‘internet of things’, where we’ll connect appliances, devices, etc to the internet, will really take off. Today the internet has about 2.5 billion people connected. Of course, we will linearly add more people and more organizations, but there will be an explosive growth of devices and appliances that will be connected on the internet. Some people estimate that we’ll have about 50 to 60 billion connections to the internet over the next 20 years. That collective intelligence will change the nature of the internet. Today collective intelligence is about intelligence in people, but tomorrow collective intelligence will be intelligence in people and devices. That will vastly change how computing and information technology are used in our daily lives. So there is a lot of excitement in terms of what is the future for information technology, and we in India are at the centre of this. If you look at all the major companies, Indian and multinational, they have Indians are at senior positions. Indian professionals have had a hand to play in most of the innovations that are happening in this field and that is indeed very exciting.
India and the US
Coming to the differences between India and the US – is it good to move there and stay on, or should one come back, as is the trend now? What are your views?
If we step back and look at the change that is happening today, the action is shifting to Asia. Some people call the 21st century as an Asian century. If you look at GDP, more than 50% of the growth is coming from emerging markets like India, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam – countries where populations are very large. Most multinationals derive significant percentage of their revenue today from these markets. In fact, the developed country markets are already saturated, and there is no further growth possible in those markets unless they introduce completely new technology and products. Whereas in markets like India, they can continue to expand with their existing products, because the number of middle class people is increasing, the number of people that can afford things is increasing, and the need is also there for new products and services to be introduced. So I feel that since the action is shifting to Asia, this is where there will be growth, innovations, products, etc. The demographics are also changing – developed countries have an ageing population while countries like India will have a young population. So the 21st century is one where there will be a war for talent. Again, India stands to benefit from this and this is where, again, lot of research will be done, especially in MNCs in India, because the talent is here in India. And so, I would say it makes sense to seriously consider staying here or returning if you want a high growth career since that probably will be in Asia.
What about differences in work ethic and culture between India and the US?
There are positives and negatives. If you look at people in India, they are flexible, adaptive and can manage unforeseen events better. They anticipate that there will be roadblocks, and are able to manage these very well. If you look at developed countries, they need instructions at every stage, and they are less adaptable to change so unforeseen things will deter most people there actually, because they expect everything to be predictable and organized.
On the negative side, we don’t manage our time properly. We are less likely to keep our commitments, because the other person expects that you will not do it! In the west, people expect you to complete things on time, and they actually feel terrible or even lost when you don’t. And that sometimes forces you to complete things on time. That lack of commitment to those few things, time management, etc are things where we are bad.
To Conclude…
Finally, if there is something you’d like to say to the students of IIT Madras, what would it be?
The future is even better than when I graduated. Opportunities are more and the focus is on India; there is a tremendous respect for students coming out of India, so the expectations on them are significantly higher. They need to achieve even more than our generation has achieved.
