Eternal discussions...

Time to time, when I talk to my parents or relatives in India, one topic that almost always surfaces is the criticism about the US institutions and government, not to mention the zillion others about the US way of life, divorce rates, etc., Every time the Indian stock market goes up, people go gungho on how India will outperform every other country in the world. At the same time, when the market goes down, the entire blame rests in the hands of US financial institutes and US representatives, aka, me...:) This is one of those arguments where my patriotic self is torn between rationality and the emotional counterpart. Half way into the discussion, I often get confused as to which side I am on. Is it about nationality or market dynamics? Recently, when the SIFY scandal broke out, I was in one of those "I told you so" moment. I do repent for the millions who have lost their money and millions more, who are yet to lose. But, as Greenspan puts it, the Indian market is flooded with irrational exuberance.

Consider the Indian IT market. Most of the big companies are service companies which cash in money for every resource they have. It is almost a direct mapping. So, on one hand, the company executives started seeing a surge of money. With corruption being a norm and getting away from corruption being very easy, it would be an anomaly to find corporate executives who don't make use of the "system". We all know how the food chain feeds itself in the political system, one that is supposed to overlook any mishaps. In my opinion, SIFY scandal just surfaced the tip of the iceberg and there will be a lot more to come. Is it because incompetency breeds incompetency?

During the past 10 years, the number of colleges in Tamilnadu alone has grown from about 50 to a whopping 500+. I went to a reasonably good engineering college. But, let me tell you, the quality of teaching was very mediocre, the exceptions being a couple of professors. The quality of engineers produced were again very mediocre (including me..:)). Now, I see the overwhelming number of colleges and guess who is teaching, the same mediocre people who left from colleges like ours. Not to point fingers or ridicule anyone, but, the students who are now lecturers and professors were below mediocre, in my scale. And, they've been teaching for over a decade now. The more I hear from people, the quality of engineers produced is definitely bad. But, the overriding question is, does it matter? And, that too to land up in an IT services job? A big NO. For the mundane work that most IT companies sign up for, the qualification that someone is an engineer is all it takes.

When I passed out engineering, getting into MNCs or big IT companies was nothing but a dream. It was plain difficult. Now, except for a handful of companies, who still go to elite institutes for their recruitment, the need for quantity has definitely killed quality. So, if we have an enormous collection of low quality workers riding one on top of another, how do you think it will evolve over a period of time. Coupled with the web of corruption, the situation will serve as a perfect recipe for disaster... I think, Indian system is it's own worst enemy... Only time will tell, what the consequences are going to be...If you ask me, it is nothing close to rosy is all I would say...