What type of economic strength is preferable to India?

A) A strong Indian economy fueled by its cheap labor due to a weaker rupee

against dollar, where the Indians end up working in shifts, late nights,

whole nights and what not... only doing low profile jobs which foreign

companies want to offload to India, so that they can concentrate on high

end works and become even better. For instance in IT field, providing BPO

services, support and maintenance work for products...

 

 

OR

 

 

B) A strong Indian economy fueled by its strong innovations and products,

no matter whether the rupee is strong or weak against dollar.. where

Indians work only in regular office hours of 9 to 6, developing cutting

edge technologies and solutions, selling our world class products both

inside and outside India. For instance in IT field, imagine operating

systems, compilers, databases etc all coming out of India..

 

 

I do not deny the fact that the IT boom in India came to a large extent

because of (A). Well and good, we have had the benefits of our cost being

cheap in western markets due to a weak rupee against dollar.. We have had

our share because of this advantage in the past 2 decades..

 

 

But at the same time doesn't it make sense to move towards (B), instead of

crying foul against rupee becoming stronger against dollar?

 

 

What a pity! Indian IT companies are feeling bad because rupee is becoming

stronger against dollar! Reason, their profits will go down when the value

of rupee is stronger, as every single dollar that comes into their account

now means lesser rupee than earlier..(if for instance earlier they used to

get 47 rupees for every dollar that comes in, but today its about 40!)

 

 

But isn't this a matter of celebration? Our rupee is gaining importance

internationally and is becoming stronger again.. How many of us know that

in 1947 when India got independence 1 Rupee was 1.2 US dollars?

 

 

These Indian IT companies instead of relying on a weaker rupee for their

profit should now look at coming out with innovative products and technical

solutions. What have these companies done in the arena of core system

products? Why don't we have any operating systems, compilers, database

systems, development platforms etc coming out of India? Why don't we

develop tools like photoshop or flash? We have talent, but they all are

working in American companies on these products.. Cannot our Indian IT

companies setup at least small teams to develop such products?

 

 

Instead they are planning to make their employees work on saturdays too !

So that their profits can increase due to extra hours the employees put

in.. As if India doesnt have any other option other than cheap labour,

Workaholic labor!! Are there no brains in India who can setup companies

developing products and make money just by printing out more serial numbers

and burning their product DVDs?

 

 

If Indian companies continue to depend on its weak currency, then how would

Indian economy survive in a world where all currencies have equal value?

Survival of the fittest.. Only greater innovation can help us in that

case..

 

 

We need to have knowledge and technological advantage if India wants to

become a superpower, not low cost based cheap labor advantage! Let the

Chinese do it..

 

 

I hope that rupee becomes more and more stronger so that Indians are forced

to use their brains and come up with innovative products and next

generation technologies, than to provide low end services...

 

 

We need to create a situation where other countries line up to buy our

F-16s, to buy our operating systems, to buy our mobile phones and I-pods,

to buy our Boeing, to buy our Mercedes...

 

 

A stronger rupee means we can easily afford foreign trips! This is what I

wrote in one of my earlier blogs

"A stronger rupee means Indians can buy things anywhere in the world on par

with developed economies! We dont have to spend crores of rupees then to

buy a Boeing! We don't have to pay tens of thousands of rupees for

international air travels! A stronger rupee means greater international

exposure! There wont be a difference between buying a Maruti and buying a

Mercedes! One can go on a trip to the Grand Canyon just like the way one

goes to Ladakh or Nepal ! How do you think american citizens are able to

tour all over the world? Because they earn more? No. But because their

currency USD is stronger.. and this is where a strong rupee will lead us

to!..."

 

 

I am not saying providing low end services is wrong .. It gave us a very

good start in the 90s. But that should definitely not be the bread and

butter fueling our economic boom indefinitely in the future.. For the

simple reason that it can't continue to do so any longer.. other low cost

destinations, cheaper than India are already coming up in the world... Let us

move ahead... become more innovative.. the journey has just started... This is

just the beginning of all the beginnings

By- Unknown