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Tale of Two Tech Hubs: Silicon Glen & Chandiga

Posted by michael on from the it-was-the-best-of-times-it-was-the-worst-of-times dept.

securitas writes "A pair of stories about two technology hubs in different parts of the world contrast and document their efforts to flourish as regional technological centers: Scotland's Silicon Glen and India's Chandigarh. The BBC explains that Silicon Glen is still struggling to recover from the technology bust with 15,000 jobs lost in the last year alone. 'Scotland's electronics sector contributes one-seventh of its gross domestic product, directly employs 45,000 workers, and accounts for more than half the country's exports,' which are down 50%. Meanwhile, the New York Times reports on northern India and the birth of a technology boom, as a group of government officials, consultants and high technology entrepreneurs is trying to transform the city of Chandigarh from a 'sleepy farm state capital into the "technology hub of northern India."' The city is competing with other Indian cities by offering 'lower labor costs than India's "first tier" technology hubs, places like Bangalore, Hyderabad, Bombay and Gurgaon, outside New Delhi.' As Chandigarh competes with its rivals for call centers and software development parks, some of those cities are experiencing a labor shortage of skilled workers. These aren't the only two places with such reversals of fortune - how does your region fare?"

7 of 263 comments (clear)

  1. I find it amazing by musingmelpomene · · Score: 5, Interesting

    That with all the complaints people make about young people working in the garment industry for low to poverty-level wages in third-world nations, no one has yet figured out that basically, by letting technology companies take jobs overseas, we're encouraging the same thing on a different level. Just because it's more white-collar doesn't make it less of a sweatshop.

  2. bah by nomadic · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Every country, state, municipality, town, city, and village wants to create some sort of high-tech industry. They can't do it, and the optimism some of these people would be funny if it wasn't so depressing. It's the same thing that happened with the dot com crash--people couldn't get it through their thick heads that there were way too many sellers and not nearly enough buyers.

  3. Explain this to me. by s20451 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I've noticed that in every article having to do with outsourcing, there are more than a few posts calling for the government to do something about it (i.e., instigate tarrifs). Yet in every article having to do with file sharing, the overwhelming sentiment is: their business model is obsolete, we don't owe them a living, deal with it. Well guess what -- this is the world you've created! The high-paid tech worker business model is becoming obsolete. It's hypocricy that obsolescence should apply to everyone except yourself.

    I grant you that not everyone who wants tarriffs also wants the RIAA to FOAD. However, I have yet to hear a single techie say, "Well, I guess I'm obsolete -- better go find a new, profitable skill set." It's all fun and games when the victims are anonymous, isn't it?

    --
    Toronto-area transit rider? Rate your ride.
  4. It isnt a sweat shop ....yet by kettlehead · · Score: 2, Interesting

    What wud u call a job that makes u stay up all nite and assume a false persona and answer mind numbing questions again and again and again and ...
    A dream
    especially since you get an above average salary and above average perks
    Many of my friends who did work in a call center felt that the job was not that bad, but don't even think about staying for more than 4 months, A view endorsed in the story

    > Questions have also been raised about the quality of the work, which involves grueling hours and can be mind-numbing. The average call-center worker stays in the job for only four months, business owners said.
    I am sure u techies in the us are complaining about no jobs, But i do not think that these call center jobs took away any jobs away from u guys. NO half decent Person here would look at it as a serious job. Just good forthe pocket money.
  5. New emerging markets aren't playing fair ? by zymano · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Did the Indian government 'target' the U.S. I.T. industry ? Is their government pushing people into I.T. seeing that we just allow job flow to their country while we get no equal access to their market ? If this is not the case then this is just ONE WAY trade. We lose all our capital with nothing in return. Think about all those jobs that created a synergy in our economy and the goods people bought. Don't get me wrong. I am all for open 'fair' free trade but India and China are not the most 'open and free' markets. These two countries ban most of our exports. I do know of the trade conflict right now with Chinese textiles the Bush administration is using as 'leverage' to open their markets and because because of terrible publicity of all the IT and textile job losses(elections).

    So to sum up. These two countries ban our exports and China manipulates their currency(google,recent news) to gain marketshare and we sit here talking about how great this is. We need to open Indias and Chinas markets up more if we want to create more jobs here. Lets hope this is an issue in the next presidential elections.

    Please don't retaliate and call me with cliched term 'protectionist'.

  6. Wrong, wrong, wrong, WRONG. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting
    If these predictions had been correct, the United States would have a lower standard of living today than it did in 1945, and a higher unemployment.
    In the late '40s, a single blue-collar job could support a whole family.
    But the reverse is true - we have very low unemployment today, ...
    Firstly, the unemployment figures have been cooked to exclude everybody who was so screwed that they gave up and dropped out of civil society. Secondly, low unemployment is driven by a shortage of income. The wealthier a society is, the more single-income families and sporadic workers they can afford.
    ... and a higher standard of living than ever before.
    We have to stash our little kids in warehouses so their mothers can work to keep the family solvent. Not even the Marxists ever figured out how to pull that one off--it took the job exporters to do it.
    Why is it that the democratically elected government of India is moving away from socialism and trying to attract those "sweatshop" jobs? Why does South Korea have such a high standard of living today, if these are simply sweatshop jobs?
    To quote Neal Stephenson, there isn't actually less wealth in the world, it's just been spread out in a thin layer of what a Pakistani bricklayer would call prosperity.
  7. quality and price by xPertCodert · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I am an Israeli. and have been working in the local Hi-tech industry for the last 10.5 years. when I started working here in 1993, a common monthly wage for an senior software engineer was around 2000$. it peaked in y2000 at about 6000$ and now it's somewhere in a range of 3.5K-5K$ a month. ( if you can get a job, that is. and that's not bad at all in terms of average wage here at around 1700$ month. And the reason for it is because the quality of the local hi-tech product is very high. and a lot of companies are willing to pay this money + benefits in order to get it. Just ask the likes of Intel, Motorola, TI, HP etc which have major R&D centers here. ( sometimes the only ones abroad). However it's very different when it comes to India. I worked with lot's of code produced by major Indian outsourcing companies (Like Wipro, for example) and I can say tht those guys are not really ready for prime-time. (No offence, I hope) So it all comes down to quality vs. price. Nowdays there are a lot of companies that are willing to pay far less money to get the job done and they don't mind quick and dirty approach. and that's where India comes in. But if you want to do something serious, you'll never outsource there, at least for now. and I am sure that when those guys will get quality and experience, their price WILL go up and become comparabale to the prices in the developed countries. BTW there are also trends to import cheap workforce to some country close but outside US or EU. for example Cyprus. I personaly know companies that moved development centers there and employ hundreds of Indian guys for fraction of a price. but as I say in the long run you always get what you payed for.