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Tale of Two Tech Hubs: Silicon Glen & Chandiga
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?"
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.
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 Yet in every article having to do with file sharing, the overwhelming sentiment is: their business model is obsolete, we don't owe them a living, deal with it.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?
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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.