A lot of negatives perceptions about Indian economy and IT industry are based on outdated facts.
A few things to think about:
On the macro economic side, in 2001 Indian economy was ranked 4th largest in the world by PPP per World Bank (US - $9.8 trillions, China - $5.1, Japan $3.19 and India $2.9). India's PPP is about double that of UK, France or Italy.
http://www.worldbank.org/data/databytopic/GDP_PPP. pdf
You can also get country info from the US Govt sources -
http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/in.html#Econ
India does compare poorly on per-capita basis and still has a long way to achieve the living standards of the west (possibly another half a century or more). The disposable income of the consumer class is vast and one of the fastest growing in the world.
Last year India enjoyed the second fastest export growth in the whole world at about 15% (China grew the fastest at about 20%). After China and Korea, India has been the third fastest growing economy of all nations in the world in recent years. The GDP has been averaging about 5% growth rate (4 in bad and 7 in good).
Bill Gates/Microsoft, Intel, IBM, Cisco, GE, Sun have all publicly stated that they consider Indian IT industry to be one of the most strategic ones in the whole world (not necessarily "large" but "strategic").
The OSS movement is fairly strong in India. It is not as strong as in the US or Europe but there are several active conferences, contributors, dedicated labs, etc. in India. The President of India is simply reflecting an already strong stream of thought. Many of the reseasrch labs seem to support OSS.
It is also not true that it is not paying to develop OSS in India. One can market related services or work with IBM or numerous players looking actively for OSS development skills in India.
Slashdot Mirror
A lot of negatives perceptions about Indian economy and IT industry are based on outdated facts. A few things to think about: On the macro economic side, in 2001 Indian economy was ranked 4th largest in the world by PPP per World Bank (US - $9.8 trillions, China - $5.1, Japan $3.19 and India $2.9). India's PPP is about double that of UK, France or Italy. http://www.worldbank.org/data/databytopic/GDP_PPP. pdf
You can also get country info from the US Govt sources -
http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos /in.html#Econ
India does compare poorly on per-capita basis and still has a long way to achieve the living standards of the west (possibly another half a century or more). The disposable income of the consumer class is vast and one of the fastest growing in the world.
Last year India enjoyed the second fastest export growth in the whole world at about 15% (China grew the fastest at about 20%). After China and Korea, India has been the third fastest growing economy of all nations in the world in recent years. The GDP has been averaging about 5% growth rate (4 in bad and 7 in good).
Bill Gates/Microsoft, Intel, IBM, Cisco, GE, Sun have all publicly stated that they consider Indian IT industry to be one of the most strategic ones in the whole world (not necessarily "large" but "strategic").
The OSS movement is fairly strong in India. It is not as strong as in the US or Europe but there are several active conferences, contributors, dedicated labs, etc. in India. The President of India is simply reflecting an already strong stream of thought. Many of the reseasrch labs seem to support OSS.
It is also not true that it is not paying to develop OSS in India. One can market related services or work with IBM or numerous players looking actively for OSS development skills in India.