An article on Indian IT on decline India's IP policies and US lawmakers.

In  a discussion last year, I expressed my disappointment with state of science and technology in India particularly to the idea that Indian technological manpower is nothing more than a huge mass of  cheap labor that is highly efficient in repetitive work but lacks creativity to break ground into new markets, new products and new technology. 
We  are able to survive in this marketplace only because  of the reason that there are not enough people, at least in US, who want to make a career in science and technology.   To understand this idea, we need to understand the meaning of opportunity cost.  I will leave it up to the readers to find out what is opportunity cost, if they do not know it already.


Then I further argued, though not in so much clear words, that unless the Indians companies face a very advanced and sophisticated customer base in India, they will be at the mercy of the foreign companies who face a very sophisticated customer base at  home in a highly competitive market that is a lot freer of regulator burden.

Innovation is hardly linear and seldom radical. Markets, technologies, and products evolve over a period of time. They do not occur overnight.  Innovation is  a  result of a complex symbiotic process between developers, producers, financiers, and consumers. Industry exists for consumers and consumers exist for a industry.

Then, I expressed my disapproval to the  idea of governance that disrespects property rights, restricts natural freedom ( of speech,  and occupation), penalizes economic activities.  Indian people  and companies ( comapanies are nothing but group of people teamed to engage in some activities with profit motive) cannot hope to compete if they have to carry burden of fantastical policies.

Now, let me point to a recently published article by Vivek Wadhva  where he blames Indian CEOs and Executives of "shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic".

Over the years, I have read Vivek's article and seen him on American TV several times where he was advocating raising H1-B visa limit for Indian Engineers.  But, he never came across to me as a person of ideas who would wow you with deeper insight.  This article hardly any different. To me this is typical of what I call "Sam Pitroda Syndrome".  Anyway, I am still happy that he made  main stream what was known about Indian IT.

But, due to this article, a  less informed reader might wrongly think that it is only the IT where India is slipping. But, so far India  has not come-across to me as leader in a single sector of  Economy or Technology. 

It is not possible to do any root cause analysis of this problem if we are not able to uncover the reason why India lags in pretty much every sector of technology.

Sincerely,
Ratnendra Pandey

Indian IT: Wake up and smell the opportunityhttp://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-12-29/all-that-matters/45674527_1_indian-it-3d-printers-indian-outsourcers








From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: [india-gii] India's IP policies and US lawmakers.
Date: Sun, 30 Jun 2013 12:52:27 -0700




Ashjit,
I am glad you asked. But, a better question would have been what the supreme court ruling means to Indians and India.
As far the patent holders are  concerned, to them  it is a loss and any loss, howsoever small , is still a loss. 

As far as I can tell,  US government is not going to scramble B-52 bombers to destroy the plants where these drugs are produced illegally, per the US law.
But, we are 


I have different perspective on this matter to analyze cost and benefit allowing India to produce drugs from stolen IP.

A far more number of people die every year in India for simple things like dirty water or dirty air. 
India does not need to steal expensive IP  to save her people from simple and avoidable deaths like those from simple diseases  like cholera, diearreaha etc and from other simple causes like death by falling from overcrowded trains in mumbai suburban system. As far as I can tell from my unscientific observation, the number of people who could be saved by drugs from stolen IP are very few (any idea how many patients die from cancer than from other waterborne and airborne diseases)?
But, you see, in socialist countries like India where government has to showcase what it is doing, revoking patents on cancer drugs is likely to get more votes than saving thousands of people who die every year from simple things like cholera.  It also stokes felling of nationalism when Indian government is seen as fighting a profit seeking American drug company.

Cancer is never epidemic. At anytime it affects a very limited number of people.  A few cancer patients might be saved by these drugs. Not all patient will survive even with these drugs. So for the benefit of  a very small minority of patient who were unfortunate enough to suffer from cancer, we are subjecting the rest of 1.2 billion Indians to moral corruption and unethical environment that comes from stolen IP or living off someone else's hardwork or money.  So much for the self-reliant Indians. Is eating stolen food or treating with stolen drugs  self-reliance? 

But, the damage to Indian psyche and character caused by stolen IP is far more than the benefit that might come from it. I have not heard of anyone attaining wealth or prosperity from robbery or stealing. Karma, good or bad, always catches up.

Just look at what happened in last twenty years. Indian joined the IT revolution in its infancy, but today, twenty years later,  India is no more than a supplier of a  large number of cheap H1B type workers. 

When Indian foreign minister or other official visits Washington, they invariably ask their US counter parts to increase H1-B visa.  I just fall into shame when I try to visualize the situation in which the Indian minister or negotiator looks into eye of an American bureaucrat and starts the beggary.   "Madam, hamare bachhoon ko H1-B visa de do. [ Madam, can you give H1-B visas to our kids?].  It is a shame that in the last twenty years, India could not upgrade itself from being a supplier of large manpower and not much more. What is more shameful is that Indian economic system is incapable of absorbing its own supply of human resource.  By the way this all happened when you had  a Prime Minister who is a Gold Medal Winner and a "Topper" besides being a recipient many honorary doctoral degrees.

The best from India, yes from one of those IITs, a system of  white elephants that guzzle a large amount of taxpayers money each year to produce sub-par engineers most of whom are no better than engineers produced at the likes of Tolaram Moolchand College of Science, Engineering, and Technology, Benampet, Hamara Pradesh.

Just look at this contrast. The smartest Indian kid can solve 300 IIT style question in 3 minutes, a feat that an American kid can never achieve.  However, every so many years, an American kid comes up with some  simple and innovative idea that changes the shape of the economy. A Microsoft, Facebook,  Google, or Apple is created and the best Indian minds are hired  to do the repetitive work.  An Indian minister begs for H1-B visas.

Indian system has failed in giving character so badly needed to be original, innovative, and risk taking. Rot learning is encouraged.  Stealing is justified in one way or another. An impression is generally created that progress is not possible without using unfair means. The system that produces people who want to steal, also produces the people who sit in judgment,  through Supreme Courts, high courts, or other regulatory bodies. So, you get the ruling of the kind Supreme Court gave justifying stealing patents.

When I was a small child, I was raised with an idea that when wealth is lost, nothing is lost; when health is lost, something is lost;  and when character is lost, everything is lost.

I am saddened to see that Indian  legal system encourages immoral activities that will further degrade  Indian character and ethos.

We will never be independent, innovative, and original so long as we are encouraging unethical short cuts.  Not being able to stand on our feet is far more  damaging to India than anything else.


Sincerely,
Ratnendra Pandey














From: [email protected]
Date: Sun, 30 Jun 2013 22:17:01 +0530
To: [email protected]
Subject: [india-gii] India's IP policies and US lawmakers.

Can someone shed light on which IP policies they are talking about here:

http://www.livemint.com/Politics/7OHPpGiNbNqk5r0UI3USDN/India-not-willing-to-play-by-the-rules-US-lawmakers.html



“Like all of you, my blood boils when I hear that India is revoking and 
denying patents and granting compulsory licences for cancer treatments 
or adopting local content requirements,” he said. “As a nation, we 
should handle India like my dad did when I was growing up and I made his
 blood boil: He put his arm around me and or pulled me where he would 
go, to make sure his fingers were resting firmly on my shoulder just to 
inflict some pain if I diverted from the course we would go down. That’s
 what we should do with their government,” Olson said. (Congressman from Texas)
-- 
RegardsAshijit


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