It’s Morning in India

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/31/opinion/31friedman.html?src=me&ref=general

by jesseendahl • 16 years ago

93 48 16 years ago

FraaJad5• 16 years ago

This sounds like a press piece by NASSCOM and Indian IT majors.

okjnboikjnb3• 16 years ago

At the moment Indians are cheap labor for US consumers, at some point Indian consumers become the market and the US becomes irrelevent.

Riduculous of course - just like the idea that those Japanese could ever make cars as good as Americans, or motorbikes as good as the British or cameras as good as the Germans.

jrockway2• 16 years ago

The US outsources to India because it's cheap. We get 4 support people in India for the price of one in the US.

When India is really up to the standards of the US, it's not going to be cheap anymore.

sagarun• 16 years ago

The reason why, every Indian IT majors are trying to stop america from going into protectionism mode is their 90% of the revenue comes from US. Yes the labour is "cheap" here - 24$ per hour.

Currently Indian IT majors have no or very low focus on local Indian consumers.

DannoHung• 16 years ago

Isn't it sort of silly to compare manufactured products to labor talent?

Like... that you can somehow craft a process that will take any given human being and make them into an excellent worker, free from abnormalities and flaws?

subbu• 16 years ago

I disagree. Outsourcing overshadows everything else when it comes to India. What everybody doesn't know is this. Just walk into any departmental shop and you will find more American brands than Indian (the only possible exception to this is fresh food and other food raw materials.) Only in the last few years have Indian consumer brands became well-known and competing against foreign brands. Take any category and the top 1-2 brands are probably American. India supplies a huge amount of consumers for American brands (for that matter any good quality products).

emsysman• 16 years ago

Yes, but I would still agree with the core thought, which is, America, which thought world about free market, is afraid of loosing its jobs to outsourcing.

loewenskind2• 16 years ago

>which is, America, which thought world about free market

What? They may have taught the world about debt but certainly not free market. Adam Smith wasn't even American.

kilomanamolik• 16 years ago

why do people link to these? I'm always asked to login and I don't have the patience to do so..

kiba• 16 years ago

For some reason, I do not have to login.

noahth• 16 years ago

why do people link to these? Friedman is a cheesy, uninsightful, mostly bogus commentator.

miked• 16 years ago

New York State law requires that one out of every five Thomas Friedman columns make some sense. This one bags his quota for the month.

sabat• 16 years ago

Friedman is a cheesy, uninsightful, mostly bogus commentator.

I could not have put it better myself.

pilom• 16 years ago

The best quotation from this:

"The U.S. seems sadly unprepared to take advantage of the revolution it has spawned. The country’s worn-out infrastructure, failing education system and lack of political consensus have prevented it from riding a new wave to prosperity."

groaner• 16 years ago

Ironic that this commentary should come from India, which is improving despite the country's worn-out infrastructure, failing education system, and lack of political consensus.

gamble4• 16 years ago

Never underestimate the effect of growth, or lack thereof, on the public attitude.

FraaJad5• 16 years ago

The difference is, India is clawing it's way out of those conditions. We can only go up.

amutap• 16 years ago

this is a genral concensus but there are some very strong under currents that are taking india away from this...

the number of infrastructure projects in and around major cities are growing exponentially. new airports, busniess parks, highways you name it... to add to this, india is not just out-sourcing.. yes it is a 70 billion dollar industry but there are lot many things going on in india.

yes given the beaurocracy things might not be apparent but india is coming into its own slowly but surely

gamble4• 16 years ago

One of the great American foreign policy mistakes for the last fifty years has been the decision to keep India at arms length, while embracing Pakistan and China. It goes back to Cold War politics - India was suspiciously socialist and non-aligned, whereas Pakistan and China were willing to act as bulwarks against Soviet Communism. However, the West has far more in common culturally and economically with India than it ever will with Pakistan or China.

In strictly utilitarian terms, a strong India is far more to our advantage than an empowered China. Pakistan is a crucible for radical Islam and a haven for terrorism, while China is chronically autarchic and mercantilist. I fear that neither is ever likely to integrate well with the existing group of first-world nations. So far, India appears much more compatible.

Fortunately, it seems like attitudes have been changing in recent years. Liberalization and outsourcing (not without its own problems, obviously) have opened India to the west, while people are starting to realize the westernization of China and Pakistan isn't as inevitable as was once claimed.

kranner3• 16 years ago

Don't discount that Pakistan and India have much more in common than is obvious to someone not from the subcontinent.

gamble4• 16 years ago

True, I don't want to downplay the distinctiveness of Indian culture or its ties to Pakistan. But speaking from a western, utilitarian foreign policy perspective, the aspects that are desirable about India are the parts that are distinctive, or if they exist in Pakistan are undermined by the political realities there.

nirajr3• 16 years ago

As an Indian, I can tell you some fundamental differences between India and Pakistan:

- India is usually very open to debate, on just about anything. - Radicalism, though exists in India in pockets and in different forms, is not a chronic national disease. - People understand the language of development now (to a large extent) - Knowledge and Education is very deeply valued. Its a part of how most Indians think. - Corruption is rampant, but media is becoming extremely vigilant. We have a Right to Information, which has been used to great effect recently to curb corruption and malpractices. - Lastly, we are a democracy in the true sense of the work. 80% of Indians are proud of it.

We are chaotic and corrupt and crippled with hundreds of problems, but at the same time, we're enterprising, hard-working, mostly ambitious, and mostly open-minded.

FraaJad5• 16 years ago

People tend to think of India as one single entity, which is a mistake.

As a South Indian, there are not many things common between me and a Pakistani.

garply• 16 years ago

The westernization of China still looks pretty inevitable to me. What's changed?

DuncanIdaho• 16 years ago

Heh... that has been said many times in history.

You can't whatevernize China. China is just waking up from a 100 or so years of slumber (or catharsis) into its rightful place in the world.

loewenskind2• 16 years ago

Becoming first world seems inevitable, but westernized? Not necessarily.

gamble4• 16 years ago

The adoption of capitalism and participation in international institutions doesn't imply that China has westernized. By 'westernize', most people mean that they expect China to adopt democratic, individualistic consumer culture and a political system similar to Continental or Anglo-Saxon democracies. I believe this is extremely unlikely. Radically 'unwestern' states have always coexisted with industrialized capitalism: Tsarist Russia, 2nd Reich and Nazi Germany, etc. Not to mention that most Asian democracies like Japan would hardly be recogzable to a Briton or American. The best-case scenario for an emergent China is probably a state that looks a lot like Singapore, Taiwan, or Japan. IMO, China fifty years from now will probably fall far more toward the authoritarian end of the spectrum.

known3• 16 years ago

China prospered without India's dummy democracy and casteism. Indians are brainwashed to believe that (casting a vote in elections == democracy) and a solution to all problems.

known3• 16 years ago

98% revenue for Indian IT companies comes through selling consulting to US customers.

Selling software != Selling consulting

flacon• 16 years ago

As an American that has spent time in India, I can say that India will be a next major economic world power. Democracy + creativity + entrepreneurship + skilled work force + Indian optimism + excellent English skills = huge potential as a major economic driver in the world economy. China IMO lacks Democracy and creativity (to some extent, why are all the major Tech startup in China simply knock-offs of US companies? Baidu, Youku which are willing to comply with their Gov demands).

It’s Morning in India

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