Infosys’ Narayana Murthy(NRN) recently has told “IT industry needs to pay higher taxes and does not need Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) extension any more”.    This is the reason behind this article now.

Well, I had seen many companies following some illegal and unethical practices during their start-up stage.  To ‘grow’, it was absolutely necessary for such start-up companies to adhere to ‘normal practices’ due to the current political system in the country.    I’m not suggesting here to be illegal.  But practically it is very difficult to be 100% legal in the current scenario. For example, people from top IT companies travel on Business visa to work in US because of the complexities involved in getting work permit.  If they don’t send their team on business visa, they won’t get further revenue for their offshore center.

While I was working in a MNC 13 years back, we used to ‘photocopy’ books from the office library.  After few years, once it became ‘affordable’ for the company (this is the perception I got, may be wrong), they formulated a rule that no photocopying of books were allowed. 

With the ‘legal’ aspect removed in the above example, NRN’s statement looks similar to me now.  Infosys has grown to a great extent that they can afford to pay huge taxes.  But think about small and medium companies that wish to become ‘another Infosys’.   How can they afford such huge taxes?  Shouldn’t they also enjoy similar tax benefits which Infosys enjoyed for more than 25 years in India?

What I feel is that there should be some ‘tax slab’ for each company.  For the first slab, there must be lesser tax or nil tax.  Then it should increase gradually like the individual income tax.  If NRN meant that statement this way, it would be really great.  I wish he meant that way because I’ve great respect for him and his team.  I learned about ‘ethics’ only from his company while I was working there.  Also, no one should comment that, ‘You can be legal and ethical when it is affordable’.

While I was in my school, I never understood the term “Mixed Economy” even though I was supposed to write about it in the exams. Several years after those exams, I’m slowly understanding the term and it’s impact in Indian Economy.

Last week I was surprised to hear from a hardware shop owner(who is just 25 years old) about how agriculture plays an important role in Indian economy and how India is able to sustain this “Global Economic Slow Down”. Even though this hardware shop owner didn’t go to college after his school, his knowledge about economy, shares, it’s impact, it’s trend, etc really amazed me. Sitting in a shop – Monday through Sunday for about 12 hours a day, he is able to analyze the reasons behind India’s economic strength and validate with articles from various news papers and magazines.

Last weekend I visited a remote city to attend a family function. While traveling back by train, I explained my 5 year old son about the paddy fields, factories, agriculture, etc to kill his boredom. During that time I realized the vast area India has and how it can play a major role in growing the country’s economy.

Since I’m from IT background, even if you think that I’ve a biased opinion, I would like to tell my view point. I feel that Information Technology (IT) is not properly used in India. If IT is used properly, Agriculture and all other related fields can grow drastically and can really help Indian Economy grow better. If you ask me what can be done using IT, I can prepare a huge report and give it to you.

Since I believe that you or for that matter anyone will not read the report, I don’t spend my time & energy in preparing that report. This is what many Indians are doing now during recession (i.e. not preparing the report, but preparing reasons for not preparing).

Many Indians are proud of the IT Revolution because of various services companies in India that employ few lakh people which makes us look like we are the “Intellectual Hub of the World”. But the sad part is, many of those people working in such IT companies are having very limited knowledge about the current technology & trends in IT field.

The reason is here:

1) IT Services company doesn’t have to be creative and need to just do the work the customer provides. About 90% of the projects are regular work for most of the employees.
2) Employees spend more time in office doing their regular work and hence their urge to learn new things is almost nil. Because of this, learning stops after few years they begin their career in IT field.
3) Even if formal training is provided by the company to the employees at regular intervals, they are of not of much use as the ‘training is forced’ and not a natural process.
4) Major IT companies block many good websites as they think that they will reduce productivity of the employees & waste Internet bandwidth. Such rules will deter the “natural learning process” of employees.
5) Many IT companies encourages their employees to become managers rather than technical specialist as the career path in that organization is for the people who manage more people rather than technology.

There are exceptions in everything. But exceptions are still exceptions. Similarly, some of you may be exceptions in IT Services company doing a good job, learning a new thing every day, being creative, inventing new things, taking risk, etc. But still, you are all exceptions. Most of them are like “Frog in a well”.