Can India Be A HiTech Powerhouse

Can India Be A Hi-Tech Powerhouse? Updated:2005-02-27 13:23:31 MYT

There are some right and some wrong conclusions to be drawn from a recent report by the AeA, an American trade body, which bemoans that the US is losing its compebreastive edge to other countries, with China and India specifically making great strides in high technology.

The report says, "America's brain drain will be India's brain gain," which should be welcome news to those who complain that our best brains are systematically lured to foreign, chiefly American shores.

If this prediction were to come true it would look, from the Indian perspective, to be simply a homecoming.

It is not time, however, to sing the hosannas yet.

There are a large number of hurdles to be crossed if this vision of India becoming a breeding ground of new technologies, which bring prosperity in their train, is ever to be realised.

We have been spoiled by a protectionist economy where all we need to do is reverse engineer goods widely available and already obsolete abroad.

It is too early to say that this legacy will be reversed. Nor are there a great many good insbreastutions where India talent and innovation are rewarded; instead, a pervasive culture of mediocrity where what usually works is some combination of cronyism, conformism, political patronage and old-boy connections.

This is also true of India's scientific insbreastutions, which have little output and mostly appear to be an extension of the babucracy.

Levels of educational attainment are abysmal in the country. For innovation in high technology the state of higher education is particularly relevant.

While the US university system is top-notch - one reason why it attracts the best talent in the world - we have on the one hand sclerotic government-controlled universities, and on the other hand, crbuttly commercial private insbreastutions. The IITs and a few other exceptions only prove the rule.

There is no doubt that Indian students have displayed an apbreastude, even pbuttion for education, which other countries have discovered and capitalised on. But we will have to do more to improve our educational systems, as well as provide better opportunities for those who graduate from them.

The report goes on to say. "India is now embarking on further reform to provide labour flexibility, freer flows of capital and desperately needed infrastructure improvements.... this will only make India more compebreastive and alluring to investors and multinational companies."

Amen to that, we only hope it is true!

The Statesman-ANN