The paradox
Is a typical IT services company in India a business built out of technology, or a business that merely uses technology? The two sound alike. They are not.
India is among the largest exporters of IT services in the world, and the sector's share of the economy has grown from a small fraction in the late 1990s to a large one today. TCS, Infosys, Wipro and Tech Mahindra, and global firms like Accenture, SAP and IBM, fill cities like Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad. Below them are small companies, unregistered firms, freelancers, Tier 2 cities, sometimes even villages, and now the startups. On the education side there are IITs and NITs and thousands of engineering colleges, producing well over a million computer science graduates a year, with many more exporting their skills abroad.
And yet many of these engineers cannot program, research is almost absent, average salaries are poor, and the IT hubs grow harder to live in every year. The two observations point in opposite directions. The point here is not blame or a miracle cure; it is to understand where we are, how we got here, where we are headed, and whether that is where we want to go.
The bubble
When asked the question to describe my experience in the Indian IT world. The first thought that comes to my mind is that this industry is a bubble which will soon burst. And it has remained so for the last 10 years of my total of 12. The bubble hasnt burst and interestingly so hasnt my thought. It is one of the paradoxes in my mind. Maybe introspecting on it will help me resolve this conundrum.
So why do I think that the Indian IT industry, especially the service industry is in self destruction mode. Here are my reasons,
- Almost all the services companies are businesses that deal with technology rather than being technology companies that have build business around their niche.
- The education system is just producing numbers and the companies are consuming them by modifying them to the required skills. So all the employees are simply white collar laborers.
- All the above means that there is no tech culture in any company let alone in the region as a whole. This is amplified by the fact that the research system in India is pathetic. And to add to the insult, there is only on paper investment in research by the companies.
- Thanks to this eco system the decision making is reactive and simply money minded. This has not prepared the companies especially the employees for the effects of automation and AI. Although the stake holders have made enough investments in their respective wealth, so they will care less for any doomsday.
- The Indian product and SaaS market has started quite late despite the depth of knowledge Indian IT has consumed. Although there are many external factors in play here.
Well, all the above can be countered by the normal Indian comments like we are building and managing ground breaking products and FANG companies. And we have IITs and NITs producing intelligent human robots who are cloning western products to build Indian unicorns. And the vast amount of employee generation that the Indian IT sector has produced since the 90s is incredible. All this is quite agreeable.
But, there are also the ugly side to all this. 90% of India's IT employees cannot code. Most of us will ask why is that and how can it be fixed. This will be followed by the current trending reskill to survive thing. However, we aren't asking the very important question of 'How did these people end up as IT employees?'
How?
A simple answer would be that status and financial stability brought the influx of engineers which is still going. However, an IT job presently doesn't seem to offer both.
So, we need to do some analysis. Unfortunately, we don't have any data at our disposal. Therefore, opinions and observations for now.
So, how did I end up here? I was first introduced to programming while I came in 9th standard. Before, computer subjects were all about Microsoft Office and computer basic theory with some Boolean Algebra. But, then came programming and I was amazed by it. For the first time, something went so natural to me and apparently 90% percent of my class struggled. But, 9th and 10th were all about boards and I got little time to explore beyond the subject material. Still, I scored 90 in the board exam. One would think that my talent was identified by my teachers and parents and I was offered the Computer Science path which led me to the IT industry. Well, it wasn't the case. In a way you can say that I was lucky to end up in a job like mine.
The first hurdle towards me was to pass 10th boards. When I did that then I was given the formality to choose between Medical and Non-Medical. The Non-Medical option was simple as all knew I was hopeless in Biology. I should thank my parents for being open enough to choose the other option. Then there was the competitive hell period. I was studying concepts other than computer science to get into computer science engineering. Why computer science engineering? Because it was trending. To be frank I knew nothing of the sorts, my parents knew that it was trending. I was rowing my boat through dark stormy waters having no idea about sailing or where the shore was. Eventually, the dark ages ended. I didn't do well in any of the subjects. I didn't pass any of the competitive exams. My parents had prepared a backup plan. I got admitted to a PTU college (a good one) via management quota in computer science engineering. And I was back with the subject I was good at. And my path to IT corporate was set. Although I still wouldn't have any idea on what was going on for the next 4 years.
Now, let's do some analysis. During my 5th standard my Maths teacher identified my knack of logical thinking. Sixth standard onwards I had started to write poems although I wasn't good. Also I had started to read a lot of history and Readers Digest. Although, there wasn't much at my disposal. And 9th standard onwards, my skills for programming and football were visible. But, all this didn't matter when the career path decisions were made for me. Why?
- Was this because I wasn't aware? Yes.
- Was this because my parents had limited knowledge? Yes.
- Was this because my teachers weren't focused on identifying my talents? Yes
- So, are my parents and teachers at fault? No
Why negative for the last question. Because, they are part of an educational system that works on filtering limited pyramid style talent. They are doing the best they think they can for an individual to make a living in the hostile world. It doesn't matter whether they are mentally adept for it. Also, the actors in this system lack awareness and make decisions based on trends. These trends are generally originated as per marketing strategies of colleges, companies, relatives and a lot of other people for whom we are all but numbers. And when the market crashes, these numbers will correct themselves. But, these numbers have lives and families. Although they have a source of earnings thanks to this system. But they also have become stuck in an endless loop of financial burden, family responsibilities and self doubt. Their talents and dreams have been buried under these debts.
Lack of Career Counselling
All isn't that gloomy after all. Given their new financial and social freedom there has been more exposure as well. To new ideas, foreign lands, new cultures. Some have left their IT jobs for stand up comedy, arts, films, charity and businesses. And Indian IT has pushed a lot of people from villages and small towns to Tier 1 cities and foreign countries. This has been a boon in itself. But, the stress is that it could have been done in a better way. The lack of career counselling is glaring.
It is quite astounding that career counselling isn't part of society from an education perspective. Given that as a society Indians like to be secure while investing, investing in your career and that of your children seem to be an anomaly. Is it a lack of awareness? For my parents, it seems so. They did consult their known. And people do ask around. But there is a lack of awareness regarding professional counselling. Here, one can blame school and colleges. They seem to be working on filtering out STEM students. And also the government doesn't seem to get it right in policy as well. For private institutions everything seems to be a numbers game. More students, more money and better results (board exam results and placements) means more students. Ironically, similar things happen in IT companies as well. Something, which in my opinion hampers the setup of an innovation culture. More on that later though. So, it seems like private educational institutions have engineered a rat race mindset in society to cater their capitalist ambitions. And the middle class is simply trying to survive in it without having the breadth of retrospection. Similar observations can be made regarding UPSC, medical line, immigration/IELTS. This can be attributed as one of the reasons for high unemployment and high out-migration. A proper system of career counselling starting at school level should disrupt this rat race while diversifying the economic market.
Infinite Loop
You get up in the morning, thanks to the alarm. Rush to your morning routine, get your kids ready and drop them for school. Get ready yourself, have breakfast and begin your hour-long journey towards the office. You reach just in time for the stand-up where you try to relate with your team, tasks and your existence. You fire up your system, their emails, tasks and encrypted language of code waiting for you. Time has come for a smoke and tea, and you wander outside the office with your gang to your adda. It's time to bitch and discuss daily affairs. There are plans for outings made before you return to your system. You turn to your friends Google and Stackoverflow. After lots of hits and tries, the code is committed and now you wait for the dreaded review. But before that lunch, another tea break followed by social media indulgence. Code review happens and you long to become a manager so that you don't have to deal with this gibberish. You think you are done for the day, when either a document task or client's priority task emerges. You curse and sigh and continue your struggle. You realize that you aren't paid enough, but don't have skills to switch. Suddenly linkedin opens up and your envy triggers thanks to your peers achievements. Finally, you are done for your day. It's almost night, but the traffic awaits you. Your brain goes into retrospection and guilt. You reach home, spend some time with kids, change, have dinner and are in bed for the day. Wife goes on regarding her struggle, you weigh your prospects, you question your existence but are too tired. You should sleep but social media engages you into late night, until you force yourself to close your eyes. And then the alarm rings for the new morning. If you are a woman it becomes worse, if you are fresher you are in extended college mode. But into your 30s and married with kids, can hit your self confidence. You have reached a point where you are struck in an infinite loop and weekends are also repetitive. And this is quite serious for mental health which is exaggerated by the fact that mental health is still a taboo in Indian cultures.
Drafted in 2022
Updated for site in 2026