India 2.0

En ZDNet (UK), Adrian Bridgwater escribe sobre la creciente evolución india del outsourcing a innovador tecnológico. Pasada una fase inicial de oferta de trabajo de bajo valor, no sólo despuntan grandes competidores en mercados de desarrollo de software para mercados específicos o consultoría, sino que India trata de lograr un lugar en primera línea, innovando. Bridgwater habla de un cambio fundamental:

(...) "Innovation was always there, but the right conditions, ecosystem and critical mass did not exist from 1947 until the early 1990s. Now, venture capitalists are more willing to venture forth in emerging markets and back entrepreneurs — and India's universities have helped create critical mass in terms of skilled workers. So, as these factors start to coalesce, innovation and entrepreneurship are now much more evident in many different parts of India," said Kamla Bhatt, acclaimed Indian podcaster and presenter of The Kamla Bhatt Show.
(...) PricewaterhouseCoopers estimates that India has roughly two thirds of the global business-process outsourcing (BPO) market, with a value in excess of $7bn (£3.4bn) last year. However, it appears the country has ambitions beyond outsourcing; the Indian technology sector seems to be changing as it develops a new self-belief. Google's labs in Bangalore conceived the initial engineering for the company's Google Finance offering in less than 18 months. This type of development has created the momentum for venture capitalists to propel further developments and invest in an increasingly skilled workforce.

Un aspecto clave, el acento puesto de manera continuada en la formación de profesionales calificados en nuevas tecnologías:

The Indian Institute of Technology is widely regarded as the sub-continent's premier technology school; its seven locations churn out many of the ultra-keen software engineers that are starting to make headlines. Commentators claim there are visible signs that a shift towards higher-value work is occurring.
(...) "BEA has seen its training volumes in India rise from hundreds to thousands of students a year. Big systems-integration firms in many of India's industrialised cities now demand tailored courses and even train over the web, live linked to instructors in the US. The latest trend is for these SIs to become authorised trainers in their own right, so they can train in BEA's technologies to their own timetable in-house," said David Toso, senior vice president of BEA EMEA services.
(...) "India is certainly witnessing a secondary stage in the economic growth it derives from its technology sector, as it channels its workforce towards home-grown projects targeted at a global market," said Bruce Carney, head of developer programmes and services for Symbian. "In the past month, two leading Indian universities have joined our Academy programme and this type of knowledge-base expansion has created the momentum for venture capitalists to propel further developments and invest in an increasingly skilled workforce."

Bridgwater menciona General Motors como uno de los casos de mayor acento en el desarrollo innovativo:

"We are starting to see the creation of technology as a direct revenue generator — not merely as an enabler for making some service delivery faster, better or cheaper. Much of this is still driven by global organisations that originally set up captives to exploit the cost advantages of the Indian skills market, but [which] have graduated to becoming a strategic part of the global technology-development capability of these organisations — truly contributing to the creation of their products and technologies, including product management. For example General Motors R&D in India is developing next-generation electronics and materials for cars of the future," added Stones.

No hay duda que India logrará un lugar de importancia en base a su esfuerzo. Como otros casos, demuestra que es posible crecer aunque se haya partido desde posiciones de menor valor económico. Se trata de entender cómo...