I completely agree with you. I think the problem is two-fold. Firstly Indian culture puts us into a mentality where the most important thing is to get a job/education that will let us earn a living, irrespective of whether or not we actually WANT to do what it is we’re training for.

The second is CS education: I think most students simply are never exposed to the joy of programming. To most people it’s simply another way to get good grades. For me (and I think you too) programming is a fun and enriching experience in and of itself. I would (and do) program even if I don’t get paid for it. Of course, I am setting up my life so that I CAN make my living off it. But I’m doing that because I like programming, not the other way around.

Good job on the blog. Hope to read more.

Indians could have cared less about programming until Americans made IT boom in 1998. After that suddenly every Indian on earth wants to be a programmer. Don’t tell me most Indians only do it for the money…..

Dear Anonymous PassionateProgrammer

Interesting observation. Only 3 posts about programming, 3 about cats, 4 about gadgets and 4 about reading. And I know I really like all of them. So number of blog posts on a topic certainly doesn’t indicate my “passion” for something. Thanks but I don’t need certificates from anyone about what I like and love.

I agree with almost everything you have mentioned in your blog and not surprisingly, it IS the reality in most IT firms. I am also of the opinion that as long as the “outsourcing” model is in place which basically is looking for “programmers” “who can write code as per clients’ requirements”, i m afraid we are gonna see an increasing influx of such half-baked “programmers” over time. What India obviously needs in order to re-affirm its status as an IT hub, is a few product companies building ground-breaking products and selling them to the masses. This is exactly the thing that Silicon Valley did in the 1960s with the advent of giants like Apple, Microsoft, Google, IBM etc etc and this is exactly the thing India needs to do.

Hi Yash,

Agree with your assessment of how things are at root level. However I disagree with the below

“why companies like Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Cisco, Sun, Apple don’t come from India. ”

Except Apple all the other companies have an engineering presence in India and have know to ship products out of India too. Google has shipped significant parts of Google Finance, News. Cisco Security Group has shipped some apps that are deployed globally alongside there products. Microsoft has work on MS Studio and SQL Server being done from Indian soil.

There companies typically focus on getting the cream out of good colleges.

Hi Ankur,

It’s not the question of those companies coming “to” India. It’s a question such companies originating “from” India.

I am not sure whether this is a problem, or whether it is in any way India specific. Most of all you folks have come from an engineering background – those with a non-engineering background can answer how many of their classmates in college were passionate about their own disciplines.

Yes, it is great to have employees who are passionate about their profession, but it is probably an universal fact that most salaried professionals around the world do what they do for the money and not because they are passionate enough to use their professional skills for their personal benefit. To them there is more to life than coding in their spare time, but whatever they are actually passionate about (watching movies, travelling, sports, etc) won’t make them any money. :) You need code monkeys, they need money to leave cushy lives, it is actually a win-win. For that part of your job reqs which actually demand creativity, exercise more discretion and only recruit passionate techies who will dream about your business problems 24×7.

Those with passion are likely to be the thought leaders in the profession, and here that would probably support your hypothesis why we don’t yet have world class software products made in India.

Awesome blog & even the comments……..a lot needs to be changed right from the “roots” of the Educational-System , & thus the society at large. Right from our child-hood we are taught/motivated to do something simply bcoz “all” are doing it !!

Why did u come to Engg ?? Bcoz *all* do .
Why do u study ?? Bcoz *all* do.
Why are u appearing for GATE/GRE ?? Bcoz *all* do.
.
.
.
Why do u live life ?? Bcoz *all* do !!

Agree……