The much hyped Indian Story

Let's now discuss a little about the hyped indian story. let’s look at it from the root level. If you are believing the comments on the Indian story, it is mainly driven by the middle class salary rise. All are aware that this rise is mainly constituted by the IT sector – how long can people in Indian IT sector keep their jobs?

Already, companies like British Energy have scrapped their BPO operations in India and taken back the work to their own country. How long will the Indian story continue, no one knows. Even Indian companies like Infy, Wipro, Satyam have opened up offices in China, Russia, Romania, Czech Republic, Canada, Philippines, Thailand, etc. If the work can be outsourced to India, it can as well be taken away to another country. It took only 2 years for outsourcing to become a buzz word; it may take much less than that for the work to be taken away. At that point of time, there will be no rising salaries, no spending power, no extra money, and hence no demand and affordability for new houses or cars or visits to shopping malls. When will it happen, no one knows, but if it happens, things will come done tumbling.

The great Indian IT engineers proudly submit their pay slips, take house loans, car loans for big amount – completely missing the crux of the point that everything is dependent on their salary, which comes from a HIGHLY RISKY job. If they loose the job, they loose their salary, they loose their house, car, everything. You talk about boom in real estate, or boom in the retail market, or hike in car/bike sales, all coming from the extra spending power from the emerging middle class-which is driven by the software salaries.

Sometimes I wonder what other job a IT engineer can take up if unfortunately he looses his job. Everyone is relying on the Indian Story, mainly dependent on the foreign money from IT industry – how long it will continue, only time will tell. Rupee-Dollar rate has already hit the IT sector, same is being reflected in other sectors as well. We’ve already seen the slowdown in Indian IT sector in 2000 to 2002 period; still people don’t realize the ground realities. It’s a risky job and a risky Indian story, plan your future properly and especially your finances.

Please feel free to post your comments. Let me know how many defer on this argument.