Discussion and Reference on the Development of Indian Software Industry —— Liu Hengfu (Deputy Secretary General of Jiangsu Software Industry Association) [/align]

I. Overview

As we all know, India is the poorest country in the world, accounting for 53% of the national population living below the extreme poverty line set by the World Bank. India has a weak industrial base and backward urban infrastructure. In India, there are no highways and subways so far, and the number of home computers is very small. However, India has become the second largest software country in the world by virtue of the "information superhighway" with unimpeded software.

By the end of 2000, there were 4 1000 employees in India's software industry and more than 1000 enterprises, with an average of more than 300 employees in each enterprise. From 65438 to 0999, the export of software products reached $3.776 billion, and the export of software products or software technical services reached $6 billion in 2000.

Second, India's software output value and exports

India's software export started at 199 1 and developed rapidly, 1996.

Since then, the average annual growth rate has been 55%, compared with 30% in China. In 2000, the export volume was 15 times that of China, making it a new software power.

The following table shows the software output value and export value of India from 1996 to 2000.

Unit: USD 100 million

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000

The domestic output value is 5.317.731.91.8621.82.

Export value 8.5914.38 24.09 37.76 60.00

Subtotal13.9 22.1134.99 53.62 438+0.82

Third, the rapid development of Indian software industry analysis

1. The rapid development of India's software industry was first supported by the government.

As early as 1986, the Indian government began to attach importance to the software industry and made an overall and effective development plan for the development of the Indian software industry. 199 1 year, the Indian government issued a policy to encourage the development of the software industry, which is equivalent to China's current policy to encourage the development of the software industry, and some policies are even more favorable than China's previous policies, such as zero tax rate and giving priority to bank loans. 1In July, 1998, the Indian government decided to set up a software risk fund of Rs. 10 billion, and it is stipulated that high-tech companies that develop software should be given priority.

2. There is no language barrier in international integration.

For a long time, British colonial rule has created poverty and backwardness in India, and also left India with a most useful legacy-English. Influenced by the English environment for a long time, Indian intellectuals and engineers and technicians are close to the international in thinking mode and cultural atmosphere, and there is no language barrier when accepting American orders, which makes Indian software easy to integrate into the international market, so it has more advantages than us in integrating with the international market. Some people say that some of our software personnel write English software documents that foreigners can't understand, although these documents are grammatically correct. Obviously, this is not only a question of language, but also an understanding of western way of thinking and western culture.

3. Overseas Indian groups have become a bridge for Indian software to go global.

India has been a British colony for a long time in history, which not only caused poverty and backwardness in India, but also created overseas Indian troops. The rapid development of India's software industry has also benefited to a great extent from overseas Indian groups. With the growth and maturity of overseas Indian groups, this has not only brought orders for software products to India, but also brought necessary funds and business opportunities for the development of Indian software industry.

Indian educational circles have their own views on brain drain. The view of Mr Daryun of Indian Institute of Technology, Bangalore, can be said to be the representative of this idea. He believes that this brain drain should be called transportation rather than brain drain. Mr. Sha Daryun went to the United States to study in the 1970s, and got a doctorate. He returned to China to teach 20 years ago. Over the years, most of his students have gone abroad, and now a large part of them work in the best companies in America. These people have a deep understanding of the information industry and software industry in the United States, and have established extensive contacts with the software industry and IT industry in the United States. Many Indians in American software companies have risen to very high technical and management positions. There are more than 700 Indian-run software companies in Silicon Valley alone. This overseas Indian group has mastered a large number of latest market information, investment information, technical information and customer demand information, which has played a vital role in the technical development and market development of Indian software industry.

Of course, the key factor is that the Indian government gives overseas Indians quite preferential policies in the development of software industry, providing them with comprehensive services to serve their motherland, and attracting them to bring foreign funds, management, technology and orders back to China, thus becoming a bridge for Indian software to go global.

4. India's main export software.

India's industry is backward, and there is little demand for software in the domestic market, so software is available.

Mouth shape is dominant. From 1996 to 2000, the total software sales in India in these five years was $20.644 billion, and the software export sales were $1448.2 billion, accounting for 70 15% of the total sales. India's large and medium-sized software companies export more, such as Ininsys in Bangalore, which is one of the largest software companies in India. Its software exports account for 99% of the company's total sales, while domestic sales only account for 65,438+0%. The company has more than 65,438+00,000 employees worldwide, including more than 5,000 employees in Bangalore. 85% of its software is developed in Bangalore, accounting for 73% of the total sales in the United States, 65,438+08% in Europe and 8% in the Asia-Pacific region.

Of course, there are not many software companies focusing on hardware manufacturing and system integration because of the small demand in India's domestic software market and the relatively backward system integration industry, which is different from the mixed mode of most domestic software companies. Because India has little demand for software, it can only take the road of software export.

5. India's software production has formed a scale.

The scale of software enterprises in India is relatively large. There are more than 1000 software companies with more than1000 employees, and 5 companies with more than 5000 employees. Ininsys and Tata, one of the largest software companies, have 65,438+0000 employees. India's software industry has 465,438+00000 employees and more than 65,438+0000 enterprises, with an average of more than 300 employees in each enterprise. There are currently 280,000 software engineers in India, with an average of 280 software engineers in each enterprise; Because it is specialized in the large-scale development and production of software, the production efficiency is relatively high and the production cost is relatively low, so it is easier to expand the market.

6. India attaches great importance to the cultivation of information technology talents and software talents, and the structure of software talents is reasonable.

So far, there are more than 200 comprehensive universities, more than 6,000 institutions of higher learning and 2,000 research institutes in India, mainly located in Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata and Bangalore. At present, India has more than 3.5 million scientific and technological personnel, making it the third largest talent country in the world after the United States and Russia. There are more than 300,000 software talents. This large and high-quality team has provided abundant human resources for the development of Indian software industry. For example, among the more than 65,438+00,000 graduates of the six most popular institutions affiliated to Indian Institute of Technology, there are more than 2,000 IT graduates, accounting for 65,438+0/5 of the total number of graduates. It is one of the training bases for advanced software talents in India. At the same time, India pays special attention to the training of software talents at all levels. In addition to senior talents, there are 65,438+0,030 software talent training centers in India, which focus on training basic software talents in addition to on-the-job software talents. At present, nearly 1 10,000 basic software talents needed by the electronic information and software industries are trained every year. There are currently 280,000 software engineers in India, with an average of 280 per enterprise; In Indian software enterprises, a reasonable trapezoidal talent structure of "project manager, system analyst and software engineer" has been formed.

Indian companies are very strict in the recruitment and assessment of software personnel, paying attention not only to excellent academic performance, but also to the ability to accept new ideas and knowledge, adapt to the new environment and work as a team. They also test the logic, mathematics and intelligence of software personnel. Software personnel should pay attention to continuous training, constantly update their knowledge and improve their quality during use.

In terms of retaining talents, in India, the wages of software personnel are much higher than those of engineers and technicians in traditional industries, which is undoubtedly nine Niu Yi hairs compared with compatriots who account for 53% of the national population and whose daily living expenses are lower than the extreme poverty line set by the World Bank. And there are opportunities for salary increase every year, as well as bonuses and equity income; The government also provides low-interest loans to buy houses; In addition to generous material benefits, we also provide preferential opportunities for continuing education and learning and training, strengthen ideological education and quality education, and always implement patriotism, dedication and sense of accomplishment education in quality education. So the software personnel are relatively stable.

China's software is still in the workshop stage of project development, and has not entered the industrial production of software. The technical personnel in software enterprises are mainly "white-collar", and there is basically no "blue-collar", so the talent structure is not reasonable.

7. India attaches great importance to software quality management.

India attaches great importance to the quality of software and the integration of software with international standards. India used ISO9000 standard certification and CMM model to certify the quality and qualification of software enterprises earlier. 170 Indian software companies have passed the ISO9000 quality standard certification. It is the country with the largest number of software enterprises certified by ISO9000 quality standards in the world. There are more than 200 software enterprises certified by CMM2 in the world, and there is only one Beijing Ding Xin Information Development Company in China. Up to now, there are only 13 software enterprises that have passed CMM5 level 5 certification in the world, 5 in India and none in China.

Indian software enterprises attach great importance to management.

Indian software enterprises aim at software export. In addition to attaching great importance to the integration of software with the international market, they pay attention to cultivating core competitiveness through management innovation and constantly enhance their awareness of speed competition, quality competition, team competition and international market competition. By strengthening the international market development mechanism, internal management and software quality control, they can improve the competitiveness of software products in the international market and enhance their image and status in the international software industry.

9. India takes a pragmatic attitude in the development of software industry.

First of all, the government is pragmatic. 1986, the Indian government began to plan the development of software industry, and all previous governments took software as the leading industry. 199 1 year, the Indian government formulated a policy to encourage the development of software industry, and its preferential degree is equivalent to the current policy to encourage the development of software industry in China. Since then, policies on investment and financing, taxation, export, income distribution, talent attraction and training have been gradually improved, with good operability, especially to encourage software enterprises to export. Through the efforts of 12 years, India's software industry has become the second largest software country in the world. 1998, with the help of McKinsey, the Indian government put forward 108 a more comprehensive policy, and planned to change from a software power to a world IT power in 2005. The pragmatic and unremitting efforts of the government are the key factors for the success of India's software industry.

Secondly, the pragmatism of enterprises, Indian software companies choose orders according to the needs of the international market, especially what the American market needs. Although they also know that American companies program with cheap labor in India. However, Indian enterprises have worked hard with a very pragmatic attitude and miraculously developed their own software industry by serving the American market.

Third, software practitioners are pragmatic. Indian software practitioners strictly abide by the belief that customers are God, with the ultimate goal of meeting users' needs and winning users' satisfaction. At the same time, Indian software personnel have a strong team spirit and produce software in strict accordance with factory processes.

Fourth, the shortage of Indian software industry.

In 2000, the export value of Indian software industry was US$ 6 billion, which was 15 times that of China. In recent years, the average growth rate of Indian software is 55%, while that of China is 30%. But India's development also has many shortcomings:

1, Indian software companies and even large software companies don't have their own brands of software.

2. The innovation ability of Indian software enterprises is relatively poor, which lags behind the United States for several years. This is determined by the positioning of Indian software industry.

3. India's software industry has a poor development environment and insufficient development potential. Todd Main, the regional special account manager of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, once complained that India often suffers from power outages and partial power outages, and the Internet access conditions and infrastructure are also poor, attracting foreign software companies to invest in China.

India's domestic market is very small.

India is an English-speaking country, with cheap human resources and customized software, mainly for export and less domestic demand. There are 654.38+50 million software technology developers in China, with an average of about 25 people in each enterprise. According to the statistics of National Bureau of Statistics, 90% of software enterprises in China have less than 100 employees, while more than 90% of all software enterprises are mainly engaged in system integration, and most of their development is still focused on application software.