Power play
Apropos your article ‘Power cut costs India Inc. Rs 20,000 crore a year’ (Express Computer, November 11, 2002). The article comes at a time when the Indian power industry is facing an acute shortage of power supply. Rs 20,000 crore is a big figure. If we continue losing such amounts due to technical problems we will never be able to compete in the global arena. The Dabhol Power project, the recent crisis in the states of Maharashtra, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, all point to the urgency with which we should tackle this issue. Good power and transport are are the basic infrastructure needed for the development of any economy.

— Sudarshan Kotian
Bangalore

Indigenous R&D
This is with reference to the recent efforts taken by many companies to set up internal research and development (R&D) wings. For the growth of any industry R&D is an absolute necessity. This realisation came late for traditional brick and mortar companies who have only now understood the significance of R&D in today’s competitive business arena. R&D is important for IT companies too, but still most software companies in India are lagging behind in this area. Market studies and analysis point to the fact that the future of the country’s IT business is dependent on the development of products and not services. Newspapers and trade publications also keep reiterating this fact. To fuel growth it is imperative that companies opt for collaborative R&D. Even the government should provide incentives, especially funding and tax benefits, to encourage interested companies.

— Ashish Agnihotri
Bangalore

Encourage freelancing
The article ‘Why a database of IT professionals?’ (IT People, November 11. 2002) was excellent. I think that software companies should encourage freelancing. The government and PSUs have a lot of software professionals who would not like to leave their stable job to join a private firm, but have immense expertise in their respective domains, which could be tapped by software companies by announcing temporary jobs. This way, the firms would be able to handle their surge in workload without the need of fresh recruiting.

— V T R Ravi Kumar
Haridwar

BPO—the dot-com way?
In the days to come, the Indian Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) sector might face some hard times, if the US Congress passes the bill for curtailing the business outsourced to other nations. This will be a big blow to the Indian IT-enabled services sector, which has been banking on BPO to bring in revenues worth more than Rs 800 crore in the next 5-6 years. Also, the unemployment level is bound to increase as this sector had been a harbinger for hope for many of the educated unemployed in India. It was also a morale booster for our vast English speaking graduate workforce with no special skills to call their own. They could utilise this opportunity to upgrade their skillsets and at the same do something productive. The Indian diaspora should lobby with the US government and ensure that the bill doesn’t get passed. But this should also serve as a warning for the ITES sector to switch focus to non-US markets.

— Hariprasad Tiwari
Mumbai

Cut costs
The ITES sector should look at ways and means of cutting down further on costs. Cost of infrastructure in India is too high compared to the some other competitors. Also, companies should provide their staff with a more comfortable work environment if they want to retain staff. Though many companies have taken proactive steps towards ensuring this, they still seem to be lacking in some area as the attrition rate continues to remain high.

— Pradeep Nair
Bangalore

Consumer technology
Express Computer should continue the tradition of carrying articles on products and technology, which focuses on the end consumer. The Palm articles were very informative especially for new Palm user like me. With cellular phone usage on the increase and technology developing to include webcams and picture messaging it would be a good idea to carry some articles on developments in this area.

— Nishant Iyer
Via e-mail

Games people play
The gaming, animation and multimedia industry has been growing at a rapid phase. Though the potential is huge and natural talent exists—little seems to have been done to tap the vast potential offered by this segment. The main problem is in the area of trained professionals. All our engineering and arts colleges and the various private computer institutes, which have mushroomed all over the country to cash in on the demand, offer courses that don’t even teach the basics. The pathetic state of our education system needs to be blamed for the sad state our country is in. the government should take steps to introduce practical education instead of just useless theory.

— Arvind Ghosh
Kolkata