Today was our third day of lectures at XIME. We listened to three lectures about ‘HR and Management in India’, ‘Indian Economic Environment’, and ‘Indian IT and Software Project Management.’ We enjoyed tea and coffee and the opportunity to mingle and ask questions in between lectures.
The lecture titled ‘HR and Management in India’ was the most interesting lecture of the day for me. In this course we learned that India is the 4th largest economy in the world and much of that is due to their opening up to foreign direct investment in 1991. Their GDP grew from only $3 million in 1991 to $15.8 million in 1997. They have also gone from a male dominated workforce to having equal opportunity employment and an ever-growing female workforce. Many of the best companies to work for are in the IT and pharmaceutical industries. Some notable companies are Infosys, Mindtree Consulting, and Satyam Computer Services. There have also been many laws put in place to protect employees and create better working conditions. These acts include but are not limited to workers compensation, trade union protection, industrial disputes, minimum wage, and persons with disabilities. There are both public and private sector companies and organizations. The federal government determines the public sector job wages and the private sector job wages vary by state. He also mentioned that many Indians have the mindset that they must travel to foreign countries to make any money.
The presentation titled ‘Indian Economic Environment’ was a great overview to put the other presentations in perspective. It was explained to us that the majority of jobs in India are in the agriculture industry, while the majority of GDP is earned through the service sector. They have a high rate of inflation and 25% of the population lives below the poverty line. India’s primary foreign trade partners are the European Union, United States, China, UAE, and Saudi Arabia. The life expectancy is 66.8 years. India is progressing in education and is continuously making economic reforms. There are high rates of saving and investment. Their debt to GDP ratio is 67.1% and is an area that could use some serious improvement. Capital expenditure is expected to double in the next two years. Their main economic asset is the fact that their working age population is projected to be as high as 68% by 2020. Also, I thought it was interesting that it only takes a little over a year to open a business in India but it takes 10 years to close one.
We also listened to a lecture titled ‘Indian IT and Software Project Management.’ In this lecture, we learned that the Indian IT industry has been growing rapidly but has recently slowed. The industry has generated $90 million annually. This is 10% of India’s overall GDP. If you were to break up this $90 million, the largest portion is $50 million, which comes from applications. This includes things like payroll and insurance. The second largest portion is in business process outsourcing or knowledge process outsourcing, which accounts for about $30 million. The remaining $10 million is attributed to infrastructure and technology outsourcing, which involves maintenance and delivery. Many jobs were created in the IT industry because of Y2K. The computer systems in America were set up in a way so that dates were inputted MM-DD-YY. It was the responsibility of many hard working Indian IT workers to change the systems to MM-DD-YYYY before the year 2000. Today, many American companies that were once outsourcing to India are now reconsidering because the cost of living has increased in India, therefore salaries must increase. American companies will only outsource to Indian IT companies if it is cost effective for them.
As you can see, our lectures at XIME gave us great insights into the Indian business world. We can see economic growth and expect progress for India in the years to come. This nation is a great opportunity for American companies to outsource as well as sell their products and services. I really appreciate how much I am learning from students and faculty here.