A hundred deals for 5 million dollars each or five deals worth 100 million dollars each. Come to think of it, though the former leaves you with impressive statistics to boast about what the company has been doing or targets being met, is it the same as brining greater value to a fewer number.

The budget announced this year in the context of IT industry has initiatives towards skill building and Information connectivity especially to the rural areas. This indeed is a positive step forward towards making real investment in people who form the backbone of the IT services industry.

Alright, so we had the edge when it came to the initial entry in the BPO market. Advantage India was based on pure play labor arbitrage.

Often, when I look at the Indian IT industry, I am forcibly reminded of a similar industrial situation a couple of centuries ago. It is one that every Indian school going kid of a certain age is familiar with: India, which had been famed for its high-count, fine-quality cotton since the centuries before the Common Era, was reduced to supplying raw material to the powers-that-were.

While there are plenty of indications that the techno power is likely to shift from the West to the East, the weathercock has yet to crow in the winds of change. Both India and China have yet to charter a long way between the cup and the lip.