Evaluating the $35 Indian Computer

After reading a comment by Ajay Vaishnav, from the Times of India about the low cost tablet computer developed in India and just announced this week, I could not help myself in responding to it. For his take on it, please click on his name.


Sometimes we become victims in the desire to create a perfect world, where we fail to realize that while things may not always be perfect there is usually an opportunity to make an incremental or even marginal difference which over a period of time will gather enough momentum to create a self sustaining cycle.

How else due you think India has become the back office of the world without having the necessary infrastructure to support it, in terms of human and other resources? If it was only about a quality vs. cost the mega-corporations would have found another place by now...wouldn't they?


Yes, there are large tracts of poverty and under developed infrastructure in the country, but there are also extremely large tracts of developed and affluent areas in India that would shame any progressive western economy. That development did not happen overnight by being transplanted from somewhere else, it gradually evolved due to small efforts over time that coalesced to create the current vibrant economy. You can see the opposite of that happening in the US with the minor, but steady erosion of the education system, the numbing down of the work-force, and decay of built up infrastructure with no investments being made to maintain or create anything of new or lasting value. Just as every business has a life-cycle, every nation has its glory days till things start to wane and then the cycle of re-building and creating new systems and values begins anew!


I’d like to mention that companies like Infosys, Wipro, TCS, etc. did not suddenly make a big splash on the world stage in the latter part of the '90s when personal computers and the internet started becoming ubiquitous first in the US then the world over. Yes, the general awareness of these organizations was greatly amplified, along-with the newly discovered capabilities of the Indian workforce. Those visionaries kept toiling away quietly without any hope of impending fame and fortune. Just imagine a group of engineers from India trying to convince C-level executives of large corporations in Europe and US to let them do their back office work and handle phone calls for them in India in the mid-'80's, when there was hardly a reliable telephone network or any other similar infrastructural network in the in the country to handle local calls let alone international calls and a regular uninterrupted supply of electricity, even in the so called developed metros. There was no way they could have met the agreed upon SLAs based on the available facts!



If they had looked at the reality of the situation they should have come to the conclusion that the situation was bleak and the hurdles insurmountable, so they should have given up on it...? Tenacity and the will to forge ahead in spite of formidable odds are what create larger than life inspirations and role models; while naysayers keep repeating the same old tales of doom and gloom, without thinking even once that they have the opportunity to do so because of the efforts of those that they are belittling! Had someone not have planted the tiny seeds of the technological revolution in India years ago I wonder how Ajay Vaishnav would have found a way to voice his reservations that can be heard the world over? I doubt he would have taken a megaphone in hand and marched the world over holding a placard in the other to let everyone know his thoughts... or maybe he would have.... When you're talking about the human spirit anything is possible!


The pilgrims that arrived on the shores of America over 300 years ago not only survived and prospered, they reinforced to individuals across the world the concept of what we now term the "American Dream". Like Alexander, the Vikings, or even the Britisher's before them (let's not get into the politics of it) they were pioneers. That same indomitable will and passion for innovation and continuous urge to better oneself and move on ahead is present in each and every one of us the world over.