On Wed, 17 Sep 2003 04:21:02 -0700 (PDT), Lawrie D'souza <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
KANKANA DATTA ECONOMICTIMES.COM[ TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 2003 02:30:36 PM ] Jokes apart, the ongoing backlash in the US against job losses to Indian techies has found a place even in the famous cartoon strip Dilbert. In a new series starting September 15, cartoonist Scott Adams' cult strip goes on to take a dig at IIT grads from India. In the first episode, Asok, the brilliant but naive Indian trainee, the cynical Wally and the ever-sceptical Alice are sitting in the boardroom with the pointy-haired Boss. Asok says that though he was the project manager, nobody replied to his e-mail. However, he is proud of the fact that he is an IIT graduate and considers himself superior to his counterparts and thus had been able to finish the project himself. When Wally asks him, "Are you tired?", he replies: "I am trained to only sleep during National Holidays". It doesn't end there. Asok is seen to continue demonstrating his perceived superiority as an IIT grad, declaring that he tries "not to frighten ordinary people with any gratutious displays of mental superiority". Proof? He no longer reheats his tea by holding the cup to his forehead and imagining fire! If the spoof shows up the IIT grad as a bizarre geek, it also offers a voice to the Indian takeover of the world of hi-tech professionals. Behind the portrayal of the Indian techie - the IITian - as a work maniac who has inhuman abilities to slog and thus outpace his American counterparts lies the growing negativity towards this breed on the part of Americans who feel they're losing their jobs to more competent Indians. India's IITs have, of course, been the subject of admiration - now bordering on envy - in corporate America for more than five years now. A 1998 BusinessWeek article on India's whiz kids has this to say for IITians: "The rise of IITians, as they are known, is a telling example of how global capitalism works today. The best companies draw on the best brains from around the world, and the result is a global class of worker: the highly educated, intensely ambitious college grad who seeks out a challenging career, even if it is thousands of miles from home. By rising to the top of Corporate America, these alumni lead all other Asians in their ability to reach the upper echelons of world-class companies." A researcher at UC Berkeley estimated that fully 20 per cent of start-ups in Silicon Valley are IITian-owned. Amazon.com CEO and founder Jeff Bezos has described the Indian IITian as a "world treasure." Bill Gates says the computer industry has benefited greatly from them. Besides graduates of the prestigious IITs, where the quality of technical training is comparable to the best of the educational institutes in the world, India has a growing bank of 4.1 million technical workers, supplied by over 1,800 educational institutions and polytechnics. These train more than 67,785 computer software professionals every year - many of whom are a threat to America's homegrown computer jocks in the competetion for jobs. With the recent swell in outsourcing key software development jobs to India - coming on top of the BPO migration - a mixture of awe and resentment about India's brainpower is beginnning to develop. The American media have so far been mostly kind to IITs and IITians. CBS 60 Minutes had a very flattering portrayal of IITs recently. In fact, a co-anchor on CBS 60 Minutes had gone on to describe IIT Bombay thus: "Put Harvard, MIT and Princeton together, and you begin to get an idea of the status of this school in India." http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/06/19/60minutes/main559476.shtml But as usual, cartoonist Scott Adams - who draws and writes the Dilbert strip six days a week - is probably ahead of the pack in anticipating media and public opinion about IIT grads. ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################