[Kictanet] Re: India's Weaknesses

Wed Oct 25 20:10:03 EAT 2006

Waudo said "Perhaps something could be done now before we find ourselves in India's 
position"

We all know that one of the demons that has held back Africa's rise is the DE-LINK between 
industry and academia (research) and also with governments. Prof. Ernest Wilson's (of 
Maryland University) squad model makes the argument that you need a constant interaction 
between these constituencies for growth and innovation to take place. He argues that Silicon 
Valley is a clear example.

My proposition therefore as a way to answer the question above is to leverage the BPO 
opportunity. Most African governments are at least on board the BPO wagon so my idea is, 
lets establish the BPOs in the University environment given the current public policy 
favouring. The BPO companys can take advantage of cheap but good student labour whiles 
they build the real estate for their operations using university land on a "build operate and 
handover basis". 

The Universities then get real estate which they use for their long term expansion of physical 
infrastructure. The BPO companies get their work done cheaply and when they migrate in the 
long term, much value would have being gained. The University students get work 
experience for the long term job market entry and also interim cash to support their 
University education. This also gives the non-computer related students some basic skills 
and exposure and for the CS, EE etc students, they build their internal capacity not only to 
take calls and do word processing but more technical stuff. They would soon be writing 
software for those BPO companies. Mostly importantly this becomes the nucleus of the 
government/academia/private sector LINKINING which would grow into other areas. 

Hence the value proposition of the BPO banwagon is, it gives us a foot into the door but we 
must move up the value chain very quickly or we would end up doing the low end jobs which 
would make us less competitive in the Knowledge economy. 

When I proposed this to my Ghana Cyber Group friend (Yaw Owusu, leading the way with a 
private TechPark in Ghana) whom i have cced on this mail, he said, then the Tech Parks (BPOs 
+ more) should be in the University/Research Environment and his example of been able to 
acquire land from the Ghana CSIR which is close to the University of Ghana would be a good 
prototype. 

This is the story am going to be telling at the the first University Leaders Forum in Cape 
Town to which governments, academic leadership, private sector and Civil Society has being 
convened.

Eric here

---------- Original Message ----------------------------------
From: waudo at signet.co.ke
Reply-To: Kenya ICT Policy - kictanet <kictanet at kictanet.or.ke>
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2006 09:53:47 -0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)

>Thanks to PS Ndemo for bringing this out. As for Wafula's question, the
>work force survey undertaken by the CSK earlier this year revealed that
>there is very little linkage between what the ICT training institutions
>(including Universities) are producing and the requirements of the
>industry either now or in the foreseeable future. Certainly there appear
>to be no mechanisms to facilitate such linkage. Perhaps something could be
>done now before we find ourselves in India's position.
>
>
>Kind Regards
>Waudo Siganga
>
>On Wed, October 25, 2006 9:22 am, TONY WAFULA wrote:
>> Good lesson , though wonder whether as a country we are ready to address
>> manpower shortage in this area. Just the other day Safaricom's Micheal
>> Joseph was lamenting about the same...are we checking what our
>> Universities are offering in relation to our projected needs?
>>
>>   Regards
>>
>>   Wafula
>>
>> bitange at jambo.co.ke wrote:
>>   Hi Edith,
>> You must have been blogging.
>>
>> Regards
>>
>>
>> Ndemo.
>>
>>
>>> Certainly, a great lesson to learn from.
>>>
>>> Thanks for sharing the article!
>>>
>>> At / À 12:56 PM 10/24/2006, bitange at jambo.co.ke wrote / a écrit:
>>>>Dear All,
>>>>I think there are good lessons to learn from the article below.
>>>>
>>>>Regards
>>>>
>>>>Ndemo.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>October 17, 2006
>>>>Skills Gap Hurts Technology Boom in India
>>>>By SOMINI SENGUPTA
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>TIRUCHENGODE, India
>>>>
>>>>— As its technology companies soar to the outsourcing skies, India is
>>>>bumping up against an improbable challenge. In a country once regarded
>>>> as
>>>>a bottomless well of low-cost, ready-to-work, English-speaking
>>>> engineers,
>>>>a shortage looms.
>>>>
>>>>India still produces plenty of engineers, nearly 400,000 a year at last
>>>>count. But their competence has become the issue.
>>>>
>>>>A study commissioned by a trade group, the National Association of
>>>>Software and Service Companies, or Nasscom, found only one in four
>>>>engineering graduates to be employable. The rest were deficient in the
>>>>required technical skills, fluency in English or ability to work in a
>>>> team
>>>>or deliver basic oral presentations.
>>>>
>>>>The skills gap reflects the narrow availability of high-quality college
>>>>education in India and the galloping pace of the country's
>>>> service-driven
>>>>economy, which is growing faster than nearly all but China's. The
>>>> software
>>>>and service companies provide technology services to foreign companies,
>>>>many of them based in the United States. Software exports alone expanded
>>>>by 33 percent in the last year.
>>>>
>>>>The university systems of few countries would be able to keep up with
>>>> such
>>>>demand, and India is certainly having trouble. The best and most
>>>> selective
>>>>universities generate too few graduates, and new private colleges are
>>>>producing graduates of uneven quality.
>>>>
>>>>Many fear that the labor pinch may signal bottlenecks in other parts of
>>>>the economy. It is already being felt in the information technology
>>>>sector.
>>>>
>>>>With the number of technology jobs expected to nearly double to 1.7
>>>>million in the next four years, companies are scrambling to find fresh
>>>>engineering talent and to upgrade the schools that produce it.
>>>>
>>>>Some companies are training faculty members themselves, offering courses
>>>>tailored to industry needs and improving college labs and libraries.
>>>> They
>>>>are rushing to get first choice of would-be engineers long before they
>>>>have completed their course work. And they are fanning out to small,
>>>>remote colleges that almost no one had heard of before. The country's
>>>> most
>>>>successful technology concerns can no longer afford to hire only
>>>>
>>>>
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>>>
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>>
>>
>>
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>>
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