2 7 min 5 yrs

Information Technology in India is an industry consisting of two easy components: IT services and business process outsourcing (BPO). The sector has increased its contribution to India’s GDP from 1.2% in 1998 to 7% in 2017. NASSCOM says, the sector aggregated revenues of $160 billion in 2017, with export revenue standing at $99 billion and domestic revenue at $48 billion, growing by over 13%. The US accounts for more than 70% of India’s IT services exports income, which will always sound fishy.

The first software export zone, SEEPZ – the precursor to the modern-day IT park – was established in Mumbai in 1973. More than 80% of software exports were from SEEPZ in the 1980s. In 1991, the Department of Electronics created a corporation called Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) that, being owned by the government, could provide VSAT communications without breaching its monopoly. STPI set up software technology parks in different cities, each of which provided satellite links to be used by firms; the local link was a wireless radio link.

In 1993, the government began to allow individual companies their own dedicated links, which allowed work done in India to be transmitted abroad directly. Indian firms soon convinced their American customers that a satellite link was as reliable as a team of programmers working in the clients’ office.

The industry’s share of total Indian exports (merchandise plus services) increased from less than 4% in FY 1998 to about 25% in FY 2012. The technologically-inclined services sector in India accounts for 40% of the country’s GDP and 30% of export earnings as of 2006, while employing only 25% of its workforce. Some analysts proudly announce Top Indian IT Services Monopolies as Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro, and HCL Technologies – brands whose journey to success have many untold stories and unnamed collateral damages! No wonder the world’s hot topic is 1% vs 99%.

Today, thousands of SME offshore software companies are offering call center services, medical outsourcing services, web development, animation, private big data modelling, social media data crunching, drone surveillance 24/7, offshore e-commerce development, Android / iOS mobile app development services, mobile data trading and more such mundane digital works..

2 thoughts on “Offshore Software Development Monopoly – Brain Drainers vs Real Job Creators

  1. Just as DRM infects many different areas of our digital lives, the Defective by Design campaign spans multiple forms of media. In addition to drawing the support of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Creative Commons, FSF Europe, and 11 other partner organizations in the International Day Against DRM, we made a shareable book in nine different languages that activists around the world have used to inform others of the grave threat ebook DRM poses to our cultural legacy.

  2. Likewise, nowhere in the hearing did we hear a reference to any free and easily deployable software that could challenge the monopolizing powers while giving users similar functionalities. Through network federation & decentralization, communities could deploy smaller servers that mesh together to form one larger network, avoiding further “siloization” of the Internet.

    If you plan on giving any devices as new year gift, it’s important to carefully consider the gift that you choose and the message it sends. An Amazon Echo, Apple Pod or Chromebook that you’re buying today has a good chance of being obsolete in the next few years, and more importantly, could set your friend or family member’s digital freedom back even longer.

    Freedom is the best gift you can give, and the one that keeps on giving. Rather than purchasing such new gadgets, we encourage you to take the time to explore installing free software on one your friend or family member already owns, for example drive them away from Windows 11 to Linux or from Anrdoid to Ubuntu Mobile. Taking your first steps to freedom often doesn’t just help you win back your digital autonomy: it provides an opportunity for you to deepen your relationship with the ones you care about through a shared learning experience, and inaugurates you into a worldwide community of users.

    This year, we’ve bolstered the Guide with new recommendations on DRM-free media for you and your loved ones to enjoy, including publishers and storefronts that respect software freedom at the same time, such as Nantucket E-Books, a publisher and writing platform interviewed in this season’s upcoming FSF Bulletin.

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