What is Information Technology to India?

Critics Corner, through Facebook blog, indirectly indicated BJP tried to stop Proliferation of IT in India

Critic Corner through its Facebook blog has praised former Prime Minister of India Hon'ble Rajiv Gandhi for his initiative to spread IT business in India and stated that BJP violently protested for the proliferation of IT sector in India. But one has to consider the situation at which IT sector was brought into India. Even the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi himself has said it missed the important phase in its economic development. It is true that India missed the manufacturing and industrialization phase which has cost India dearly at 2008 economic slowdown. Though IT sector may fetch $200 billion exports, but it stands on wooden scaffolding which may collapse any moment.

Growth of Indian IT sector:

Without strong manufacturing base in India, majority of these IT businesses were forced to fish international markets for opportunity. With abundant contracts from International businesses, IT sector flourished in India. None can deny the fact that it brought huge Forex exchange into RBI coffers. But such growth was sustainable? Not! The situation from 2008 global slowdown is a good example of what vision of Rajiv Gandhi would lead into in future years.

The reason for the slowdown was not within India but triggered by the world economy. Too much dependence on international market which drove the IT sector created insecurity among the Indian youth as slowdown triggered mass unemployment and austerity drive of companies. One prominent issue which was neglected in Indian economy was Industrialization phase. Without industrialization, Indian economy was made to depend on International market to drive IT sector.

The only source of fuel to the Indian IT business was imported by the way of contracts from USA and Europe. These nations are highly industrialized starting from the end of World War II. But Indian economy which was led by Nehru family to failed to catch up with the world. Wrong strategies led to global isolation of Indian economy. Rather than increasing the presence of Indian goods worldwide, India closed its doors for International market. With huge population growth, Indian economy started to stumble upon its own weight. Though IT sector added impetus to the Indian growth in the late 1990s, the inadequate industrialization didn’t make into the equation of Indian IT sector.

Economic Slowdown:

Had it there been an impetus from domestic market during the slowdown, IT sector wouldn’t have seen such slump as it did in the following years of 2008. The degradation of Indian business not only stopped with IT companies but mostly it affected Indian Society. Indian IT employees felt unsecured as they realized that any moment they could be sent out of job. The pomp with which they enjoyed prior to slowdown was no more the norm of the society. The crisis not only hit the business but also the personal life of many thousands professionals who were employed by the IT companies. The hire and fire policy was used like a whip to make employees work like bulls moving the cart.

The politicians who sit on the top of social hierarchy failed to tap the real potential of Indian market. Had they created a conductive business atmosphere for Indian diaspora, many individuals would have taken entrepreneurship which is lacking at the moment.

Make in India:

To remedy the mistake, the BJP government which took charge of governance has initiated “Make in India” campaign to promote industrialization. The wrong which was done by predecessors is being remedied various government schemes. Not only create industrialization of the nation but also provide opportunity to its own IT sector to tap the Indian market. Without products and goods, there can be no service. The goods and service coexist. Too much dependence on either one of them will be detrimental to the economy.

Present Challenges:

But still few politicians who predeceased the present government fail to act responsibly. When it comes to Indian economy, blame game is not good. Pointing finger for other mistake than to remedy the mistake will waste our precious time on useless debates. For a government which don’t blame others, get vast criticism from others. It is wise not to test the silence of the government as the present government is not talking about any mistakes committed in India since independence.  They all want to make good use of time and resource at their disposal unlike other people who rolled over money and only thought about family wealth than the national wealth.

FedEx shipping: Deficiency of service

With globalization, Multi-national Companies (MNC) has flogged India to tap lucrative local market. So the FedEx Express has started it logistics business in India. With investments through FDI, the commerce ministry has planned to bring best practices in to Indian market. Now, it’s time to access the situation. The litmus test was done with an international shipping company FedEx Express. The following are the phenomenon, so fare experienced, of Multi-national Companies:

1.      Disregard to consumer welfare

2.      Deficiency in service

3.      Intention to delay the service until demanded by the customers to deliver the consignment.

That was true that best practices were introduced in India with the advent of FDI into local business. But still the system is skewed enough to create deception of false security. The customers are still made to run pillar to post to get service from this multi-billionaire companies. All they want was profit out of Indian consumers.

A consignment which was promised to be delivered in 7 days turned into an ordeal. Despite 

repeated calls and reminders to the customer care executives of FedEx express, they seem to have inadequate resource to mobilize a simple 0.1 kgs (100 gram) consignment.

All the tracking system which is considered as best practices of the world is misleading. They use technology to deceive customers waiting for the delivery. FedEx own tracking system which is updated at each stage of logistics is the clear evidence that FedEx has committed a deficient service. What did take them to wait for two days before delivery? May be I have settled the bill, so they thought it is not worth delivering on time!  

To add fuel to the fire, the local customer care says the consignment was delivered. When stated that  not received the consignment, she said it is with the local FedEx facility and the recipient  have to wait till 8 p.m. to receive the delivery. When again at 8 p.m., recipient rang up the customer care, again she said recipient have wait till next day to get the delivery as it is too late to deliver the consignment. Later, a senior executive called about the query with the customer care, who assured that the consignment will be delivered within 1 p.m. of next day. But still delivery is awaited. The customer care executive of FedEx persist that it is the recipient mistake to have house locked. They never wish to acknowledge the fault on their part. The time which they mentioned as “customer not available or business closed”, the recipient was at home. When demanded with explanation, they had a sweet and short reply that “the recipient mobile phone was switched off”. A blatant lie was let loose to cover up the issue. They got very good management skill so that customer can’t speak up in defense.

A renowned shipping company, FedEx, is not capable of delivering a 100 gram consignment on time as promised by them. We wonder how they would handle massive goods that are shipped all day.

Pathetic Customer Care:

The customer care executives instead of providing useful information to the recipients who expect delivery, they provide their own story of difficulty in managing the goods. For them who complain that they can’t handle the large shipment of goods, it is wise to close their logistic business for good. It is good for them as well to the public at large. With dysfunctional management, they protract the delivery by providing false promises day by day for the same consignment. The FedEx has failed to understand one thing; we don’t need the promises but the consignment/goods which are to be delivered to the recipient.

For those Multi-National Companies, they take Indian customers for granted. They think they can bend the expectation of Indian market at own whims and fancies. The deficiency of service by FedEx Express is good example what these multi-national companies would bring to India as best practices. With protracted judicial system, these companies enjoy at the cost of consumer welfare. For suing these companies for negligence and deficiency of service, individual consumer will made to run from corner to corner to prove that these companies have done malpractice. At the end, they always end with appeal. To deal an issue with judicial proceedings, we will have to wait for four more years. With all the time and money spent to prove that the service is deficient, they will claim that FedEx has delivered the goods hence they are not liable any further.

The symptoms are contagion! Spread like deadly H1N1, sars to other corporates who step into Indian market. To make it more worse, European countries trying to enter Indian market with Non Agricultural Market Access (NAMA). By allowing such favor it would aggravate the pathetic situation, the vibrant economy will be of no use to its own citizens.

Multi-billion marketing:

It will make us wonder how good these services would be in their home country! When a person starts a business, it will be established at his home country. Later, the corporate flag will be flouted across the globe to claim the MNC berth. What boost these companies to setup money poaching camps across globe?! Why politicians lobby for such corporates! With pathetic service, how did they claim the top spot! Mere marketing strategy will not fetch the fame. For that, snapdeal must be top e-tailor provided with their undue advertisements. Yet people remember snapdeal for soap-bar and wooden sticks which are delivered instead of smartphones. It would take something more to claim the top spot. With aggressive marketing even before full-fledged entry has made huge buzz for these Multi-billionaire companies. Thanks to media for marketing they did it for free of cost. Whenever a huge enterprise enters Indian market, a business page will have headlines about that enterprise and their strategy planned for India. Not even the local big players get that fame prior to the entry. But these corporates receive red carpet treatment.

Domestic Couriers:

Compared to FedEx, domestic courier guys are good at logistics. They do real service. The goods deliveries were done within 2 days of order. They know the reality. Instead of investing heavily on marketing, these domestic players invest on good service which earns them the reputation. The only drawback is they lack marketing. Despite such huge drawback, they stand good when it comes to competition between these international courier agency and domestic courier agencies.

We wonder how these international shipping agencies manage consignment to be delivered at international location! At domestic level they stumble and choke to deliver 100 grams of weight. Then sure it will be an international drama for sender and receiver of the goods.

At what are they investing?

The real question, at the end of the day, is in what these international companies invest at. As far as we have seen, the service was pathetic. All they do is gross mismanagement of consignments and goods that are to be delivered. So actually what make them to spend millions of dollars to create a fake illusion of logistics? They call technology in place to efficiently manage the logistic works. Is it really worth it? Investing in some technology is going to solve the problem of customers! None could answer. To come to a just opinion, they spend more for the employees who don’t actually seem to work. With goods shifting from one place to another within same city, it is evident that they are inefficient to handle the goods.

Is FDI necessary?

Foreign Direct Investment, shortly called as FDI, is considered to important ingredients of economic development. But not to forget that it is one of the ingredients to cook the economy. Just feeding on FDI will do no good in long terms. The Multi-billion companies are not trustable for the investments. Once, they find the market is saturated they find some new country to spoil with than to improving the present pathetic situation which they have created.

Flying of capital out of country will not only affect the Central Reserve banks but also create unstable social. The residue left would be unemployment, inflation, political crisis, revolts. So, having a grip over the FDI influence in economy is a key factor. Those who advocate lassiez-faire policy will still persist for less state control over the economy will do more good. But with the present state of affairs, letting loose those multi-billion dollar companies will create havoc at some point in the future.

The litmus test with a Multi-national company, FedEx, will stand as good case study of how the world views Indian market. It is for the state to control the indiscriminate exploitation with stringent consumer welfare laws. Promoting citizen welfare is far more important than the multi-billion investments. Still the tug of war between the FedEx and the recipient continues.

Chennai City Map: Chennai Metro Rail Project

The Chennai Metro Rail project is an initiative to map railway lines to the major parts of the Chennai city. For an emerging economy like India such infrastructure projects boost economic growth. The aim was to provide connectivity to the major part of the Chennai City. The present sub-urban EMU services don’t reach most part of the inner Chennai City. The Chennai map is filled with haphazard roads and streets.  The metro rail would provide connection between much visited Chennai tourist places, business hub and hotels in Chennai.

As common among all infrastructure projects, Chennai city traffic got a huge hit. The diversion and one way caused inconvenience to the general public especially people who depend heavily on those arterial roads to commute between office and home. Not to mention the vehicles packing at each signal at peak hours! Despite state government effort to reduce choking at Chennai city traffic signals, the snail pace traffic is the order of the day.

The worst of all is the situation of pedestrians. Majority of the footpath that were just a left-over of present day corporation roads disappeared as the demolition and restructuring debris of buildings has covered all over the left-over footpath.  The worst affected among them are elderly and disabled person.

The recent footbridge between Chennai Fort sub-urban railway station and Chennai Central station are good example. The construction of new footbridge over the crossing is laudable step to help pedestrian to cross between the all-time busy Chennai city roads. But such footbridge must benefit all class pedestrian. The present construction of footbridge between the two railway stations causes too much inconvenience than good.

The new footbridge is not pedestrian friendly than former subway footpath which is closed for the Chennai metro rail project. The following are the major factors that make the present footpath between the two major railway stations a difficult task for pedestrians: 

• The steps of the new footpath are much steeper than normal. To be frank, even a young person of age 35 years has to get hold of the railings on the either side of the footbridge when getting down or up the footbridge. 
• And the steps are not wide enough to keep a firm foot on each step. The bridge seems to be completed in haste. 
• The resonating sound of footsteps of other people who use the bridge may make us feel insecure about the safety. The vibration will make us think the bridge might collapse any moment even though it might be technically fit for use.

Not only is the footbridge between Chennai Fort and Central Railway stations in limbo. Every other footbridge suffer lacuna when it comes to address the needs of elderly and disabled persons. Those who need utmost care and social protection are neglected when it comes to planning infrastructure of Chennai City.

The elderly and disabled friendly footbridges exist at fewer places. Nevertheless, most crossing has not incorporated friendliness of the footbridge to facilitate elderly and disabled. The very use of these footbridges is defeated. At most locations, footbridges were never used. People prefer to cross busy road than using the footbridge.

Not only the elderly and disabled get affected. The tourist who visit Chennai tourist places are worst affected. For Chennai, medical tourism is it famous for. But the tourist who depend on Chennai city map to travel to tourist places are worst affected. They will be left in Chennai Urban jungle without any help than to depend heavily on private transport who will try to fleece tourist.

The intention to place Chennai Metro rail on Chennai city map will help a lot in future but at the cost of present. The great hurdle for any tourist in Chennai is to reach 5 star hotels or 3 star hotels in Chennai of their choice. They are at the mercy of Chennai traffic. The present Metro rail project will address the traffic concerns of tourist but the present change to facilitate the project has cost dear to the commuters.

With unfriendly footbridges and road traffic, the travel within Chennai was made a challenge. The only solution to the present day ordeal was to complete the Chennai Metro Rail Project on time with no more time extension. Not only the road traffic but also the pedestrians suffer the heat of uncomforting travel. With exponential increase the vehicles year by year, the situation would turn worse by each year.