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Meet Barbara, a young woman from Gdansk Poland who is as bright
as any of our 2 mn young software engineers and yet has the freshness and lack
of cynicism that is becoming a rare commodity in young industry entrants in our
country these days. Barbara is a member of the initial batch of twenty software
trainees inducted by Zensar straight from university and now undergoing training
in Pune. Not only has she and most of her batch understood the opportunities
that await them in the global software industry, they have thrown themselves
into every aspect of life-cultural competitions, vision community etc that
characterizes life in software campuses these days.
The potential that lies in Eastern and Central Europe struck me
on multiple occasions during a four-day trip-part business part vacation-in
Poland, in the end of May. The Polish Investment agency continues to surprise us
with their willingness to go the extra mile to make us feel welcome in their
country. Contrast this with the approach of the Indian embassy, who gave
precedence to the launch of mangoes in Warsaw to the launch of the first
development center by an Indian company in the port city of Gdansk. At a
function graced by every luminary from the agency as well as the Mayor and
Marshall's office, and all significant academicians in the city, it was
encouraging to see how keen the powers that be are to ensure that jobs are
created in Polish cities.
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The opportunities for Indian companies to develop a second
base for IT and BPO in Poland, could not be better |
The need is urgent in a country where both the young population
as well as the employment situation is shrinking by the day and the opening up
of EU borders, particularly in the UK and Ireland, has led to the flight of
professionals in search of greener pastures. As our young car driver, Matthew
said, "By 2012 all the young people will be working in Western Europe and the
last person to leave our country in 2015 can switch the lights out." If we move
fast, the opportunities for Indian companies to develop a second base for IT and
BPO and create avenues for employment that the country so desires could not be
better. And it's not just Gdansk but Warsaw, Krakow and at least three other
cities that could be a potential for Indian IT investment.
Not that the path to success will be without its share of
thorns. The education system is good but does not produce the number of
graduates that we are used to seeing in our country and the domestic market is
as pitiful as India's was till a few years ago. The willingness of the academia
to orient their curriculum and pedagogy to our needs, the ample support from
local and federal governments and, of course, the reasonable English knowledge
and IT awareness of Polish youth are all advantages that can be exploited to
build a significant base for services export to the European Union.
A weekend visit to Auschwitz, while began as somber as one had
expected (the graphic description of the torture and agonies heaped upon over a
million people in those terrible war years, also opened one's eyes to the
prevalence of processes even for something as macabre as the holocaust. If it
had not been the tragic act of genocide, the systems and precision would have
been a subject for text books!
A less fortunate example of process efficiency was presented to us by the
sheer speed of check-in at two of the cheap airlines we flew on to and from
Gdansk and Krakow-Wizair from Luton and Central Wings to Gatwick. A queue of
over twenty people with bags to check in handled in less than fifteen minutes in
both locations and a flight turnaround at the airport of less than twelve
minutes. The world is changing and if we don't learn from all this in our own
economic success, Europe still has the potential to leave India behind! Page(s) 1
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