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Talent Crunch
Given the high-end R&D (research and development) done out of India, a constant flow of talent is the need of the hour. The situation currently is somewhat manageable, but the future looks bleak. According to Aravind Sitaraman of Cisco, Talent shortage will soon be a reality if we dont take corrective measures. We are starting to feel the pinch in the senior technical talent. He adds a peculiar Indian mindset. He says, The social pressure in India for engineers to become managers is immense. The moment someone has experience of a few years, there is a huge pressure on him/her to become a manager. People have to realize that there is a difference between technical competency and managerial competency. The pressure on us is to either promote or let the person go and this is when we lose good engineers. In the US, it is a common thing for engineers to remain in technical positions for many years.

Cisco is addressing this tendency to move to managerial positions (from technical ones) by deglorifying managerial roles and highlighting the technical aspect. The company is also looking at an inorganic optionimporting talent from the US and other locations. But Aravind Sitaraman of Cisco also believes that there is no alternative to sustained coaching of people to believe that you dont have to be a manger to grow.

Ponani Gopalakrishnan, VP, IBM India Software Lab, says, I think the graduates that are coming out of engineering colleges are fine, but there is a lack of practical experience during the course of their studies. We invite technology students in our lab to work with us very closely on some of our projects. Students have to learn to connect with their classroom learning to the practicalities of what the industry is demanding.

Gopalakrishnan also laments about the gap that exists when it comes to high level or PhD level technology training that people are getting. In fact, the small number of PhDs that India is producing could create problems in the future as companies would move up the value chain of R&D activities.

According to Ajay Gupta of HP Labs, What has not improved is the collaboration with universities. The reason is that financially it is a bad proposition to do a PhD in India. Getting a job is seen as more important than pursuing higher studies.

Slow Moving University Engagements
It would be difficult to recall any breakthroughs that have emerged out of the joint R&D initiatives that several companies have set up along with education institutions, particularly IITs. Universities and engineering collages have merely remained a source of talent pool rather than a collaborative R&D that goes on in the universities in the US.

Most companies sponsor students and hire them once they have completed their education. Aravind Sitaraman of Cisco agrees that the company has not been able to pay adequate attention to this aspect but is actively working toward it. Cisco has a program wherein it invites faculties to visit its facility and learn about the technologies apart from asking alumni to visit the university to share their knowledge.

Elaborating on some other gaps, Ponani Gopalakrishnan, VP, IBM India Software Lab, says, Though some companies are maintaining some kind of relationship with universities and institutions, there is a gap in terms of academic research and technology directions, and market demands. It is not that technologies have to be advanced to be successful, the technology can be just right and meet the right requirement. The other gap, according to him, is the availability of risk capital as the volume is not at the desired level. Sounding optimistic about the shape of industry-university collaboration, Subramanyam GV of Infosys Technologies, says, This ecosystem is slowly developing.

We localize Google applications that are relevant to India, and further innovate to meet the needs of our emerging users Prasad Ram, Head, R&D, Google India	The graduates that are coming out of engineering colleges are fine, but there is a lack of practical experience Ponani Gopalakrishnan, VP, IBM India Software Lab	Talent shortage will soon be a reality if we dont take corrective measures Aravind Sitaraman, VP and MD, Cisco Development Organization, India

R&D for the Indian Market
India is emerging as a big market for most products and services innovations that come out of these labs. Staying closer to the market and working on things that are relevant to the Indian market is the way to go for several companies. HP is totally focused on India. According to Ajay Gupta of HP Labs, Providing IT in the local language was one of our focus areas. The reason is that 90% of Indians dont use the English language. This significant portion of the population would like to use IT but are intimidated by the English language.

NXP even has a ready reference design that enables a company manufacture mobile phone and sell under its brand. Companies like Onida and Videocon have shown interest. Though IBMs primary focus is to work on technologies that can be marketed globally, whenever there is some requirement from the Indian customers, it is taken care of. For example, IBM Software Lab caters to Bhartis specific requirements in managing their network.

We have to accept the fact that not every product or innovation that we work on would be successful Subramanyam GV, VP and head, SETLabs, Infosys Technologies	Financially, it is a bad proposition to do a PhD in India. Getting a job is seen as more important than pursuing higher studies Ajay Gupta, Director, HP Labs India	The talent challenge is at the product architect level. Rajeev Mehtani, VPand MD, NXP Semiconductors, India

According to Prasad Ram, We localize Google applications that are relevant to India and further innovate to meet the needs of our emerging users. We build comprehensive solutions that bring more local content online, deliver applications relevant to the emerging users, overcome access barriers, provide great user experience, and contribute to the economics of organizing and using information.

Measures of Success
IT services companies are better off in the rate of success as they are constantly in touch with their customers to augment their solution portfolio by doing some fine tuning. While HPs efforts at creating some innovative products (like Gesture-based keyboard) was laudable, though it did not get the desired success in the market place. Elaborating on the reasons for the lukewarm response, Ajay Gupta of HP Labs says, We thought licensing was the way to go about it, and we licensed the product to some vendors but that did not work. He also informs that HP is rethinking on this licensing strategy to make sure the mistakes are not repeated. He also does not rule out the possibility of HP directly marketing and selling the innovative inventions coming out of its India lab.

According to Ponani Gopalakrishnan, VP, IBM India Software Lab, When we think of advance technologies, either in research or product development, it is very closely driven by interaction with our customer base and the market requirements are directly captured before we even get started on something. The success that we had in our lab has been significant. Talking about the degree of success or innovations that will come out of R&D labs, Subramanyam GV, VP and head, SETLabs, Infosys Technologies, says: We have to accept the fact that not every product would be successful.

Sudesh Prasad
sudeshp@cybermedia.co.in

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