Rediff On The NeT: Transcript of the Dewang Mehta Chat


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The Dewang Mehta Chat

James (Thu Jan 23 20:16:43 1997 IST):

Dewang: Mind answering my question....

Gates (Thu Jan 23 20:17:31 1997 IST):

Mr Mehta- what is the key to developing the domestic s/w market?

s/w (Thu Jan 23 20:17:57 1997 IST):

S/w pirate: oye chor.... bhaag... NASSCOM walla chat mein hai!!!....

James (Thu Jan 23 20:18:42 1997 IST):

Dewang: who do you think is going to win..netscape or MS? I think MS is gonna take some time 'cause the IE explorer sucks and is nowhere near as popular as Nscape...

DEWANG MEHTA. (Thu Jan 23 20:19:38 1997 IST):

Subrato: I believe that it is better to have brain drain then to have brain in the drain. However, things are changing in India. For example, last year at IIT Kanpur, out of 50 students who graduated from computer science, only 2 migrated to USA and 48 of them joined the software industry in India. As regards your suggestions on townships-I think it is an excellent idea. However, we already have software technologies park in many cities. For the future, NASSCOM has initiated a plan to set up Stanford kind of industry- academia campus in atleast seven centres in India. This townships should be operational during the 9th five year plan of GoI (1997-2002).

s/w pirate (Thu Jan 23 20:22:10 1997 IST):

Dewang: Nobody in the industry has the guts to ask you but everybody knows....now's the time to reveal....DO YOU REALLY WEAR A WIG??

Jayaprakash (Thu Jan 23 20:23:43 1997 IST):

hi pirate : what you see is only an animation

s/w (Thu Jan 23 20:24:47 1997 IST):

hello dewang, How do you rate India In terms of software piracy?

James (Thu Jan 23 20:24:51 1997 IST):

Dewang: I am waitinnnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggggggg....

DEWANG MEHTA. (Thu Jan 23 20:24:55 1997 IST):

James: Com'on. We are not body shoppers. In the customised software development market (globally), India has 15.22% market share. That is globally competitve. Passengers travelling by British Airways, Swiss Air, Singapore Airlines, Delta need to thank Indian software companies for their efficency. People using ATM machines of Citibank, Bank of America again need to thank software companies in Mumbai and Bangalore. Many people ask me why Indian Airlines does not run on time. The answer is obvious. Those guys don't use Indian software.

BIT-TER (Thu Jan 23 20:25:52 1997 IST):

DEWANG, where is the talent baba. Indian professionals are by and large doing mechanical and repetitive coding. Where's the spark of creativity. You don't need mega bucks to to be creative. All you need is Marc's hostel room.

subrato (Thu Jan 23 20:26:31 1997 IST):

Thanks for your attention and reply. Mr. Mehta, do you think NASSCOM and Govt. Of India can play a role in networking the many enterpreuneurs and willing developers who are based abroad, to further the market potential of our software?With little help and co-ordination, they can boost the market better than many startups on Indian soil.

DEWANG MEHTA. (Thu Jan 23 20:27:52 1997 IST):

James: I will put my bucks on MS i.e Bill Gates.

James (Thu Jan 23 20:28:06 1997 IST):

Dewang : Thanks. With the advent of the web what role do you think authorities like NASSCOM will do? Software goods are FREE all the way.

DEWANG MEHTA. (Thu Jan 23 20:30:25 1997 IST):

Bitter: No offence meant but don't be so bitter. We have lot of talent in India. Have you heard of Sukhram??? But jokes apart, we are doing almost 25% of our software development work for mission-critical applications. But you are right-- we have miles to go before we sleep.

Jayaprakash (Thu Jan 23 20:31:13 1997 IST):

Dewang : You didn't answer my firts question. How promising is the Japanese Software market.

s/w pirate (Thu Jan 23 20:31:32 1997 IST):

Oye Dewang the cat got your tongue or what?? No Guts No Glory What....

DEWANG MEHTA. (Thu Jan 23 20:33:29 1997 IST):

Subarto: You are damn right. NASSCOM and government of India (GoI) have planned to do many software business seminars in the next one year in USA, UK, Japan and South Africa. The seminar in New York is on April 29 to be addressed by Steve Forbes.

BIT-TER (Thu Jan 23 20:34:02 1997 IST):

Mr Mehat nobody sleeps in this business. People are running in to stay in the same place. Pray explain what miracle will put us in the same league with the higly intutive and creative software developers of US.

James (Thu Jan 23 20:34:19 1997 IST):

Dewang : Do you think MS will tie up with Nsacpe and use their front end and provide web tools from their stable in the future. You may find it radical but I have a nagging feeling that it will happen...

subrato (Thu Jan 23 20:35:10 1997 IST):

Mr. Mehta, I am sorry but I think Mr. Bit-ter is pointing towards our traditional weakness in synthesis vis-a-vis strongpoint in analysis. We are much better in refining than in defining. It's a linked phenomenon with system of education.Any comments?

DEWANG MEHTA. (Thu Jan 23 20:36:26 1997 IST):

S\w pirate: First of all, I would like to get you arrested. I just cannot stand software pirates. JAHAN JAHAN NASSCOM AUR MAIN HOTA HOON. WAHAN WAHAN SOFTWARE PIRATE CHOOHEY (rats) BAN JATE HAI.

BIT-TER (Thu Jan 23 20:36:57 1997 IST):

Thanks subrato

DEWANG MEHTA. (Thu Jan 23 20:37:55 1997 IST):

S\w pirate: First of all, I would like to get you arrested. I just cannot stand software pirates. JAHAN JAHAN NASSCOM AUR MAIN HOTA HOON. WAHAN WAHAN SOFTWARE PIRATE CHOOHEY (rats) BAN JATE HAI.

DEWANG MEHTA. (Thu Jan 23 20:38:15 1997 IST):

S\w pirate: First of all, I would like to get you arrested. I just cannot stand software pirates. JAHAN JAHAN NASSCOM AUR MAIN HOTA HOON. WAHAN WAHAN SOFTWARE PIRATE CHOOHEY (rats) BAN JATE HAI.

Jayaprakash (Thu Jan 23 20:38:42 1997 IST):

Subrato / Dewang Mehta : I'm sorry to say that bit-ter is absolutely wrong. He is a typical 'INDIAM PESSIMIST'. I have been in this industry for a long time. Many of my friends are working in places like MS/IBM/SUN ........

s/w (Thu Jan 23 20:38:56 1997 IST):

Bravo mr. dewang.... kash yeh sach hota..... but s/w piracy is still a big problem... what are your comments?

s/w pirate (Thu Jan 23 20:39:50 1997 IST):

OYE DEWANG DON'T GET SO EXCITED YAAR

BIT-TER (Thu Jan 23 20:40:02 1997 IST):

Excuse me JAY, how do you know I am an Indian.

subrato (Thu Jan 23 20:40:28 1997 IST):

Mr. Mehta, what is coming out of Indian Computer Science academics?What is the return on investment, to be frank. What hope do you have?

BIT-TER (Thu Jan 23 20:41:16 1997 IST):

Keep it up Subrato!

Jayaprakash (Thu Jan 23 20:41:44 1997 IST):

Maybe I should have said Indian's mentality instead of Indian mentality ....

DEWANG MEHTA. (Thu Jan 23 20:42:13 1997 IST):

Jayprkash: The Japanese software market is huge and promising. In the current year India would export about US $ 40 million worth of software to Japan. This is peanuts. However, the limiting factor in Japan is the language and the slow decision making process by Japanese businessmen as far as dealing with new software companies. However, in India we have already started teaching KANJI language to many Master of Computer Applications (MCA) courses.

Vijay Mukhi (Thu Jan 23 20:42:15 1997 IST):

Hi Dewang: Sorry to be late. Looks like you're doin OK. Are these guys troubling you??

BIT-TER (Thu Jan 23 20:42:23 1997 IST):

It's alright JAY, u don't need to apologise.

s/w (Thu Jan 23 20:42:39 1997 IST):

I agree with subrato, You should device some way to stop the talent going out of India, on which a lot of money is being spent... what are you comments?

Continued