The Future of Indian Technology
techcrunch.com
techcrunch.com
"The Indian technology industry got its start running
call centers and doing low-level IT work for western
firms".
The Indian technology industry existed much before call centers became a vogue in India (which was around mid 90's).A few facts:
a. ISRO has been launching satellites since 70's
b. HCL Infosystems launched the first microcomputer in India in 1977 (http://www.hclinfosystems.com/op_history.htm)
c. Texas Instruments had their development office setup in India in 1985
Various facts like above show that though IT industry got a boom in India in 90s, its origins can be traed to much earlier years.
However, the statement “when all of the action is in Bangalore, who needs Silicon Valley?", is very much an overstatement. While India does provide opportunities for some unique business models (based on large population, unorganized markets), the "action" there is significantly less than the "action" in Silicon Valley.
But, the majority is still happy with the virtual safety of the job in service industry. With hundreds of thousands of people still talking about the dowries they can get if they hold on to the 'IT job', what else can you expect?