The late 2003 State Assembly elections in India were fought on the Acronym - BSP - the Bijli, Sadak, Pani issues. In India's National Language - Hindi, 'Bijli' means Electricity. 'Sadak' means Roads. 'Pani' means 'Water'. We hijack the same BSP acronym to explain a few broad trends affecting the IT Industry in India. We call these underlying events and trends individually as the 'B', 'S' and 'P' factors, collectively called the 'BSP' factors.

Down Arrow The 'B' Factors

Gray Arrow 'Building Brand Bihar By Banishing Backwardness'

Gray Arrow 'Big Bandwidth Boom'

Gray Arrow 'Blurring of Boundaries' and 'Banishing of Barriers'

Gray Arrow 'Bigger and Better than the Best, Bang For Buck For Bleeding IT Budgets


Gray Arrow 'Building Brand Bihar By Banishing Backwardness' is the first major 'B' factor for the IT Industry. Why Bihar, arguably India's most backward state, that many of us make fun of ? Last month, one of our Mumbai based pharmaceutical distributor customers declined our quotation for IT software services because they had located an individual software engineer entrepreneur in Patna, Bihar. They chose this Bihar based company because they had found his software services delivered via the Internet cost-effective and quality conscious.

That set us thinking. Perhaps, the IT Industry could indeed 'Build Brand Bihar'. The Software Industry Big 'B' - Bill Gates - Microsoft Chief wrote in his book of how the Internet would enable future intellectual work to move from the large US multinationals to bright individuals in any corner of India. Today, the Indian IT Success Story is synonymous with Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Delhi, Pune. Can Patna, Bihar be next ? Wishful thinking, today. Maybe. But tomorrow, who knows ?




Gray Arrow The next 'B' factor which has propelled India's global IT position is the 'Big Bandwidth Boom' in Tele-Communications - Both international and national. Last year, India saw the launch of major telecom networks. Cheaper Internet connectivity options have put India at the center of the global wired Bazaar. India born US Venture Capitalist Star Vinod Khosla has visualised about how thousands of IT / ITES export jobs can be created at Railway Stations in India linked by high speed fibre-optic telecommunication lines below the railway tracks and connected to the Internet.

Gray Arrow The Internet has enabled the third 'B' factor - The 'Blurring of Boundaries' and 'Banishing of Barriers' between organisations. Indeed, the work boundaries between organisations are blurred. Barriers between organisations are getting gradually banished. Work begins in an organisation in one country, lands up in an organisation in a second country and then gets shipped to an organisation in a third country.

Any work which can be electronically digitised can be distributed and done remotely. This is also being called as the 'Wherever Economy'. Kaytek does work for a French multinational's offices in 10 Asia Pacific countries using tools from US companies only via the Internet without any face to face meetings at all.

Gray Arrow The next 'B' factor for the Indian IT Industry are 'Bigger and Better than the Best, Bang For Buck for Bleeding IT Budgets'. The large Indian IT Services Companies like Infosys, TCS and WIPRO are getting bigger and better, getting into the Billion Dollar Turnover Club. They are succeeding globally because they are delivering quality competitive services - 'Bang for Buck' to their global clients whose IT Budgets are bleeding.

Indeed, if quality conscious choosy multinational companies are turning to India for IT services, you can bet that we are 'Better than the Best' inspite of 'Banishing Budgets'.

Gray Arrow BSP - The 'S' Factors Square Separator The 'P' Factors