The budget announced this year in the context of IT industry has initiatives towards skill building and Information connectivity especially to the rural areas. This indeed is a positive step forward towards making real investment in people who form the backbone of the IT services industry.

Alright, so we had the edge when it came to the initial entry in the BPO market. Advantage India was based on pure play labor arbitrage.

Often, when I look at the Indian IT industry, I am forcibly reminded of a similar industrial situation a couple of centuries ago. It is one that every Indian school going kid of a certain age is familiar with: India, which had been famed for its high-count, fine-quality cotton since the centuries before the Common Era, was reduced to supplying raw material to the powers-that-were.

While there are plenty of indications that the techno power is likely to shift from the West to the East, the weathercock has yet to crow in the winds of change. Both India and China have yet to charter a long way between the cup and the lip.

Any one visited Shanghai, recently? When I did, I felt caught in a time warp - was I stepping into a place that was already in the future or was I so far, living way back in the past? The question is rhetorical, though the possibilities it throws up are at the very least, interesting. Look up Shanghai's Urban Planning Exhibition Hall and you'll see what I mean.