A friend of mine – a budding entrepreneur, recently mailed me his frank assessment of  today’s IT sector. He’s been working with the who’s who in the industry for over a year now. He’s read the diverse comments on my Infosys and thought he’d have his opinion here. This is what he has to say:

1) None of the IT companies are out there to do social service. They do it to make money and have every right to do so. They may ask the employees to work 12-14 hours a day, if situation demands – and they have every right to do that. Why else should they hire a production engineering student and put him in front of a computer “coding”? Makes sense?

2) Ramalinga Raju should definitely be punished for what he did. However, why is it that people pick on only private companies? How many of them realize that there is “corruption” on a larger scale in our government? Why is it that no one else is held responsible. Mr. Ramalinga raju could have very well hidden facts the way he did all this while. And when he did apologise and accept his mistake – the Sensex crashed and people started blaming him! How many politicians have done more heinous acts? Why is it that none of them have the balls to come out in public?

3) Indian IT industry survives on outsourcing. We have so many “thriving” companies only because the cost of living here is lower and hence we can provide services at a cheaper rate. And when the main clients in US are affected by the global meltdown, how can you expect the companies to spend the same way it used to?

Having heard that from the horse’s mouth, I feel the guy has a point. What do you have to say? Shout it out!