Saya mendapat kiriman artikel bagus via japri dari mantan Konjen KJRI Mumbai, Rahardjo Mustadjab. Beliau semasa masih aktif bertugas di Mumbai (Bombay) rajin memotivasi kita2 via milis ppiindia. Tulisan ini bersifat filosofis, bukan teknis. Jadi, mohon maaf bila ada yg tdk berkenan atau 'melanggar' guideline milis ini.
bagi yg tidak sempat baca semuanya (tapi, sangat disayangkan kalau tidak dibaca), ada satu poin penting yg dia kemukakan:
bahwa diaspora India yg dikuatirkan berakibat "brain drain" justru sebaliknya malah menimbulkan "brain gain". Remember my previous point ttg perlunya banyak diaspora indo di amrik spt Carlos, dll.
salam,
(fatih)
Opinion and Editorial - February 16, 2006
The Jakarta Post
Rahardjo Mustadjab, Jakarta
What is the common wealth-generating denominator of
the rich nations on Earth? I believe the correct
answer to this question is technology, not natural
resources, which Indonesia has in abundance.
Technology is often a quantifiable, tangible
commodity; it can be bought if you do not have it. But
if a country has basic needs to satisfy, borrowed
technology often leads to a misplaced allocation of
resources. This is the bitter lesson learned from
Indonesia's recent history. Making technology
Indonesia's own is a long process, one must start by
properly training not only scientists and engineers,
but also lower levels of technicians and craftsmen --
that is what the Japanese did in their Meiji
Restoration.
India's great leader, Jawaharlal Nehru, posed the
question: What will make a future independent India
free from poverty? Sir Ardeshir Dalal, a council
member of the viceroy gave the answer.
First, he said, they needed to establish world-class
centers of higher technical education.
Second, India had to establish equally world-class
research institutes. Acting on this advice, India
established its Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs)
in Kharagpur, Bombay, Madras, Kanpur, Delhi, Guwahati
and Roorkey.
Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew also posed the same question
and came up with exactly the same answer. Lee's
technocrats revamped education in the city-state and
went on to establish the famous Nanyang Technological
University.
Unlike in Indonesia, in India one can find engineering
colleges and other professional schools far more
easily than those offering other majors. For instance,
this writer found that in Mumbai (formerly Bombay)
alone there were 30 engineering colleges. The state of
Tamil Nadu (where Madras is located), meanwhile, has
230 and Pune has 40.
With the sheer number of their engineers, it is a safe
bet to predict that China and India will become
full-fledged world superpowers very soon. Last year,
China graduated 600,000 new engineers and India
250,000. America's 70,000 makes U.S. columnist Thomas
Friedman of the New York Times worry that the U.S.'
dominance in science and technology is on the decline.
The Chinese also happen to be the largest group of
foreign students on U.S. campuses, with Indians coming
second. Many of them too are studying science and
technology.
The concept of the "brain-drain" is history, and
Indians are now talking about "brain gain". Two
million Indians who reside in the U.S., including
35,000 graduates of the famed IIT, earned $60,000 per
person a year, nearly as much as Japanese who reside
in the U.S. make. The amount that is earned by the
Indian diaspora is far above the U.S. median income of
$35,000.
Many have returned to Bangalore, Mumbai or Delhi to
establish enterprises or teach in the new India.
Remember Laksmi Mittal? He set up PT IspatIndo in
Surabaya when he was a youngster, with scrap iron
supplied by the Madurese. With these modest
beginnings, he bought ailing metal industries in the
western hemisphere. His Midas touch turned them into
profitable enterprises. Now he is the biggest metal
industrialist in the world and the richest man in the
United Kingdom. A British subject who remains an
Indian at heart, he invests handsomely in India.
Although the size of its middle class is bigger than
Indonesia's entire population, far more Indians are
still in what technologists call the "first wave" --
agriculture -- and are struggling for access to
infrastructure. Still, many make a living in the
"second wave" -- industry -- working in textiles,
pharmaceuticals, metals, heavy equipment, power
generation, gem mining, you name it.
And, perhaps India is the only "Third World" country
that is also making it big in the "third wave" of
information technology. True, India does have some big
established names in the industry. But software
pioneering firm Wipro's Azim Premji and Infosys
founder Narayana Murhym of the third wave are even
bigger, not only in terms of their fortunes, but also
in their impact as role models.
Under the third wave paradigm, foreign investment goes
to where the brain power is, rather than to where the
market is. Last year, Microsoft invested US$1.7
billion new money into its existing research and
development center in Bangalore. And Cisco Systems put
in $1.1 billion, while chip-maker Intel managed to
chip in $1 billion. Who says the IT industry can only
employ a few people?
IT parks in Bangalore and Pune and Tidal Park in
Chennai (Madras) are now shiny, sprawling complexes.
We can add to them the numerous back offices and call
centers, which employ young university graduates. Tata
Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro and Infosys are
recruiting new IT workers every month. J.P. Morgan
plans to double its IT workers in India to 9,000.
Their job will include solving derivative
transactions, which the market money-crunchers say are
some of the most sophisticated calculations in the
world.
Largely untapped is the outsourcing of law. This is a
$250 billion a year market, two-thirds of it happening
in the US. Being an English-speaking country with a
common law tradition, India has an advantage here, but
not yet on a large scale. Sanjay Kamlani of Pangea3,
in-sources contract preparation, submissions of
patents, business research and negotiations. His
clients are mainly the large US law firms. Instead of
paying at least $300 per hour for the same service at
home, they can save up to 75 percent on costs by
giving the job to the Indians.
The writer is a former diplomat. He retired after
serving in Bombay as Consul General. He can be
contacted [EMAIL PROTECTED].
--
Fatih
http://afsyuhud.blogspot.com
The Jakarta Post
Rahardjo Mustadjab, Jakarta
What is the common wealth-generating denominator of
the rich nations on Earth? I believe the correct
answer to this question is technology, not natural
resources, which Indonesia has in abundance.
Technology is often a quantifiable, tangible
commodity; it can be bought if you do not have it. But
if a country has basic needs to satisfy, borrowed
technology often leads to a misplaced allocation of
resources. This is the bitter lesson learned from
Indonesia's recent history. Making technology
Indonesia's own is a long process, one must start by
properly training not only scientists and engineers,
but also lower levels of technicians and craftsmen --
that is what the Japanese did in their Meiji
Restoration.
India's great leader, Jawaharlal Nehru, posed the
question: What will make a future independent India
free from poverty? Sir Ardeshir Dalal, a council
member of the viceroy gave the answer.
First, he said, they needed to establish world-class
centers of higher technical education.
Second, India had to establish equally world-class
research institutes. Acting on this advice, India
established its Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs)
in Kharagpur, Bombay, Madras, Kanpur, Delhi, Guwahati
and Roorkey.
Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew also posed the same question
and came up with exactly the same answer. Lee's
technocrats revamped education in the city-state and
went on to establish the famous Nanyang Technological
University.
Unlike in Indonesia, in India one can find engineering
colleges and other professional schools far more
easily than those offering other majors. For instance,
this writer found that in Mumbai (formerly Bombay)
alone there were 30 engineering colleges. The state of
Tamil Nadu (where Madras is located), meanwhile, has
230 and Pune has 40.
With the sheer number of their engineers, it is a safe
bet to predict that China and India will become
full-fledged world superpowers very soon. Last year,
China graduated 600,000 new engineers and India
250,000. America's 70,000 makes U.S. columnist Thomas
Friedman of the New York Times worry that the U.S.'
dominance in science and technology is on the decline.
The Chinese also happen to be the largest group of
foreign students on U.S. campuses, with Indians coming
second. Many of them too are studying science and
technology.
The concept of the "brain-drain" is history, and
Indians are now talking about "brain gain". Two
million Indians who reside in the U.S., including
35,000 graduates of the famed IIT, earned $60,000 per
person a year, nearly as much as Japanese who reside
in the U.S. make. The amount that is earned by the
Indian diaspora is far above the U.S. median income of
$35,000.
Many have returned to Bangalore, Mumbai or Delhi to
establish enterprises or teach in the new India.
Remember Laksmi Mittal? He set up PT IspatIndo in
Surabaya when he was a youngster, with scrap iron
supplied by the Madurese. With these modest
beginnings, he bought ailing metal industries in the
western hemisphere. His Midas touch turned them into
profitable enterprises. Now he is the biggest metal
industrialist in the world and the richest man in the
United Kingdom. A British subject who remains an
Indian at heart, he invests handsomely in India.
Although the size of its middle class is bigger than
Indonesia's entire population, far more Indians are
still in what technologists call the "first wave" --
agriculture -- and are struggling for access to
infrastructure. Still, many make a living in the
"second wave" -- industry -- working in textiles,
pharmaceuticals, metals, heavy equipment, power
generation, gem mining, you name it.
And, perhaps India is the only "Third World" country
that is also making it big in the "third wave" of
information technology. True, India does have some big
established names in the industry. But software
pioneering firm Wipro's Azim Premji and Infosys
founder Narayana Murhym of the third wave are even
bigger, not only in terms of their fortunes, but also
in their impact as role models.
Under the third wave paradigm, foreign investment goes
to where the brain power is, rather than to where the
market is. Last year, Microsoft invested US$1.7
billion new money into its existing research and
development center in Bangalore. And Cisco Systems put
in $1.1 billion, while chip-maker Intel managed to
chip in $1 billion. Who says the IT industry can only
employ a few people?
IT parks in Bangalore and Pune and Tidal Park in
Chennai (Madras) are now shiny, sprawling complexes.
We can add to them the numerous back offices and call
centers, which employ young university graduates. Tata
Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro and Infosys are
recruiting new IT workers every month. J.P. Morgan
plans to double its IT workers in India to 9,000.
Their job will include solving derivative
transactions, which the market money-crunchers say are
some of the most sophisticated calculations in the
world.
Largely untapped is the outsourcing of law. This is a
$250 billion a year market, two-thirds of it happening
in the US. Being an English-speaking country with a
common law tradition, India has an advantage here, but
not yet on a large scale. Sanjay Kamlani of Pangea3,
in-sources contract preparation, submissions of
patents, business research and negotiations. His
clients are mainly the large US law firms. Instead of
paying at least $300 per hour for the same service at
home, they can save up to 75 percent on costs by
giving the job to the Indians.
The writer is a former diplomat. He retired after
serving in Bombay as Consul General. He can be
contacted [EMAIL PROTECTED].
--
Fatih
http://afsyuhud.blogspot.com
