The Indian software industry has not come up with ground breaking software innovations even though the software industry in India is the one of the fastest growing industry globally. Countries with a smaller installer software developer base have been able to build companies such as Skype.
Here are some of the constraints Indian industry has to address before truly innovative companies start mushrooming in cities such as Bangalore and Pune
1. The IT Services industry has trained their engineering talent to focus their efforts on well defined tasks. The engineers are not trained to look at the customer problem and come up with solutions
2. The enterpreneurial mindset is prevelant amoung the Indian poor and rick sectors of the population. The Indian middle class mindset is to minimize risks in their career. Most of the engineering talent in India is from the middle class background and it will take them a few more years before they break out from their streotype mold.
3. The level of mentorship provided to the enterpreneurs is not the same quality as in places such as silicon valley. Associations such as TiE, Nasscom are trying to address this constraint
4. The corporate culture in india is tradionally been hierarchical. This has acted as a constraint for bottom up innovation in organizations.
5. The social stigma attached to failures in India doesn’t allow many to take risks with their careers.
