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Vendor Accent
The Great Indian Developer
 An
ode to the Indian developer, that linchpin in India’s software technology
framework. By KP Unnikrishnan
Technology today has become a key driver in India’s development
and India today is recognised and acknowledged the world over as an IT leader
due to its ability to leverage technology. The Indian software developer forms
the linchpin in the entire technology framework and thus a thriving developer
community in India directly translates into greater technology prowess for the
country.
The growing importance of this community is further ratified by forecasts released
by IDC. According to IDC, the Asia Pacific region is set to become the largest
market for software developers by 2007. IDC predicts that the total number of
professional developers worldwide is set to soar over the next few years, from
10.1 million in 2004 to 14.9 million in 2008. India is one of the countries
tipped to see the most rapid expansion, with predicted compound annual growth
rates (CAGR) of 24.5 percent. The growth of professional developers in India
and other countries in Asia will help the Asia Pacific region overtake North
America and become the largest market for professional coders in 2006-2007.
Developer Community: The Indian Rises
Today not only the metros but also Tier II cities and towns are seen as the
nurturing ground for technology companies. India today has more than six lakh
developers and that number is growing.
Each company today is looking at this community as they constitute the sub continent’s
strongest professional pool. Also the fact that the Indian Software Industry
is today has received global recognition and has been endorsed as the next Silicon
Valley Hub.
Tech Innovation: Cost-effectiveness is the mantra
A techie, more fondly known in India than a developer, can develop low cost
Web management systems, provide programming languages and reinvent the software
to a unimaginable level. For example, when Sun Microsystems open sourced Solaris,
a developer from Sun’s India Engineering Centre made it bootable from a
Live CD. A student developer went a step further and re-coded the Operating
System in such a manner that today it is bootable from a pen drive. This is
more effective as currently although India is leading the IT front, the backbone
is yet to switch to hi-speed Internet for a richer experience. This makes the
Indian developer more competent, as he works hard to achieve in adverse situations
and is able to make headway with competing technical blueprints, which in the
end will make a critical difference in the marketplace. Today IT companies are
channelling billions on R&D and are jostling with each other in vying for
the Indian developer, and they are not just targeting the IITians but are going
a step further looking for talent in the interiors.
Future scope
The Indian Developer community has grown both in terms of the number of developers
to the number of projects that are being done by them. Today the developer is
working on not just Web based application software and writing code but he is
also working at improving the country’s software competence as well as
equipping people by providing a cost effective and simple computing experience.
The future is most certainly bright; perhaps the developer will help a collective
leapfrog in the tech space with all the support he is currently getting.
The author is Director-Strategic Alliances and Teleweb sales
at Sun Microsystems India.
He can be reached at kunnik@sun.com
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