Contents - Connect-World

National Development
Indias intellectual capital its neural network
by Dr Jon Earith, Chief Technology Officer, MBT
India is transforming itself, and the nations economy, through the exploitation of its intellectual
capital, is building upon education to drive the country from service provider to
innovator and technological leader. Indian companies have long offered IT services internationally.
At first, they provided coders for western software, but, over time, added genuine
expertise in design and consultancy. Today, companies in search of overall value look
to Indian offshore partnerships for the distinctive skills and high performance they offer.
Dr Jon Earith is MBTs Chief Technical Officer. Before MBT, Jon held senior positions at IBM Global
Services, Sema, Cable and Wireless and BT where, working at Syntegra, he led the UK systems and consultancy
integration team. Subsequently, Dr Earith founded Telecoms Consultants and Management Ltd one of
the UKs leading independent Telecoms consultancy companies.
Jon obtained a PhD from Nottingham University. Dr Eariths research focused on fibre optic communications
and culminated in the design and installation of the first long haul system in the UK. Dr Earith, an
engineer and MBA as well, has had extensive overseas experience in North America, Brazil, Asia, India and
China.
Over the last fifteen to twenty years,
India has taken great strides forward
in terms of business development, by
increasingly opening up to the outside
world, encouraging foreign investment
and economic reform.
Looking to the future, optimism about
the countrys continuing success on
the global stage is fuelled by a growing
recognition of one of its greatest
strengths — the depth of its intellectual
capital.
One way to understand this is to consider
the advanced computing technique,
known as artificial intelligence,
which models the electronic
brain on the human one—on the neural
network.
In computing, such networks, which
often deploy Bayesian and other techniques
to replicate human intellectual
processing, have enormous power.
One could argue that, in todays India,
there is such power—an entirely
human neural network, a rapidly
developing organism, dependent upon
people who are both highly educated
and highly motivated. That power is
delivering a growing competitive
advantage to India, generating
increasingly rich and rare skill sets
and nurturing new intellectual property.
Educational empowerment
Gandhi said: "The purpose of education
is to bring out the best in you."
The Indian philosophy of
Upanishadas makes it clear that education
is much more than the transference
of knowledge; it is the development
of character.
The goal of education is not to create
individuals who can reiterate todays
knowledge, but to empower them to
describe new solutions to new challenges.
That is precisely what is happening in
India and the result is a transformation
in the nations economy, through
the exploitation of intellectual capital.
It is driving the country from service
provider to innovator and technological
leader.
As far back as the late 1970s and early
1980s, Indian companies offered IT
services internationally. Back in those
days it was simply bodyshopping; providing
coders to implement western
software designs. Indian work proved
reliable and significantly lower-cost
than the home resource.
Nevertheless, you cannot build a longterm
business — or a nations prosperity
— on price. Someone else will
always undercut you. The price
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