IT - Has it been really India's boon?

Motivation - As we were preparing ourselves for the Business Presentation, one of the fellow students mentioned that IT has done good to only a select few in the country. A large mass still remains untouched by the so-called IT Revolution. In fact, one went ahead and said that Mobile phones were a true revolution and not IT.

So it goes that now 50% of India's GDP comes from Services, more specifically software/hardware related services. If we say that 2-3% of India's population is doing this, so it makes up the point of motivation. Let us look at the other part of the fact. India's GDP is US$ 3.3 Trillion as I write this. Can you imagine the kind of money Services sector is pouring in? Yes people might argue with deficits and other factors, but still you end up getting a whole lot of money.

Hypothesis - Money attracts money.

Yes I mean it. And no I don't say this in any negative connotation. Let's say I am a typical s/w engineer who would otherwise have earned less than 10K per month, but thanks to booming industry I start my career anywhere from 15k to 30k per month. I need a place to live since there is a 90% chance that I did my college from a different place. As I start living and settling, I need a person to clean my house, provide me dinner (assuming lunch in the office), provide for a cup of tea and newspaper in the morning, and entertainment over the weekend. Boy, its just me, but am I proving to increase the economic value of everything I touch. And then there are my friends who are doing the same elsewhere.

The kaamwaali bai who used to earn less, now earns more with the new bunch of s/w pros starting to live in the building. Her husband works in the same building as a guard. He also earns marginally more as a result. They can safely choose to send both their kids to govt school and hope for their bright futures. Perhaps they are now also able to send some money to their ailing parents in the village from where they'd migrated a few years back.

Where am I leading this discussion? Well I think its anyone's guess that the benefits from the IT revolution have started to trickle down to every corner of society. What we need is time and patience. What we also need is the proper utilization of this money so that right talent in people is nurtured. After all the biggest lesson that we have learnt from what one of our profs calls "accidental revolution" is that there is no greater investment than the one done on human resources.