Thread by @thekaipullai

I saw some tweet, which said Indians didn't innovate because we chose to be IT coolies.

As a former Coolie myself, once upon a time, I too had such thoughts.

I used to think this IT outsourcing is the bane of India, is killing innovation and should be banned.

Now that I am older (not old), I think IT industry was what was required when it came into being, 30 years ago. It was not what we deserved, but what we needed

One of the main catalysts for innovation is social security. And, Not looking for the next meal, is a pre requiste.

When we started IT outsourcing, we needed something that will generate jobs. Lots of them. Jobs for a population on the cusp of a young, demographic dividend.

The IT industry did, and is doing that. Quite successfully.

30 years ago, thanks to our socialist policies, unemployment was our biggest problem. Nobody got jobs

The angry young man, protesting for job, became a movie trope, because of that

Today, an engineer, from a "not so good" college, is confident of getting a job

Thanks to IT.

Most of us had ideas, plans to probably create companies.

Many of us couldn't because we didn't have the social security. We needed a salary, to satisfy our immediate demands of food, clothing and shelter.

We were so busy surviving, that we didn't have time to innovate.

Now that one generation of engineers has made enough money to ensure the forthcoming generations at least don't have to worry about food, clothing and shelter, innovation will happen.

In fact it is already happening.

Give India time. And please don't criticize IT.

It saved us

As for US, since 1900 it has enjoyed the fruits of accelerating economic and technological returns.

They are and will be in pole position to innovate. But it took them 70 years to reach there.

We are catching up. Hopefully we will get there soon.