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| Edited By: Satish John |Source: DNA |Updated: Mar 30, 2018, 03:48 AM IST
At S Ramadorai’s residence in south Mumbai, Diwali this year was more sparkling than ever, thanks to the Chinese.
In the past, lighting diyas (earthen lamps) was a challenge, as the breeze from the Arabian Sea across his verandah would blow them out before long. But this year, the flames flickered long and gorgeous.
“That’s because they were electric, not the traditional clay ones. Because of that, I and many others had a sparkling Diwali,” said the vice-chairman of Tata Consultancy Services.
Ramadorai was speaking at the Observer Research Foundation’s Forum for India-China Citizens’ Dialogue commemorating the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two nations on Tuesday.
The reference to Chinese ingenuity and manufacturing skills was not lost on the audience. After all, the first multinational computer software firm to set up base in China was none other than TCS.
India’s No.1 software company set up a 74:26 joint venture with a local partner to bid for big government contracts in 2005, after having tested the waters since 2002.
Today, almost 90% of its employees there are ethnic Chinese, Ramadorai said. And TCS’ 100% arm there is on a par with delivery centres across the world.
So much so, Carlos Ott, the well-known Uruguayan architect who helped build several TCS delivery centres including the one at Chennai, also built the China facility.
The company had a three-pronged strategy to enter China — tap opportunities arising from multi-national corporations entering China who would require information technology support; set up a sourcing base in the country to serve markets like Japan, Korea and Taiwan; and third, cater to the booming domestic demand.
“For the Chinese, anybody is welcome,” said Ramadorai, pointing out some similarities between the cultures of the two nations. For one, both Bollywood and Chinese movies typically have “happy endings, where truth triumphs over evil.”
But the similarities end there.
“They (Chinese) are in a hurry to do things. They are doers rather than debaters,” said Ramadorai, pointing to the 10 years the Bandra-Worli sea link took from drawing board to construction. In Guangzhou, a five-star hotel was razed as it came in the way of development.
The Chinese way of doing things in scale is also due to the government’s omnipresence, he added. “The way to learn from them (on their scale and speed) is by being there.”
TCS has sure learnt a lot from the association.
Today, as it readies for the third wave in China, it has won contracts from Bank of China, and is ideally placed as the country puts in place a depository system.
“We see big opportunities,” said Ramadorai, who is also the chairman of CMC Ltd, a group company that has written software code for stock exchanges, Indian Railways and depositories, among others.
Tata, in Chinese means two pagodas, which could well be India and China. If the software and hardware skills are combined, it would be a world beater, said the sixty-six-year-old, who retired as the CEO of TCS last year.
As per the group policy, CEOs of Tata companies have to retire at 65. Ramadorai has one lament though: the airlines still haven’t felt the need to have daily flights between Delhi and Shanghai.
