Software Exports: Reply to Mr. Gautam Kumar

["Dr. Subroto Roy" <sroy@vgsom.iitkgp.ernet.in>]

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> >Dr. Roy has dismissed the study's projections as "nonsense",
> >"pie-in-the-sky" and "industry hype", without providing an iota of
> >substantiation to support his argument. Surely the good doctor can
> >attempt to put together an intelligent argument to substantiate his
claims.

Not so.  The burden of proof is not on me.  It is on those who wish to
make
the claim of $x billion software exports to
(a) indicate what they are measuring and how they are measuring it;
(b) what their precise results were as of what date
(c) where their experiment can be publicly found and replicated or
advanced
by e.g. by a Masters-level student or a Doctoral-level research
candidate.

I have not been able to physically get my hands on the McKinsey-Nasscom
study for the simple reason that the Nasscom website (when I looked at
it
some months ago) says I have to pay them Rupees 10,000 to get a copy.
Has
anyone at IPI actually seen the study?   Everyone has of course heard
the
hype that has emanated from it.    Perhaps we could use Rs. 10,000 from
some
kind IPI donor to get the study and then read it through and through;
e.g.
post it on the website and then dissect it properly.

Mr. Kumar says:

> I think the $50 billion export and $87 billion export target mentioned
in
> the Mckinsey/Nasscom report, is a case of setting an ambitious target
in
> the hope that it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I am sure he is right.  But no responsible Indian citizen can want to
build
economic policy for this country of hundreds of millions of materially
poor
people on that kind of hype.   We have many other things to think about
like
e.g. the monetization of the budget deficit.

Mr. Kumar may please identify himself a little better than by his email
address.

Subroto Roy





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