India’s Better Lit Future

BRIC Nations include Brazil, Russia, India, and China, all developing new markets that are going to change the face of the world for the future. Putting the I in BRIC India has the most potential going forward. They have the ability to become a technological shining star guiding the new way to the future. Why does India have such potential, so much to put it ahead of the rest?

The Indian government led by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, is in terms of infrastructure striving to create a generation acclimated to the future and ready to change it. India needs focus on developing the ability to become the shining star of the future. This shows in the steadily increasing tech based economy, 2005- 2010 we saw the numbers rise from 17% to a now 31% technological based exports. Getting this number up to 50% like a post WWII Japan had, becoming the technological giant of the early 90’s. They are going to be able to do so because of how much the government will be making now and later. They will be making so much because of outsourcing; India is a very appealing area for such companies that need a cheap but large workforce. Normally under these circumstances, the U.S. government tould take steps to restrict such a flow of jobs out of the country,especially in the depths of a recession in which Americans desperately need jobs. The government has only not taken such steps because it fears India's retribution, as well as the happy occurrence of reverse outsourcing. Companies base themselves in foreign countries and save money by doing business in India. Companies' saving of money lead to lower prices and thus increased sales, to make sales they have to set up shop world wide, such as back in America… Reverse Outsourcing. It lowers prices, creates jobs over time and keeps companies intact. This all plays back into the growth of India as a nation and bringing it towards the technological goals it wants to reach to be the “shining star” of the future. 

India prevails as the most prominent prospect among BRIC nations and the US has the ability to help create growth in these areas. President Obama has already created a 15 billion dollar investment plan in India’s technology economy shift. If India can set itself up for reaching Japan like ability the possibilities are limitless, and the future much brighter.

   -J. Sullivan

In Praise of Innovation

            The United States needs a second act. Or maybe at this point it would be something like a 12^th act. But semantics aside, there needs to be something new to remake the economy for the next century. However, it seems like it will be quite some time before the main character of this second act is made known. Until then, the past successes need to make a comeback. The U.S.’ great tech boom a decade ago has not spent all its power to improve the economy of the United States. Facebook, one of the last great stories from Silicon Valley, has yet to even have an I.P.O. Unfortunately for all of us who saw The Social Network, it is abundantly clear that United States needs to pull a few more tech Start-Ups out of its hat.

            Local governments continue to chase the web’s power to create an enormous amount of high paying, high-knowledge jobs, but the Federal Government has done nearly nothing. In a time when state level austerity will threaten any efforts on the part of localities to create more tech innovation, the Federal Government needs to step in. A simple incubator program is all that is necessary to restart the U.S.’ potential for innovation. The idea of an incubator program is to provide young entrepreneurs with the money and office to develop their ideas. These programs are already in place in Detroit and New York. A national version, creating a network of centers in the ten largest cities in the United States could not only spur innovation that would rejuvenate the most decaying of America’s inner urban areas, but also unite the country. Such a system could connect aspiring small business owners with those whose skills would allow them to realize their dreams. The United States’ geography had lent itself to small regions dominating certain industries, Wall Street in Finance, Silicon Valley in technology. Business incubators could spread the economic benefits of new businesses across the country, using the social networking technology of the last decade to put together people who otherwise would never have met, helping to avoid the economic disparities that have plagued the U.S. in the recent past. This is the best way to expand the United States’ economy today and for the future.

            -G. Ferrante