India To Overtake US On Number of Developers By 2017

dcblogs writes "There are about 18.2 million software developers worldwide, a number that is due to rise to 26.4 million by 2019, a 45% increase, says Evans Data Corp. in its latest Global Developer Population and Demographic Study. Today, the U.S. leads the world in software developers, with about 3.6 million. India has about 2.75 million. But by 2018, India will have 5.2 million developers, a nearly 90% increase, versus 4.5 million in the U.S., a 25% increase though that period, Evans Data projects. India's software development growth rate is attributed, in part, to its population size, 1.2 billion, and relative youth, with about half the population under 25 years of age. Rapid economic growth is fueling interest in development. India's services firms hire, in many cases, thousands of new employees each quarter. Consequently, IT and software work is seen as clear path to the middle class for many of the nation's young. For instance, in one quarter this year, Tata Consultancy Services added more than 17,000 employees, gross, bringing its total headcount to 263,600. In the same quarter of 2010, the company had about 150,000 workers."

Quanity over Quality? ~nt~

[OverlordQ]

~nt~

College Costs and Preceived Value

[gpronger]

Could part of this be the cost of college here in the States? Also, would be the question, that a decade ago, a position in software development was seen by HS age individuals as strong career move; is that still the case (I think not).

Re:Quanity over Quality? ~nt~

[Anonymous Coward]

This exactly. What are all these developers doing? I don't see an explosion of Indian-made software that matches these numbers.

Not trying to pile on..

[stillpixel]

But, my current experience has been much the same as many here have stated.

Many Indian developers seem to me to lack some critical thinking skills when it comes to working on projects. Perhaps it's a cultural issue that needs to be worked out, but it's like they know how to code.. but there is no thinking going on besides blindly following a written requirement without asking questions or trying to get clarity on something that isn't clear. Instead they code code and code until they are 'done' only to have wasted time coding something that doesn't actually meet the requirement because they didn't ask questions.

But then again.. I am dealing with developers who aren't Indian.. and well they suck too.. but I can't tell if it's their incompetence, their project manager's or just their whole company.

Re:It's all relative

[ebno-10db]

That's exactly what the people of Detroit said about Japanese car manufacturers way back in the 1970s.

No, it isn't. What American car manufacturers said (actually more in the 60's and than 70's) is that the Japanese and VW imports were small low-powered cars that would only appeal to a small (and not very profitable) segment of the American market. They generally did not disparage the design or manufacture, just that they wouldn't appeal to many Americans (toy cars). By the mid to late 70's that was obviously nonsense, with the Japanese market share increasing and the Japanese going up-market. The increasing price of gas in the 70's also made small cars much more attractive.

Re:Quanity over Quality? ~nt~

[Anonymous Coward]

In my experience most software is Indian-made, you just didn't realize it because it has an American brand name on it.

(also, most of the comments on this thread seem pretty racist to me)

Re:College Costs and Preceived Value

[roc97007]

India isn't cheap anymore is the problem. China is quickly becoming not cheap as well. American developers are absolutely cheaper then Taiwanese, South Korean, or Japanese developers. Maybe you can start outsourcing to Nigeria or Pakistan if you want ultra cheap labor for your programming needs.

or bring it back to the US to Mississippi or Alabama. The people are dirt poor, not very well educated, and still have the accent problem, but at least the time zone and payment issue is easier to deal with.

(I am a developer in MS, and I am not sure if I should be happy or sad that my Indian Counterparts have a better quality of life then I do)

If I'm understanding this, one possible conclusion is that offshoring is to a certain extent self-leveling. Offshoring your development causes prices in that market to increase, and prices in local markets to decrease. At some point offshoring no longer makes economic sense, and there might be a general tendency to migrate back to dirt-poor onshore communities, paying them in cigarette wrappers instead of bottle caps, I guess. And so the wrecking ball swings back and forth.

In the meantime, someone local at the company has to deal with the ramifications of code generated on milk crates in a lean-to made of roped together tin sheets.

Re:Not trying to pile on..

[Sri Ramkrishna]

Actually you're right. The problem is that Indian education tends to emphasize memorizing and rote. Concepts are memorized and repeated back without really understanding what it means. I have gone through both American and Indian educations. I've spent most of my schooling in the U.S. however. Let me demonstrate the difference in an anecdote:

1) When I was in India, I had to take a history class. I love history. I wrote a paper in an exam, and I had not only put in the answer as I saw it, but also my personal observations and some speculations. I didn't do well in those answers because tehy weren't exactly the answer in the group. Since the person grading itself probably doesn't more than the group, how do you grade it?

2) I took a course in American history. I wrote with great gusto, exactly same mentality. I not only got one of the top scores in the class, but I had a lot of comments regarding the answer. They loved my answers and my grasp for history. People recognize when you like or love a subject and will grade accordingly.

You can also see this mentality in action when you talk with Indian developers. They will want only enough information to get the job done and specifically to that task. They will do nothing more, and might even try to do less. If you try to provide a concept or something it is met with impatience. If the Indian system of education were to change to alllow students to challenge their teachers then it would be a better educational system. Teachers must actually know the subject they are teaching.

Now there is nothing cultural about this. What's happened is that the asian custom of respecting your elders takes precedence over learning. But in the holy books there is nothing like that. Veda Vyasa was challenged by his students or even by Lord Ganesha as well. There is nothing wrong with questioning and Hinduism always shows devotee questioning the Lord. So, it's something stupid that has been warped.