Russian pull of the pure sciences attracts techies

BANGALORE: What General Electric did to India in terms of triggering an IT revolution, Boeing has done to the Russian software industry.
Interestingly, Boeing has the largest engineering centre, outside of the US in Russia and according to president of the Boeing development centre, Sergey Kravchenko, almost one third of its nextgeneration aircraft from the Boeing stable are being designed, in Russia.
This just goes to prove that the Russian scientists are of the highest calibre, when it comes to areas like pure mathematics and applied materials.
And, this is what Indian companies are banking on. To collaborate with them in areas where India is not too strong.
Says Janaki Raman, president and CEO, R&D division, MindTree Consulting, "Russian scientists are the best in the world when you look at areas like analog, radio and algorithms needed in multimedia and other related fields."
India, while churning out some of the finest graduates in IT and software, has started to lose sight of basic sciences. "We have somewhat lost our academic focus when it comes to these areas and are focusing more on computer sciences. If we could collaborate with Russia in these fields, there will be a phenomenal amount of gain," says Laxman Badiga, chief executive - external relations, Wipro Technologies.
Interestingly, before the Russian government opened up its economy, a great amount of innovation had taken place there and there is a significant pile of intellectual property lying around out there." If India can leverage these in, say, areas like marine and healthcare, I am sure, there can be so many ways to improve things in developing countries," says Raman.
According to Krasnov, head of international relationships of APKIT (Russian all-industry association) it is too late to re-invent the wheel by both countries. "With the intellectual resources we have and the creativity and excellence India has in software, a lot could be achieved now."
No doubt, the Russian language is a major barrier. "But, if an effort is taken and you look at it as an opportunity, we can work out miracles," adds Raman.
Now, with Mumbai-based i-flex setting up its office in Moscow, talks between the Indian and Russian IT firms having begun and the Putin government itself putting IT on top of its agenda and is in talk with the IT ministry about a software park in Russia, things could begin to change, industry watchers feel.