Tech guru’s honest words
By Techgirl

There are very few technology journalists and bloggers (and this includes Techgoss) who will always give their absolutely honest opinion about every topic. Many a time, it is because even though we Indians understand the power/marketing games people play, we are too polite to confront it the way Americans do.  India, like most Asian countries, has traditional power structures where few political families call the shots. Every major tech company in India was smart enough to build up excellent working relationships with the tech media. It is a cozy club. Even as Satyam was conning hundreds of thousands of people, it never came under serious media scrutiny.

But there are many exceptions.  Many Indian journalists and bloggers are scrupulously honest and take their job of unbiased reporting very seriously. Tech guru and super blogger Abinash Tripathy is one who prides himself on telling it as he sees it.

Abinash Tripathy is widely credited for masterminding the brilliant Web team that built Zimbra which was sold to Yahoo for $350 million. Abinash joined Yahoo as Managing Director, APAC, but resigned in early 2009 to return to India and work on startups.

Abinash Tripathy has blogged about ‘Why the Great Indian Media Companies will Fail on the Internet’ and it makes for fascinating reading. Some excerpts from his blog post

“
Rediff.com - considered to be the grand daddy of the Indian Internet industry is really starting to show its age.   They are really old in the way they think and execute thanks mostly due to their aging leader Ajit Balakrishnan who is considered to be the father of the Indian Internet industry.  I think we should honor him with the title of grand father of the Indian digital media industry now.  

Web18 – I have a lot of respect for this group.    They have done amazing things in India in a short period of time.   However, I believe that they also lack the leadership to create a huge Internet giant in India.   My assessment is based on what they deliver to the end users (the user experience sucks) and the technology investments and competence of their teams.

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The blog post is long and while one cannot agree with everything, it is good analysis presented well.  Definitely worth reading. While such views would risk Abinash’s future business relationships, it has got many positive comments on his blog.

Techgoss note: Techgirl is a senior Tech journalist who reports on the IT, KPO and KPO Sectors for a leading media house.  In her spare time, she dabbles in satire in her blog http://techgirltalk.blogspot.com