Indian Google Doodle prize: Cheaper and delayed
By Shalini Singh

Google has done much to democratize our world and improve our quality of life.  It has even donated tens of millions of dollars to charitable causes.  Google pays and treats its employees well.  That is why it is difficult to understand why the same Google contest offers winners in the west substantially more than kids in India.

The Google India ‘Doodle 4 Google - My India’ competition was won by tech hub Gurgaon based whiz kid Puru Pratap.  Puru’s design was absolutely brilliant and brought great joy to our country.

Puru, like his winning counterparts in US and UK, won a substantial donation to his school.  While Puru only got a laptop for himself, his counterpart in US was given a laptop and a $15,000 college scholarship.  The winner in UK won a week long trip to Disneyland for 4 members of his family. This all expenses trip to Disneyland for 4 Britishers would have cost a minimum of $10,000.

Techgoss broke the story on Nov 16, 2009.  Soon, it was picked up by other media.

America’s most powerful blog group Gawker published an article ‘Indian kids work cheap for Google’ and then linked to Techgoss and told their readers

“
Asked Shalini Singh at the Indian website TechGoss: "Are we children of a lesser Google?" Maybe. Or perhaps Google is trying to deliver India's kids a lesson in the harsh realities of globalization.
“

Respected Indian blog Sepia Mutiny linked to Techgoss and told their readers

“
Let me see…let me do the math…I dunno, maybe you need a special algorithm or something to make these two things equal? Because to my eyes, it looks like the Indian kid is getting royally screwed. It looks like the same contest, run by the same company, is rewarding a far lesser prize to the winner from one country than to the winner from another country.

The writer of the quoted piece goes on to point of various other prizes that are awarded equally to winners from all countries. She concludes:

Are we children of a lesser Google? Or is the Indian market less important? Perhaps Bing has the answer.

Dammit. I like Chrome.
“

One of India’s most respected business/technology blogs Pluggd.in raised the issue for debate among its readers

“
Question for Google (especially Google India)

Any specific reason why Indian contest was stripped off the scholarship? Care to clarify why Indian schools got only 10% of what US/UK schools received as ‘prize money’?
“

To be fair to Google, many readers and commentators of these articles felt Google was right and no one should question their business plan as this is what most technology companies do in developing countries. Others felt that the Indian whiz kid designer should have been given at least $1000 for himself if his American counterpart was given $15000.

What was most interesting was that Google has yet to hand over the laptop to the Indian winner and cash to his school.

On Nov 21, the Indian winner Puru’s elder brother wrote to popular Indian business/tech blog Pluggd.in

“
Shaurya says:

November 21, 2009 at 10:24 am
Hey guys!!…I am the winner’s brother and we are satisfied with the prizes Puru has been given….the only thing that is really annoying is that we haven’t received the laptop an the technological grant yet…….Google should try and arrange 4 d laptop at the earliest as 10 days have passed since the results have been announced…

And yeah…..I request Google to have “some mercy on the kid”….
“

Why is Google taking 10 days to get the prize across?  At the very minimum, the family deserves a date on which the prize will be handed over. Perhaps, Google is holding the prize to work out the best way to upgrade it to the same levels as US and UK.

(Techgoss had published the following on Nov 16, 2009)

Google: Less value prizes for Indians
By Shalini Singh

Google has done much to democratize our world and improve our quality of life.  It has even donated tens of millions of dollars to charitable causes.  Google pays and treats its employees well.  That is why it is difficult to understand why the same Google contest offers winners in USA and UK substantially more than kids in India.

Google India had launched a ‘Doodle 4 Google - My India’ contest in August. The Doodle is the logo design you see on the Google homepage. The theme of this competition was 'My India'.  On November 12, Google India announced at Taj Ambassador Hotel that tech hub Gurgaon based 4th standard school kid Puru Pratap has won the competition.  Puru’s doodle ‘My India – Full of Life’ was absolutely brilliant and featured on Google’s home page on Nov 14, 2009 (pictured above).  Everyone loved it.

Apart from the satisfaction of seeing his brilliant creation on the Google home page and of getting a gold star on his resume, young whiz kid Puru Pratap won a laptop computer for himself,  a t-shirt with his doodle and Rs. 1 lakh (approx 2100 US dollars) for his school.

But his counterparts in USA and UK won substantially more. According to Google their US winner “will win a $15,000 college scholarship to be used at the school of their choice, a trip to the Google New York Office, a laptop computer, and a t-shirt printed with their doodle. We'll also award the winner's school a $25,000 technology grant towards the establishment/improvement of a computer lab.”

Admittedly, an Indian rupee will buy more in India than the dollar in USA.  But if the American child can get $15,000 towards their college education, why should not the Indian child also get a minimum of $2000 towards their education?  Why $2100 for the winner’s school in India and $25000 for the same school in USA?

It is too idealistic too expect total parity.  But perhaps some kind of pro rata would be fairer.

But there are many competitions run by American and European companies that offer equal prizes wherever you live in the world.  American software testing company uTest has a community of 14000 professional testers in 151 countries.  The uTest Bug Battle offers the same prize whether you live in America or India.

Vodafone Europe has just announced an Appstar competition with prizes worth 1 million Euros.  Indians can participate and Vodafone will give them the same prize what they offer contestants from UK and Germany.

The US Department of Defense has announced $40,000 prize to anyone in any part of the world who can detect their 10 balloons moored in ten fixed locations in US.  This competition will take place on Dec 5, 2009. If an Indian scientist wins this he will get the same prize as his counterpart in NASA searching for the 10 moored balloons.

Google owned YouTube has international competitions where the prizes are equal.

Perhaps I am overreacting and being oversensitive.  Perhaps we should happy with whatever prizes are given to us.

Are we children of a lesser Google? Or is the Indian market less important? Perhaps Bing has the answer.