The ascendency of India as an economic world power

We often complain that foreign companies are mainly exploiting the cheap labor of India in the field of technology and are not giving back anything to the country except generating some jobs. When it comes to research, this is true. Foreign companies are not interested to invest in the research sector in India. So, it is nice to see that Yahoo is coming up with 'Big Thinker Series' in India.

The Hindu reported:

Yahoo Research today announced the launch of the 'Big Thinker Series' -- a string of quarterly lectures on science, technology and the internet -- in India starting from next month.

 

Acclaimed speakers from Yahoo would share expertise and global perspective on the constantly changing world of technology, online products and communities and the internet space in general, Head of Yahoo Research, Prabhakar Raghavan told a press conference here.

"The lectures will target academia, scientists, the corporate world and the media," he said.

 

Data mining expert Raghu Ramakrishnan would speak on "community systems: the world online" (January eight), Andrew Tomkins, focused on next generation search technology, on "web search and online communities" (April five), R Preston McAfee, an authority on industrial organisation, on "pricing" (July 23) and Ricardo Baeza-Yates, a web retrieval and mining expert, on "web mining or the wisdom of the crowds (November 26), it was stated.

It is a nice effort from Yahoo. Of course, I would love to see Yahoo organizing it more often. I would also love to see other companies organizing similar lectures. India is doing well in outsourcing but it is time that Indian workers go to the next level and come up with world class innovations. This kind of lecture series can contribute in this regard.