[kamaal]

>>I am a software engineer and many people are surprised to see that I have not moved to a managerial role.

It is extremely wrong to say Managerial roles are there for the taking and good developers are not taking them.

If you are a good developer most managers are extremely hostile to you. Because they think if you become a manager you become a threat to their job. Therefore they prevent you from becoming a manager.

Its typical power play.

If you are really good and have real chops in you to do any big stuff, you are ruined in India. People will try to get rid of you anyway they can. The society as a whole hates merit people here. Because most are crooks and they don't like seeing real people getting rewards. That would disrupt their ecosystem.

If you are good, India is the last place you want to be. Move out, one way or other for your own good.

[shivaodin]

I couldn't agree more. I will not go as far as saying that India is the last place which values meritocracy, but it would be a wrong assessment that the general populace values meritocracy and hard work. The power structures in place give very little incentive to hard work and smarts. The managers, at least in IT services, are, to put it mildly, incompetent. The pay-offs of being a good developer are extremely small. The crabs in a bucket mentality drags everyone down. The odds are totally stacked against a competent software engineer.

[kamaal]

>>I will not go as far as saying that India is the last place which values meritocracy

The issue isn't just limited to software companies. You see in a country like India question papers leak, people cheat in exams. Teachers have their favorite pets at schools and colleges whom they reward with marks unfairly. What happens when a populace of this kids goes to do jobs? They bring the same culture everywhere. Which is why you will see every one wants to cheat at everything.

Everything from cheating at taxes(fake rent receipts), jumping traffic signals, promotions at office, voting for wrong interests, bribes, corruption etc etc. This permeates to every aspect of our nations very existing character.

People, society and governments have wrong priorities in India. Most think building roads or some fancy infrastructure will solve their issues.

In reality Human resources are what matters in building a country. The rest happens on auto pilot.

I won't say everything on west runs on Merit. But the situation is definitely better than India in my experience. Most importantly I have seen better the quality of human resources better a country turns out to be.

My guess is India will take a lot of time, several decades, may be even centuries to fix its core issues.

[nojvek]

I haven't spent a lot of time in India so I could be wrong but as an external observer: India's GDP per capita is still quite low.

A large part of the country is undeveloped. Fixing roads and infrastructure definitely helps but reducing population and creating better health should help as well.

India is a huge exporter of engineering talent. This is bad because it's a brain drain for the country. If I was getting SV level salaries, India would make sense.