High-Tech Industries, Employment and Global Competitiveness

Contents: Preface. 1. Introduction/S.R. Hashim and N.S. Siddharthan. I. Global competitiveness: 2. Software and hardware firms in India and China: how they differ/Stanley Nollen and N.S. Siddharthan. 3. Small firms in Indian software clusters: building global competitiveness/Aya Okada. 4. Technology acquisition and competitiveness: evidence from the Indian IT industry/K. Narayanan. 5. China's pharmaceutical industry: multinational enterprises and regional agglomeration/Haiyan Zhang and Daniel Van Den Bulcke. 6. An analysis of sourcing and sales strategies of foreign subsidiaries in the South of China/Filip De Beule, Daniel Van Den Bulcke and Luodan Xu. 7. Small islands, new technologies and globalisation: a case of ICT Adoption by SMEs in Mauritius/Kaushalesh Lal. II. Employment: 8. MNEs, product differentiation, skills and employment: lessons from the Indian experience/B.L. Pandit and N.S. Siddharthan. 9. Imported technology and employment: evidence from panel data on Indian manufacturing firms/Atsushi Kato and Arup Mitra. 10. Employment profile of the ICT sector in India/Sandip Sarkar and Balwant Singh Mehta. III. Science and technology: a perspective: 11. Scientific developments: a vision/G. Baskaran. 12. Investing in a technology-rich future/P.V. Indiresan. Notes on contributors. Index.

"High-tech, knowledge-based industries like information technology, biotechnology, and pharmaceuticals have played an important role in the transition of the Indian and Chinese economies--the two largest and fastest developing economies in the world today. This process has been characteristically marked by the expanding reach of multinational enterprises, flows of foreign direct investment. Unprecedented advancement of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and knowledge based industries, and infusion of ICT across the entire spectrum of industries and activities.

This interdisciplinary book offers an in-depth understanding of the behaviour of firms in these industries, analysing the strategies they adopt in a globally competitive environment, the role they have played in ushering in the growth revolution in China and India, and the contribution they have made to the nature and growth of employment. Findings are based mostly on data collected through fieldwork and surveys. The book also discusses the emerging nature of scientific and technological developments like nano-technology, novel materials, spintronics, and quantum computers, suggesting that in the future, knowledge and technology will become the real sources of wealth for nations.

This book will be of particular interest to those in the fields of economics, international business and industrial and technological development management."