Why Indian Developers?

A few years back, as I was getting one of my new businesses off the ground, I decided to hire a third party to build the website. My initial thought was to look for a web development firm in Saudi Arabia that might help me bring my concept to life within my budget and timeframe. Many local businesses at the time approached me with what they called "special offers," but the prices they quoted were always higher than I had expected. As a last resort, I sought a third-party developer who could create a functional website within my budget. It surprised me how many Indian businesses were willing to provide me with excellent prices for their products and services and drastically reduced turnaround times. I was more surprised to hear back from businesses outside of India, yet I could tell by looking at the names of the email senders that they were Indian. It is a well-established fact that Indian developers are at the forefront of this industry worldwide. In any case, why India? Several factors, in my view, contribute to this breakthrough.

The tech industry around the world is highly lucrative. About 8 billion smartphones, or so, are online right now, per Statistica. Roughly 8.9 million apps are downloaded and used every day. There has been a rapid rise in both figures during the past year. The Business Standard reports that GitHub, the platform for software engineers to collaborate, has announced that 9.75 million Indian developers are using its service, making India the second largest developer community on GitHub behind the United States. Though this does not account for the overall number of Indian developers, it does show how widespread Indian software engineers are.

As a result of the low hiring expenses compared to the United States and the high pay for the position, software development is expanding in India. Companies in the technology industry often outsource to India because they can pay Indian software engineers less than 10% of the amount that American software developers would cost. Silicon Valley is home to some of the country's best-paying and most respected tech positions, with Fortune 500 businesses like Apple and Microsoft setting the standard for innovation and compensation. Therefore, a bachelor's degree in software development in the United States typically results in an annual salary of around $110,000. A software developer in the United States can make several times as much as their Indian equivalent for performing the same work. In India, a software engineer may expect an annual salary of about $520,000, or around $7,000. This is significantly more than the typical income in India and highlights the attractiveness of working in this business.

Outsourcing to India became popular due to the inexpensive cost of Indian developers. Since the late 1980s, certain industry heavyweights have started relocating American employment overseas. Some divisions within Microsoft, Oracle, and Cisco, to name a few, have recently been sent to India.

India's internet penetration has increased rapidly because of the factors mentioned above. More than half of India's population uses the internet, making it the world's second-most connected country, with 718 million or more users. After India, the United States took third place, with fewer than 250,000,000 users. Many people in India are drawn to the online community due to the invention of smartphones and the ease with which they can access the internet. In 2019, more than 500 million Indians had access to mobile devices. India is a developing country that now has access to the same technological advancements enjoyed by developed nations such as the United States. Many Indian programmers can be attributed to the country's widespread internet access, young population, and eagerness to innovate in technology.

More than 18% of the world's population lives in India, where the population is over 1.4 billion. About 700,000 students enrolled in engineering programs at colleges and universities every year. Statistics given by the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering show that whereas only 20% of 16- to 17-year-olds in the United Kingdom and 30% in the United States are interested in a future in engineering, in India, that number rises to as high as 80%. With such a high percentage, Indian programmers now comprise the largest group in any country.