Comment by 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.