None of this is really specific to India. The same observations can be made anywhere. The fact is, most enterprise software development doesn't require much in

None of this is really specific to India. The same observations can be made anywhere. The fact is, most enterprise software development doesn't require much in the way of thinking, the challenges are cultural or organisational rather than technical. But that is fine. The majority of programmers (I will avoid my thoughts on coders vs programmers vs software developers here) are quite happy to convert a spec doc into code and throw it over to QA day after day. Those that want to get more out of their work life, and enjoy some more freedom to decide not just how to do things but take part in deciding what should be done, or perhaps want to involve themselves across the wider business of delivering software solutions have a lot of options open to them. They can be leaders, or start startups, or become ScrumMasters or coaches. They can move into customer facing roles if they so desire, or take part in developing tools that other developers use. They can involve themselves in academia or open source. They can become architects or help design the frameworks that encapsulate a lot of the technical complexity so that less engaged developers can get going quickly. I think it is all good. There is enough work of the right kind for everyone. We will always need lots of people happy to just do what they are told for 8 hours per day, and we will likewise need a fewer number of people to step up and take on more advanced tasks. This is not specific to India, it is fairly universal in our profession.