Can Gates buy off Indian programmers? Gates takes on Linux in India, in an effort to win the battle for the future by winning over Indian software developers of today. Gates is fighting a war, and he knows it, even if he won't admit it publicly.

In his third visit to India, which ended on Thursday and which he called his most radical yet, Microsoft chief Bill Gates unveiled a US$400 million investment plan over the next three years for the country. According to Gates, this will be Microsoft's biggest non-manufacturing investment outside of the United States, and the largest share of this - $280 million - will be devoted to the development of skills around the "dot net" platform to increase business opportunities for Indian companies by leveraging Microsoft product development.

Even though Linux has crept into widespread acceptance in Indian academic and government organizations (free is always good, and the hidden costs of open-source can be buried even deeper in Indian bureaucracies), Gates task may be easier than it looks. Indian programmers and software development firms are not a religous bunch, muttered prayers to Lord Ganesha to speed up that green card notwithstanding. They go where the money is, where the consulting dollars are marginally higher. They are also, paradoxically, a conservative bunch, who prefer low-return long-term income generation over risky investments in fleeting technology. If Microsoft can make a convincing case for .NET, and for the long-term viability of the MS development platform and web services, and demonstrate diminishing returns in keeping up with Linux/Java/PHP open source, Indian programmers will stampede in an attempt to be Gates's new high priests. The one thing Linux has going for it in India that Microsoft cannot hope to match is it's elitist appeal. It is the Bramhim of OS technologies. It affords India's programmer elite, already drawn from it's upper and middle classes, a much-needed opportunity to draw finer lines of social distinction and seperation. The caste appeal of certain kinds of technology are very real. It's what gives the Oracle DBA with his arcane SQL+ knowledge, a certain cachet in Indian high-tech social circles, one that is not matched by a VBA/MS Office programmer, even if the latter makes more money on a given project. If Gates throws enough money at academic institutions, puts just the right amount of, er, monetary incentives in the pockets of the right pols, helps bring in consulting tie-ups and a measurably larger flow of dollars, he could actually change this perception. The Indian economy is still very much a crony capitalist mish-mash. He could make .NET cool, using economic tactics alone..! The .NET programmer suddenly becomes top dog. The open source wizards get sent back to their free sandbox... And some people think George W. Bush runs an evil empire... sigh!