You need to phrase things differently: "What will be the first thing you'll be working on?" instead of "Do you understand?", for example.
When we changed tactics to just asking for an estimation without any direction from us, we would get much more realistic estimates. Took a lot of work to convince our project manager though.
Describe your next steps...
Please create a step by step project plan in {tool name}...
Another issue is waiting two weeks. Never, ever, wait two weeks. With any outsourced team you need much more frequent check-ins otherwise you run the risk of being blind-sided by huge project delays.
We assumed that we were dealing with a (semi-) autonomous developer or team of developers, who would ask for clarification or assistance if needed.
We made ourselves available, we didn't expect miracles (it was big product with a team you had years of knowledge about it attached, though they were working on a small, isolated area), but our expectations were just out of line with what we got.
In the end the developer turned out to be able to do the work, though did not excel. The biggest hurdle to cross was this mismatch of expectations.
The level of incompetence was at a level where you kind of look around and wonder if you are on some kind of hidden camera tv-show.
Never again will I work with a client that has outsourced anything that touches my work to Cognizant, Infosys or Cap Gemini.
(I think I screwed up but you get the idea!)
That would probably be equally evil and effective.
Even when those aren't issues yes/no questions rarely have the precision that you want, often you can phrase a question to seem like it only has a binary answer, but the real answer is way more complicated. Basic project management principles come into play here. As other posters have commented, asking what someone will be working on first, setting up tracking tasks etc.
If you ask a German "How are you?", they will tell you they caught a flu and they bumped their toe on the way to the bathroom.
As a German, it's hard work for me to respond appropriately to the American question. But I understand that I don't blame the American for being dishonest.
It's even harder for me to work with the Indian "yes", but I understand they don't mean to be dishonest.
It's ironic you're lamenting Indian cultural inflexibility, while simultaneously imposing your own by refusing to simply reword a question.
Engineers get results with the world they're given, not the world they wish they had.
We each have a right to our own perspectives on the world.
Evidence I see points to better engineering results from countries that don’t “culturally” lie.
I'm just a lowly eastern-European contractor banking on real estate prices in Silicon Valley remaining ridiculous on one side, and Indian contractors[0] remaining unreliable on the other.
[0] Those of them who have lower rates of course. Reliable Indian contractors have proper rates - and good for them.
You believe they are not being honest but they ARE!!
If they can not do the work, they tell you, but in their own language, not directly but in subtle ways.
They are expressing it, and in their mind you understand them, because they are actually saying it. It is just that you are deaf to their language, you are not looking to the nuances, and just ignore those signals they are emitting.
Then comes the blaming and the pointing fingers.
I wonder exactly what he or she had been doing for those two weeks, just staring into space? Were you being billed for that time?
It is so rude for them.
You are not telling them what you believe you are telling.