I would imagine orkut dev is being done by Google India, otherwise it is gonna be frustrating, just like you can't make a shop in India work on Facebook: because none of your friends are using it!
Orkut was initially developed in Mountain View and I know for some people it was a frustrating job for exactly the reason you describe. I am not sure but I think it is primarily developed in Brazil now (where Orkut is very popular).
Orkut dev in Mountain View had a lot of Indian engineers. They've since moved all dev work to Brazil and India.