Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Tuesday, Mar 22, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Tuesday, Mar 22, 2005 |
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Info-Tech
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Outlook Role of IT in governance to rise: Maran Our Bureau
The Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology, Mr Dayanidhi Maran; the Vice Minister for International Affairs and Communications, Japan, Mr Kozo Takahara (second from right); and the Chairman, Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council, Mr Nalin Kohli (extreme right); visiting the stalls at the Indiasoft 2005 exhibition in Chennai on Monday. — Bijoy Ghosh
Chennai , March 21 THE Government has targeted to achieve $50 billion of IT software and services exports from India by the year 2008. This is besides the export target of $10 billion in the hardware sector. This presents tremendous opportunities for all, including MNCs in India, according to Mr Dayanidhi Maran, Union Minister of Communications and IT. The State Governments in India are increasing their share in IT spending to spread IT culture to cover cross section of the civil society. "One can see a futuristic trend of an ever-increasing role of IT in local and rural governance, which in turn will provide tremendous opportunities to companies establishing a manufacturing base for PCs in India," he said in his inaugural speech at Indiasoft 2005, a two-day ICT event organised by Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council. Over 200 foreign delegates are attending the event, and around 60 exhibitors are displaying their products and solutions in the event at the Chennai Trade Centre. The Ministry's goal was to go beyond outsourcing and software development for exports, he said. "We are trying very hard to bring about an IT revolution within our country. We are connecting villages, blocks and municipalities. Very soon, sitting in Delhi, I will be able to know details of land title of an unknown farmer in Bihar, Kashmir or Kanyakumari. This is going to plug our rural-urban divide." He added: "The US has Hotmail, Yahoo, Apple and Oracle, while we can boast of Wipro, Infosys, TCS, CTS and Polaris. However, if we have to move up the value chain, we need to do more in the areas of research and development, explore and create niche areas and establish unique images of excellence and reliability." Mr Brijesh Kumar, Secretary, Department of Communications and IT, said that IT had given India tremendous brand equity in the global market. In 2003-04, total revenues of Indian software and services industry were over $16.5 billion, including domestic revenues of $4 billion. The industry is likely to grow to around $22 billion with domestic revenues of $5 billion during current year. The contribution of the IT industry to India's gross domestic product has increased to nearly four per cent from 1.5 per cent in 1998-99, he said. In 2003-04, IT exports touched $13 billion, representing 15 per cent of the country's overall exports. By the end of this fiscal, the total export of software and hardware was expected to be $18 billion, he said. Mr Kozo Takahara, Vice-Minister for International Affairs, Ministry of International Affairs and Communications, Japan, said that his country's relationship with India on IT has been growing rapidly. A number of Japanese firms are interested in having relationship with Indian firms. A Japan-India ICT forum had been formed in Japan, and he wanted a similar forum in India for better relationship in ICT.
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