The Hindu Business Line : Don't miss domestic markets, IT sector told

THE two-day fifth edition of Connect - a conference on information technology, communications and technology - began here today with the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, Ms Jayalalithaa, pointing out that the Indian IT industry was facing challenges from cost-competitive destinations such as the Philippines, China, Brazil and eastern European countries.

Other countries such as South Africa, Vietnam, Argentina and Romania were fast emerging as likely challengers, she said inaugurating Connect 2005, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), here today.

The Indian IT industry had to maintain competitiveness without compromising on quality, she said and added that one way of doing this was to move up the value chain from "business processes" to "knowledge processes". Indian IT majors who were winning huge contracts against stiff competition abroad also needed to dominate the domestic market.

"You cannot afford to lose the advantage of the huge domestic market that our own country offers. This calls for redefinition of the known business models and processes," she said. Data security was an area that threatened to erode investor confidence and had to be tackled effectively, she said.

On the occasion, Ms Jayalalithaa released Tamil Nadu's policy for the IT enabled services sector and also handed over land documents for the knowledge industry township, an idea mooted by the CII, on the Old Mahabalipuram Road in Chennai to Wipro Ltd, HCL Technologies Ltd and Satyam Computer Services Ltd.

The theme of Connect 2005 is `Strategies to accelerate growth of Indian IT industry'. The plenary sessions include growth pattern of global IT market by 2010 vis-à-vis India's position; strategy for growth and moving up the value chain; and opportunities and challenges in data security.

Connect 2005 would also feature exclusive half-day sessions on two verticals - Telecom; and Banking Financial Services and Insurance.

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page