The IT industry should look beyond numbers and work towards empowering people with information to achieve inclusive growth, Mr Kapil Sibal, Minister of Communications and IT and Human Resources, said.
In his inaugural address at the Nasscom's annual conference India Leadership Forum 2011 that began here on Tuesday, Mr Sibal said there was an inextricable link between technology and people.
Next revolution
“The next revolution is forming a global community on the basis of increased connectivity between individuals. As we go along, delivering communication with integrity is going to be challenge,'' Mr Sibal said.
The IT industry should work in sync with other technologies such as geospatial technology to improve connectivity of people and inclusive growth for development in education and health, he said.
Observing that the political set up needs to change its perspective of looking at IT in purely revenue terms, the Minister said: “My personal view is that information is at the heart of freedom of speech and key to empowerment.''
“We need to innovate and experiment. In my Chandini Chowk constituency of Delhi, we are mapping all unauthorised constructions with the aid of satellite imagery and also noticed that majority of people in Delhi do not pay house tax,” he said.
The Nasscom Chairman, Mr Harsh Mangalik, said the Indian IT industry had come a long way from $1 billion revenue in 1996 to $75 billion today. “By 2020, this is expected to grow to $225 billion. Over 80 per cent of this growth would come from new markets, new domains and new competencies,” he said.
In this context, nurturing talent is critical as there “are 600 million youth who are about 24 years of age with raw talent”, he said.
In his welcome remarks, Mr Som Mittal, President of Nasscom, said IT industry was back on the growth path after reeling under the recession of the last two years. “India offers huge opportunity with many technology drivers. The objective of this forum is to recognise new opportunities and new drivers of growth,” he said.
AWARDS
Mr Sibal has also presented Nasscom awards under various categories to the Andhra Pradesh Government for ICT-led Innovation, Planet Read for developing software for same language subtitles on Video/TV, Tata Interactive Systems for special software for persons with learning disabilities, among others.
Over 1,600 delegates from 32 countries are participating in the three-day conference.