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Technology giant Oracle has launched its cloud computing service for India, which aims to support the government's GST rollout in July and plans to open data centres in the country.
Addressing a gathering of 12,000 attendees, which included technology partners, analysts and heads of state such as Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, at Oracle OpenWorld, CEO, Safra Catz, said that India is at an "amazing moment'' in terms of sociological factors such as a high concentration of youth as well as efforts taken by the government to use technology more.
“My last visit with PM Narendra changed the way I looked at India and my views about the country,” she said. Oracle has been present in India for more than two decades, providing database technology that forms the backbone for many commercial transactions.
It was during that visit when Modi urged Catz to do more for Indian citizens - which could unleash the power of people's ideas, Catz said.
In an effort to simplify the tax regime in India and to ensure higher compliance with tax laws, Oracle's ERP solution aims to provide support for GST Network integration, statutory reporting, payment processing, among others. In the GST regime, companies will have to upgrade their ERP systems.
'SARAL GST'
Apart from Oracle, a week ago, Reliance Corporate IT Park, a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd, has signed an MoU with Oracle rival SAP to launch ‘SARAL GST’ a solution for taxpayers to be GST compliant and access the government’s GST System.
Analysts welcomed this move. "It will open up opportunities for software and hardware but the core theme should be on simplification which would benefit an end user," said Sanchit Vir Gogia, CEO, Greyhound Research.
State governments in India are also adopting Oracle's solutions. The Maharashtra Government has a partnership with Oracle. Additionally, the Jharkhand Government and Oracle have signed an MoU to improve citizen services with an aim to make Jharkhand an attractive destination for start-ups.
The MoU was signed at Oracle OpenWorld and Oracle will offer its support to the state through its portfolio of technology solutions, including Oracle Cloud. These solutions cater to the growing requirements and expectations of citizens, businesses and government departments for smarter, transparent and efficient governance within the state of Jharkhand, company executives said.
Earlier this year, Jharkhand had received investment support from the Union Government for an internal venture capital fund to support start-ups in the state.
Further as part of the MoU, Oracle and the Government of Jharkhand will collaborate to create proof of concepts and help new start-ups using Oracle Cloud-based platforms to operationalise citizen services and start-up centres.
Adopters of technology in small businesses have some inherent advantages. A survey by Kantar IMRB in November 2016 of 504 Indian SMBs found that ones who adopt digital technologies grow profits up two times faster than offline SMBs.
The report found that 51 per cent of digitally enabled SMBs sell beyond city boundaries compared with 29 per cent of offline small businesses.
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