Indian IT must bag 15% global market: Kalam

Indian information technology and information technology-enabled services must capture 15 per cent of the world market by 2008, said President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam on Thursday, urging the Indian IT industry to work towards that end.

The President was speaking -- through a live video conference from New Delhi -- to the IT bigwigs at the Nasscom's India Leadership Forum in Mumbai.

"The Nasscom estimates aim to capture about 3.5 per cent of global market share. This is a small target. It is a crime to have a small aim," he said.

India's GDP is at a 8 per cent now, it should grow to 10 per cent continuously for a decade, only then can India emerge as a global leader, said Dr Kalam.

Turning the industry's attention to India's standing in the global competitiveness index, he lamented that the country is now ranked 56th. He urged the IT industry to strive towards getting India into the top 10 nations in the competitive index.

Lauding the efforts of the IT industry, the President said that the developments in the IT industry should help the 260 million people living below the poverty line. "Only then can India become a truly developed country," he said.

The industry must not cater only to the elite but also help ameliorate the lives of 700 million people living in India's 600,000 villages. "Every village should ideally have a knowledge centre to cater to basic information requirements," he said.

"Research and innovation must be the drivers of growth in any industry. IT services should contribute to national development through e-governance projects," Dr Kalam added.

He said that more emphasis should be laid on nana-technology and biotechnology which are promising and upcoming fields.

"We must double agriculture productivity through science and technology," he said.

"India has a 1 billion strong market, so we should capitalise on the vast talent pool of 2 million graduates. We must grow the number of people employable in the industry by 5 million in three years," he added.

"With high quality services and innovative ideas and a brilliant talent pool, India can emerge as the ultimate destination for information and communications technology, he said.

"Our software services should aim for 10 per cent of the $25 billion global exports market in the near future. Innovation is a key to success. In India it is a challenge to meet the requirement as Internet penetration is lesser than PC penetration, which is lesser than telephone penetration, which in turn is lesser than television reach," he added.

There is a huge market for smart devices which can combine all theses utilities and serve the needs of the people in a very cost effective manner, the President said.

With more IT parks, better connectivity, call centre boom, industry-friendly measures, the industry will get a big boost, he added.