"The $4 bn IT export turnover we see today touches just about 2-3 per cent of the population, this is clearly not enough to achieve the status of an IT Superpower," said Dewang Mehta of Nasscom while addressing the Rotary Club of Mumbai on whether India will achieve the status of an IT Superpower.

"We have demanded 2 Mbps of bandwidth for every citizen which can be used for scores of purposes ranging from education to employment and entrepreneurship," added Mr Mehta, while explaining how the Internet can be used effectively to spread education as well as improve the quality of life for citizens. Mr Mehta also stressed on the need to allow Voice Over IP which the GOI currently does not permit. "Nowhere in the world is there a regulation like this and it should be scrapped," said Mr Mehta.

Talking to newspersons Mehta said that the amount of Internet bandwidth available in the country should touch 10 Gbps by Dec 2001.

"With this we will be able to just about meet the demand, which will have no effect on prices. The prices will drop only when supply of Internet bandwidth actually exceeds demand," stressed Mr Mehta.

Mr Mehta also indicated that the Indian Railways was in the process of preparing a blueprint for a Voice Mail System wherein every railway station in the country would offer voice mail services to anyone wanting to avail of them.

Referring to the international pressure on India about putting in place privacy policies. Mr Mehta said that the government would have to formulate privacy legislation with immediate effect if it were to comply with a deadline set by the European countries, whereby they will stop outsourcing work to India if moves to put in place a privacy legislation are not initiated by December this year.

He also indicated that Nasscom was pushing for amendments to the Copyright Law to deal with Cybersquatting.