June 10, 2002 | 1645 IST
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Nasscom strategy summit opens in HyderabadSyed Amin Jafri in Hyderabad Union Minister for Information Technology Pramod Mahajan on Monday promised all assistance from the government to help the Indian IT industry reach its export target of $50 billion by 2008 and to ensure that every Fortune 500 company has its presence in India. He was addressing the top executives of about 500 IT companies from all over the country who gathered for the two-day Indian IT and ITES Strategy Summit 2002, which began here. Organised jointly by the National Association of Software and Services Companies and McKinsey & Co, the summit is discussing the findings of the study to address the major concerns of the industry, work out strategies to tap the potential in IT and ITES and the ways to deal with the threat from companies such as China and Russia. The meet began on an encouraging note that despite the global slowdown the Indian IT industry was right on track to achieve its long-term targets. The IT executives would discuss the findings of National Association of Software and Services Companies and McKinsey Study 2002, which says that despite the global slowdown during the last two years, Indian IT industry is right on track to achieve its long-term goals Responding to the industry's demand to remove regulatory bottlenecks, Mahajan said the standing committee report on convergence bill, which brings together various regulatory authorities, would be tabled in the Parliament in July. He was hopeful that the bill would be enacted before August 15 this year and by the end of the year the country would have the convergence legislation in place. Mahajan also promised a legislation on data protection in six months. He said his ministry was also already working on issues like data protection and copyright. Another legislation, which is being contemplated, would enable women in IT industry to work even during night times. The minister said the Union government was trying to ensure a data and voice communication in the walking distance of every citizen. He also underlined the need to create a real time digital translation among all languages in the country to make the IT industry more competitive. Mahajan said the government was doing its best to ensure that every village in the country has one public telephone booth by January 1, 2003. He claimed that 80,000 public telephone booths were added during last eight months. "Every third or fourth minute one booth is being set up," he said. Stating that the government had already liberalized the communication sector, he said it was for the private sector to add 500 million telephones in next seven to eight years. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu wanted the Indian IT industry to build on its strengths to tap $500 billion opportunity in ITES by 2008. He said India had the advantages of low manpower cost, large manpower pool of 2.5 million graduates, better quality and productivity and time zone. He pointed out that Nasscom and McKinsey had projected $17 billion revenues and one million direct and one million indirect jobs in ITES sector. He said this would have multiplying effect in telecom, real estate, transportation and catering. He wanted the government to encourage the industry by data protection, consistency in policies, fast-track clearances and competition among states in financial incentives. Inviting all the IT companies to open their offices in Hyderabad, he said his government planned to develop other cities and town in the state as IT hubs. "Long-term perspective for Indian software industry remains positive and we continue to remain bullish," said Pramath Sinha, Principal, McKinsey & Co. He made it clear that the talks of war and the communal riots in Gujarat would not affect the figures arrived in the study. He said by 2008 Indian IT industry would constitute seven per cent of India's GDP, 30 per cent of all foreign exchange inflows in the country and would create four million jobs. The IT opportunity is $77 billion by 2008, he said. He said the government had a lot to do on domestic IT spending, removing infrastructure and regulatory bottlenecks and spending more on education to overcome the serious shortage of talent. Sinha said India had the potential to become a global IT hub. "Marketing continues to be a problem not just for the country but for individual companies," he added. Arun Kumar, chairman, Nasscom, said during the last three years the ITES grew from $2.5 billion to $7.5 billion. Last year the growth in ITES was 70 per cent against a target of 40 per cent. He said the focus should be on the roadmap and medium term milestones to achieve the long-term goals. He said Indian IT industry had its presence only in two out of the nine service lines. The two service lines are application maintenance and customer application development. The two constitute only 10 per cent of the global IT services margin. ALSO READ:
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