|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Industry Leaders Want Wider IT Access To Gain Superpower Status
NEW DELHI (AFP) - Computer industry leaders Monday asked the Indian government to make information technology available to the millions of poor so India can become an IT superpower. Information Technology Minister Pramod Mahajan told reporters a 19-member top-level industry committee met with Indian officials and said higher government IT spending would also help counter the migration of Indian professionals to foreign countries. Mahajan quoted the committee as saying, "unless we take IT to the rural areas and the masses, our real objective of achieving a superpower status will be impossible." This summer, India plans to introduce sweeping regulatory reforms to further spur IT growth. Indian software exports shot up 56% year-on-year to $2.3 billion in the year to March, while hardware exports have leveled off at $1 billion. Mahajan had recently said India's IT industry could balloon to $100 billion from the present $5 billion in just a decade. He said the 19 members of the IT committee that held talks with the government included the chiefs of the biggest Indian IT firms such as N.R. Narayan Murthy of Infosys Technologies Ltd. and Azim Premji of Wipro Corporation. The minister said the panel had suggested more institutes should be set up for information technology education. India has five top technology institutes, called IITs, which produce 2,000 graduates a year. "Every year, 1,000 of the 2,000 graduates who pass out from the IITs go abroad," he said, adding about 700,000 students sat for the entrance examination for the five IITs annually. "Only a few hundred are chosen, although 129,000 pass the screening examinations but cannot be taken because there are no seats." Mahajan said the committee wanted at least 43 Indian engineering colleges to "be brought up to the level of IITs" to build up the information technology work force. The minister added that the committee wanted the government to spend at least 2% to 3% of the government budget to put the government "online."
The committee also suggested India sign a treaty with the United States during President Bill Clinton's trip next month to enable Indian information technology companies to avoid double taxation. The government would also ask that U.S. visas be given to Indian IT professionals "with less harassment," he added
Newswires |
