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July 1-15, 1999 My CT Almanac Column |
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Merely becoming a software superpower is of no value
unless it is going to make India an economic superpower, which means that the N. Vittal The Prime Minister, Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee has come up with a catchy slogan 'IT is India's tomorrow'. Poised as we are at the end of the 20th century, all of us are becoming future oriented. With a technology like IT, there is always a tendency to look ahead. After all, in this sector, what is science fiction today, becomes an operational and technological reality tomorrow.
Equally important is the fact that while initially the exports were mostly in terms of body shopping, the need for value addition is now being recognised. According to estimates, 24 percent of the business is related to software products and this may go up as the Indian software industry becomes more mature. The electronic data interchange (EDI), though a technology which is about 20 years old, has not been as successful. It is likely that the E-commerce will be dominated by the Internet rather than EDI. But, even in the EDI, the Commerce and Finance Ministries, aided by the NIC, are trying to set up facilities for EDI, at the Bombay Port office as well as the Customs House in Delhi to begin with. The need for development of domestic market is also being increasingly recognised. The development of both software and hardware solutions like Graphic Intelligence-based Script Technology card (GIST) for making the computers talk in the Indian idiom is a welcome development. The Centre for Development of Advance Computing (C-DAC) has made a commendable contribution along with the NCST in this area. No wonder, Microsoft is also showing interest in the software for Indian languages. The development of IT in India has also coincided with some global major trade developments. The year 1995 saw the setting up of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) at the end of the General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT) negotiations called the Uruguay round. Subsequently, the Government of India has also become a signatory to the Global Telecom Agreement as well as the Information Technology Agreement. These international commitments have also provided the requisite external pressure to see that both in the tariff regime as well as in the legal framework the Government of India gets ready to use IT fully. The explosive growth of the Intemet during late 90s has also created visions of E-commerce. The crying need of the hour is urgent action to be taken by the Govemment to enact cyber laws. As early as January 1998, the committee under the chairmanship of the Union Government Secretary (Electronics) has submitted a report on Cyber Laws. I understand that the draft bill is already for consideration by the Government. I would even suggest that the issuing of an ordinance may be the best of method of kickstarting the process of cyber laws. I have suggested to the Chief Ministers of Kerala as well as Andhra Pradesh that without waiting for the Govemment of India passing cyber laws, the State Governments can take a lead and enact their own cyber laws. The Andhra Pradesh CM's reaction was quite positive. The issue of IT emerging as a decisive factor in India's tomorrow will depend upon a number of factors. As you have seen, both the Central Government and the State Governments have been quite active. What is required is focussing quick action in areas like cyber laws and electronic govemance. In fact, in the critically important area of banks, the CVC has issued an order directing that 70 percent of the business of banks must be computerised by 1.1.2001. This provides an excellent opportunity for the IT industry. But technology should not be seen as a mere aid to speed up processing and crumple costs but as an additional avenue for delivering services. This was why the growing popularity of ATMs did not result in the closure of bank branches; instead ATMs moved to off site locations and strengthened the banks position in the retail market. Education is another important area where IT can be pushed. Kerala has set a goal for itself to become an Intelligent state. Other states, like Gujarat and Tamil Nadu are trying to introduce computer education even from the primary level. Such efforts will pay healthy dividends in terms of not only the literate manpower but also the computer literate manpower as we enter the 21st century. The recent decisions taken by the union Finance Ministry on the urging of the IT industry about Employee Stock Option Schemes (ESOP) and other tariff measures will go a long way in helping the Indian IT industry to attract and retain top quality manpower. But, it is not yet time to relax. IT can really become an instrument for India to emerge as an economic superpower. Government has got the limited goal of India emerging as a software superpower. In my view, merely becoming a software superpower is of no value unless it is going to lead to India emerging as an economic superpower, which means that the people of this country have a better quality of life and our perennial problems like poverty and illiteracy are effectively overcome. IT can really be the lever to achieve this goal. Whether we are going to achieve this or not depends entirely on our imagination, vision and initiative. The writer is former secretary, DOE and currently chairman, Central Vigilance Commission |
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people of this country have a better
quality of life. IT can be the lever to achieving this goal.
To guess what is likely to happen in
tomorrow's India, it is worth taking a quick bird's eye view of what has happened so far
in the Indian IT sector. As Peter Drucker, with profound common sense, pointed out when he
looked at the likely trends of the 21st century almost a decade ago the future has already
been created. This is because what is going to happen tomorrow depends a lot on what we
have already done today. From this perspective, the most encouraging development is the
increasing realisation, especially at the political level, that information technology is
the vital technology for India's future. This use is a happy consequence of the remarkable
success of Indian IT industry on the software export front where the exports went up from
$100 m in 1990 to $2.6 b in 1998. This has, created among those who are concerned with the
IT sector, a vision aiming for still higher. The National Task Force on IT has set a
target of $60 billion software export by 2008. McKinsey, which has been engaged by NASSCOM
as consultants, has even pitched it higher of $100 billion by the year 2010. The fact that
India's software prowess is recognised on the global market is a healthy development. 
