CHENNAI: India can become a global ‘smart power’ if the government and the industry focus on hardware, rural employment and R&D in order to connect the ‘disconnected’, said V Narayanasamy, Union Minister of State for Planning and Parliamentary Affairs.
Delivering the inaugural address at Connect 2010, India’s premier ICT event, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry, here on Wednesday, he said that the Union Government would be in a position to provide incentives to those companies which had functioned in tier-2 and tier-3 cities and rural areas.
“India’s consumer market for hardware can be a big incentive for the industry. The country wants to import $490 billion of hardware to meet the huge consumer market,’’ he said and added, “The Government should be highly supportive of the ICT sector that exports $48 billion worth of products and services that account for one fourth of the total exports.’’
He said that the Union Government would act on the recommendations of the Ajay Choudhary Committee and draw a roadmap for the development of hardware industry in the country.
In his special address, Jung-Chiou Hwang, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan, said that Taiwan would partner with India for development of hardware sector as part of the efforts to complement the software expertise of the latter.
“Taiwan’s total ICT output is about $300 billion. It is the world’s leading player in about 37 product categories, and number one in 10 ICT product categories such as notebooks, net books, LCD monitors, and mother boards. To sustain this growth, the hardware industry in Taiwan needs to develop software capabilities. If India’s software power can be combined with Taiwan’s hardware knowledge, it will result in sustainable partnership,’’ he remarked.
P W C Davidar, Principal Secretary – Information Technology, Government of Tamil Nadu, said that the State Government would be launching an employment exchange portal on September 15, 2010, enable the private sector also to identify and hire people based on skills and locations. “Tamil Nadu is probably the only State to run an ICT Academy in partnership with the private sector.”
“ELCOT is building seven IT parks across the State, mainly in tier-2 cities. The Government’s recently-announced rural BPO policy is focusing on creating eco-system across the State so that it makes sense for the private sector to invest in rural areas,’’ he said.
S Gopalakrishnan, Chairman, Southern Region, CII, said, “IT has to be used to benefit industry, society, and also common man. The ICT should play a central role in ensuring economic sustainability, as well as promoting environmental and social sustainability, both as an industry and as a key element of enabling infrastructure.’’
S Mahalingam, Chairman, Connect 2010, said the focus of Connect 2010 is on making natural clusters of the State, including automobile, engineering and manufacturing, healthcare, and entertainment, collaborate with information technology for achieving the desired goals. Nandini Rangaswamy, Chairperson, CII- Tamil Nadu and CMD, Chandra Group, spoke.