Information technology has done a lot of good but it is time to look inwards and see how it makes a difference to productivity of various sectors and help in improving the country’s GDP, Secretary to the Central Government Department of Electronics and Information Technology of Ministry of Communications and IT J. Satyanarayana said here on Friday.
He was speaking at the inaugural session of the three-day 48 annual convention of the Computer Society of India on the theme, ICT and critical infrastructure, being organised by the local chapter of CSI, in association with the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant.
Drain on resources Mr. Satyanarayana pointed out that only two per cent of IT hardware was produced in the country and foreign exchange was depleting due to import of the rest 98 per cent, and urged the IT sector to focus on design and innovation.
IT has a large impact on the life of people, and the fear of people some 30 years ago that a computer would eliminate work for many proved wrong with IT providing a large number of jobs and bringing in foreign exchange, he said.
Pivotal The CMD of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant A.P. Chaudhury, who inaugurated the convention, said IT was pivotal in India’s growth and the key ingredient of success in all areas.
The present day requirements of industry and business needed IT support. Importance of connectivity and infrastructure related investment was now felt strongly, he said.
Adopting nature of technology in a given context was important, observed president of CSI and Scientific Secretary to the Union Government S.V. Raghavan in his keynote address. He highlighted the importance of ICT and stressed the need to build a trustworthy system since the information goes across several countries.
Vice-president of CSI H.R. Mohan explained about the organisation, the largest and oldest IT body of the country, which was on the threshold of celebrating it s 50 anniversary. This was for the first time that CSI national convention was held in a non-metro and non-State capital city and Mr. Mohan and later Prof. Raghavan appreciated the local chapter for making good arrangements for the meet.
Chairman of the local chapter and Director of VSP T.K. Chand, Director (Finance) and CMD designate of VSP P. Madhusudhan, Director (Projects) of VSP P.C. Mohapatra and other office-bearers of the local chapter Prof. Avadhani, P. Satyanarayana and K.V.S.S.R. Rao spoke.
