The next five to 10 years will be crucial to the information technology sector in India, as the country tries to expand its connectivity and access, according to Nasscom president Som Mittal.
Speaking to journalists at The Hindu recently, he said it was actually an advantage that India was “under-connected” and under-developed in technology. This could be leveraged as an advantage to leapfrog the current technologies falling into obsolescence.
In the context of the 3G spectrum rollout, Mr. Mittal said the communications, information technology and other sectors needed to work out the modalities of revenue-sharing and other details of the opportunities afforded by the advances in technology.
Up the value chain
The trajectory of the information technology sector, which had relied primarily on the cost-effectiveness of solutions created in India, was changing. Even in the BPO segment, Mr. Mittal said, while the headcount had gone up by 20 per cent in three years ending 2009, the revenues had gone up by 30 per cent, indicating that the country was moving up in the value chain in the delivery of solutions. This transformational change would also require the support of the other sectors and the government to take it further.
One aspect of this would be to take technology to Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns, from where most workers are recruited, as shown by a Nasscom study to be released soon, Mr. Mittal said. Another would involve the development of integrated portals and e-solutions to meet the needs of the people.
He said the Nasscom was expecting doubling of the information technology presence in Tier-2 and Tier-3 towns from the current 5 per cent of the total, and had plans to expand this to 40 per cent in the coming years. This effort required government support, especially through the Special Economic Zones (SEZs), which were distributed in the ratio of 70:30 in Tier-1 towns and other areas.
Conclave in October
The e-governance initiatives of the government were welcome, and the Nasscom would supplement these efforts through the portal which would allow anybody with a useful application to contribute to the government. A conclave would also be held in October to help the developers interact, he said.
