The North-South IT divide

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penetration the condition is absolutely abject in most parts of India.

In some parts of states like Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa, Chattisgarh and Assam the tele-density was a pathetic 2 telephones per 100 households in 2006. Now these places are still untouched by the ‘IT revolution’ that has managed to penetrate other metros so to think that they can be taken under the purview of this so-called ‘IT revolution’ would be rather preposterous but yes in places where the basic infrastructure exists, usage of IT is definitely a boon.

Another interesting and perhaps less known fact that this study reveals is the geographical distribution of IT penetration in India. Surprisingly North and West India lead the way, Delhi being the flag-bearer, while South India lags far behind when it comes to adopting IT for manufacturing units. The fact that most IT majors are based in cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai is counter-intuitive to this finding but there is an explanation for it. Dr Manisha Singh attributes this factor to the large number of small factories and manufacturing units that are spread across the state and also shares an interesting sneak peek in the book that after Delhi it is Lucknow that has the highest percentage of factories adopting IT to simplify the processes in the factory.

So Tamil Nadu that has the highest number of manufacturing units in the country has less than 40% units that are computerised and amongst the 15 Indian states that account for more than 90% of all the factories in India Tamil Nadu is ranked way behind at 11. The study puts Andhra Pradesh at 14, which is pretty surprising as its capital is often referred to as India’s ‘Silicon Valley’.

Now it is up to the government to make the environment conducive for the industry so that they can adopt technology and IT. Basic things such as more stringent Copyright Laws (and their speedy implementation), providing smaller industries with basic infrastructure like power and connectivity are something which the government has to look into.