Considering the attention that IT is getting from major political parties in India ahead of the general elections, IT hardware industry body, Manufacturers? Association for Information Technology has drawn up a six-point agenda for changing the digital landscape of the country to be sent out as recommendations to representatives of major political parties, including the Congress and the BJP.
?We are hopeful that these inputs from the industry would find consideration in their agenda for taking the nation forward,? said Vinnie Mehta, executive director, MAIT quoting from one of the letters. Prominent politicians to whom letter has been despatched include the likes of prime-ministerial candidate of the NDA LK Advani; Jyotiraditya Scindia, minister of state for communications and IT; AIADMK chief Jayalalitha; Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi among others.
While BJP?s elaborate 40-page IT vision document has caught the fancy of the Indian IT industry, MAIT?s recommendations seem to be not very different from what is being envisioned. The first recommendation talks about ?creation of a robust eco-system for electronics hardware manufacturing enabling India to emerge among ?top 5? IT manufacturing nations by 2012?. According to market experts, this can happen only when there is a vibrant domestic market, which finds reference in Mait?s second recommendation.
The industry body has set a ?goal-511?, which targets creation of a vibrant domestic IT market with 500 million Internet users, 100 million broadband connections and 100 million connected devices. Currently the number of internet users in India is a little less than 55 million, and its broadband penetration is an abysmal 5 million. ?Connectivity continues to be one of the biggest roadblocks in the way of bridging India?s digital divide,? said Mehta.
On the other hand, the software industry body Nasscom has not sent out any formal recommendations to the parties. However, according to its chairman, Ganesh Natarajan, the body has had several informal meetings with politicians to discuss India?s IT infrastructure. ?We have not drafted a formal agenda for the parties but would consider sending it to the party that comes to power post elections,? said Natarajan.
The other recommendations include enabling a ?one India? market with uniform taxation policies across all states and taking internet to the educational institutes through broadband penetration in a phased manner in colleges, secondary and primary schools. ?IT penetration should also reach the SMEs, which are the backbone of Indian economy,? added Mehta. Considering that SMEs make up for around 50% of the total PC sales in the enterprise segment, making available interest free or low interest loans for procurement of IT hardware and applications will be a major boost for the industry, he said.
The recommendations also touched upon the need for local language content and applications which will drive the IT adoption in the hinterlands. ?Every e-governance project for public services should be local language enabled,? said Mehta.