Domestic software major Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has hedged around $ 1.5 billion to seek immunity against volatility of the currency.
?It is very difficult to predict the rupee movement as the rupee has fluctuated badly since last six-to-seven months.We have hedged around $1.5 billion? said TCS
CEO S Ramadorai on the sidelines of a conference where the software company released a white paper on e-governance and urged the government to earmark around 3% of budgetary allocation towards IT initiatives of the government.
According to Tanmoy Chakrabarty, vice-president and head, global government industry solutions unit, TCS, the e-governance unit of the company that collaborates with the government currently accounts for less than $ 5 million in the TCS?s kitty of around $ 6 billion, but aims to cross the double digit mark ($ 10 million) in 2-3 years.
The white paper talks of a five-point plan to build an ideal e-governance framework in the country. It advocates ?a nationwide mandate to allocate a fixed percentage (3%) of the annual budget for e-governance projects, the need to adopt an integrated and holistic approach focused on services, national level oversight of any e-governance programme and thereby move from individualised e-governance to institutionalised e-governance.
The IT firm also suggested setting up of a government standing committee to oversee national e-governance programmes.
The paper also highlights India?s low position in global e-governance rankings, and the need to catalyse policy decisions to improve e-governance in India.
India?s per capita public sector IT spend is $1.29, compared to $199 in New Zealand and $153 in Singapore, for instance.
Ramadorai said, ?While Indian IT is the envy of the world and is associated with some of the most advanced and complex IT projects globally, India has not fully leveraged its potential of IT and the expertise of Indian IT industry.?