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MAIT welcomes Raja's second innings

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CIOL Bureau
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NEW DELHI, INDIA: The Manufacturers' Association for Information Technology, MAIT, the apex body representing the IT hardware industry in India, today congratulated the UPA government, which came to power for the second time and also welcomed A Raja, in yet another innings, as the Union Minister for Communications and IT.

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Welcoming A.Raja and his team, Vinnie Mehta, executive director, MAIT said, "We are confident that continuity with Mr. A Raja and the further strengthening of his team with Mr Sachin Pilot and Mr Gurudas Kamat would ensure concrete steps towards realization of the goal set by him in his earlier term.”

He said this goal envisages transformation of India into a knowledge economy and connecting the unconnected - 500 million Internet users, 100 million broadband connections and 100 million connected devices in India by 2012.

“Further, as India rapidly becomes attractive for IT and electronics manufacturing, we look forward to his leadership in making India as one of the top five electronics manufacturing nations of the world,” Mehta added.

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He pointed out that with lower than expected sales of IT products in the financial year 2008-09, owing to the global economic meltdown, expectations in the IT industry are high that the new minister would take adequate measures to boost the consumption of IT in the domestic market.

“Proliferation of broadband is yet another area that needs immediate attention and we hope issues related to this will be resolved soon. It is a known fact that nations with higher broadband penetration enjoy higher GDP growth," he pointed out.

Elaborating further on the industry expectations, Mehta said, “It is essential to roll out mission mode IT projects in sectors such as education, SMEs, households, e-governance, telemedicine and for rural India. These will go a long way in contributing to our national goal of 'inclusive development.”

MAIT also welcomed Sachin Pilot and Gurudas Kamat, the two new Ministers of State for Communications and IT bringing in a healthy blend of youth and freshness with experience.

It also congratulated R Chandrasekhar, who has been elevated to the post of Secretary, Department of IT. He was earlier the Special Secretary in the department.

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