ICT to target $ 25 bn from domestic market

BANGALORE: The forthcoming ICT India 2002 exhibition, from February 6 to 9

2002, has pledged to focus on debating strategies to drive "Growth in the

Indian Domestic market". This is an effort to grow the Indian domestic

market from $ 5.9 billion during 2001 to $ 25 billion in 2008. The ICT event is

the first instance where India's three apex industry associations, CII, MAIT and

NASSCOM, are coming together to form a joint platform for the industry.

The value-added attractions for Exhibitors at the ICT India Exhibition

include three "Special Seminars" that address various aspects of the

Indian ICT market, "eGovernance in India", "Leveraging IT for

Competitiveness" and "India Singapore - the IT Investment

opportunity".

The seminar on "eGovernance in India", on February 6, 2002, will

seek to do a reality check on the current level of adoption of IT within the

Indian Government as well as debate the practical ways to enhance usage of

eGovernance tools amongst Government, the Private sector and SME's.

The seminar on "Leveraging IT for Competitiveness", on February 7,

2002, will look to growing and expanding the market for IT implementation in

India. This seminar will also look at encouraging IT enablement within the

Public

Sector Undertakings and Government Departments so as to enhance their

competitiveness in the market.

The final session is on "India Singapore - the IT Investment

opportunity", February 8, 2002, will be run by the Singapore IDA (Infocomm

Development Authority) and will look at identifying the opportunities for Indian

IT in the Singapore and other Far-East Asian markets.

The exhibitors in the event can be broadly categorized across three primary

sectors, Telecom Solutions industry, Internet and eCommerce and IT hardware,

software solutions and services. Some of the exhibitors includes Intel, Wipro,

TCS, VSNL, Hughes, Jetro, Rolta, CIDCO, Gujarat State, Kerala State and the Indo

Italian Chamber of Commerce.

The Exhibition is expected to showcase key technologies and trends in the

areas of E-Commerce, Embedded systems, Bio-informatics, Remote services,

E-governance, and Infrastructure amongst others. The exhibition will also have

dedicated pavilions on Telecom/ Networking/ISP/Broadband; Internet and

E-commerce; IT Solutions; SME Business Area; Peripheral Universe;

Multimedia/Animation/Entertainment and Bio-Informatics.

Commenting on the event, CII’s Chairman - Trade Fairs, Subodh Bhargava

said, "At a time when Indian industry is increasingly looking at IT to

enhance its competitiveness, the partnership between CII, MAIT and NASSCOM has

created the ideal platform to bring together the IT sector and the User

industry. Given the role the government will need to play in this endeavor, it

is encouraging to note the increased participation of state entities such as

CIDCO and the Kerala & the Gujarat State IT Departments."

MAIT’s President, Vinay Deshpande, said, "The key motive behind

conducting ICT India 2002 was to brainstorm ideas to replicate the success of

the Indian IT industry globally in the domestic market. We are confident that

the Industry will take this opportunity to come together and identify new models

to encourage adoption of IT and establish India as a competitive IT

destination."

NASSCOM chairman Phiroz Vandrevala said, "The Indian IT industry has

already demonstrated its ability to survive in a tough business environment.

This is indicated by the steady growth in domestic IT revenues from US 5.9 bn in

2000-01 to an estimated US 25 bn in 2008. Going forward, to sustain this growth,

we would need to expand our domestic IT market as this will give us the dual

benefit of being insulated against vagaries of the global business environment,

as well as, enhancing the competitiveness of our traditional industries."