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Industry demands softer government policies

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CIOL Bureau
New Update

Rahul Gupta

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NEW DELHI: Since most of the countries are investing heavily to attract IT

companies from all over the world, IT companies in India want the government to

review its IT policies and make conducive atmosphere for the companies to

invest. Also as there are only two months left for the budget to be presented in

the Parliament and the companies are already facing the heat of the slowdown,

they are expecting favorable response from government.

Dubai Internet City (DIC) recently announced its decision to invest one

billion dollars in Middle East region by the year 2003 to provide and create a

platform for Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) companies around

the world, thereby helping them explore new business opportunities in the Middle

East.

DIC has already invested $ 700 million and over 4500 knowledge workers are

presently working there. Also the Dubai Government has announced various

incentives for the participating companies, such as tax holidays, strong

intellectual property and cyber laws and grant of 100 per cent foreign ownership

to those interested in setting up ICT companies in Dubai.

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Currently over 15 Indian firms are located in the DIC, most of which are SMEs.

The big firms located at the DIC include VXL, Wipro and Satyam, while Infosys

Technologies is located in Sharjah. Not only this, other countries like

Malaysia, Singapore and China have already attracted major IT companies by

giving them such incentives.

Nasscom president, Kiran Karnik said, "This is the time for us to learn

lessons from such initiatives. The government should provide us world class

infrastructure and make its policies flexible. If we want to become IT

superpower, we should learn a lesson from countries like China and Taiwan."

Experts are of the opinion that India should do something on the similar

pattern as DIC is doing but that is only possible with government support.

Though the government has done a lot for software sector, there is a lot to be

done for the hardware sector. Already in the grip of slowdown, these companies

are expecting some relief in taxes from the budget.

MAIT director, Vinnie Mehta said, "The Indian software companies have

already made their presence felt in middle east and rest of the world and they

will not migrate to these places but we should learn from such

initiatives."

Software industry is growing in India even in this slowdown phase therefore

it's imperative for the government now to sustain growth made by software

industry and should take initiatives that make IT companies to invest in India

as other countries are doing. Also the government has to take certain measures

to boost hardware industry in India which is expecting sops for a long time.

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