IT spend behind target, admits Maran

NEW DELHI: Stressing the need for the Indian government to increase its IT spend, Minister of Communication and IT Dayanidhi Maran said, “The government is still not achieving the target spending of two-three percent of GDP on IT as stated by the Planning Commission. The government is in the process of improving its IT spending and we expect this increased spending to spill over to the private sector as well.”

He added, “Government should increase spending on IT as well as educate the people. As a first step, as part of the e-governance plan, the government is reaching out to 1,00,000 villages, out of the total 6,00,000 Indian villages. The government is also rolling out state wide area network (SWAN), with an outlay of Rs 3,000 crore, to connect the whole of India.”

According to Maran, one major problem India faces is lack of standardization. He added that standardization effort will take place next year and this would also spill over to the private sector.

He also opined that in the telecom sector, the money is there in rural areas. “Government PSUs are already operating there and now the private players are also waking up to this opportunity,” he added.

Speaking on the BPO sector, he said that the government has done well to promote the sector in terms of providing the basic infrastructure to run the operations. But this success has also come with its problems.

He said, “Bangalore has developed as the IT hub of India, but now it is experiencing a shortage in infrastructure. The solution is to go to other cities like Pune, Noida, Chennai, etc. The government feels that the development of IT industry should be spread out and not concentrated at one place.”

Speaking on the occasion, Bharti Enterprises chairman and group MD Sunil Bharti Mittal said, “With government increasing its IT spend, public companies and the companies interfacing with the government would also have to increase their IT usage. Today, companies are going more into suburban and rural areas as the growth lies there.”

He added, “Private companies are also putting in money to improve infrastructure. Bharti has an outlay of $1.3 billion for laying out infrastructure. By March 2006, we would have a presence in 5,200 towns and cities covering all highways and railroads. Bharti expects majority of growth coming from rural areas next year.”