Robust policy framework key to propel growth of ICT sector

CHENNAI, INDIA: Favorable policies and frameworks are prerequisites for a vibrant IT industry. CII facilitated a panel discussion among industry and government experts on policies and frameworks regime for the growth of ICT sector on the concluding day of CII CONNECT 2013 here on Wednesday.

Re-iterating the need for a public-private partnership model in the ICT industry, TK Ramachandran IAS, secretary - Information Technology, Government of Tamil Nadu, said: Public-private partnership is the key to spur the growth momentum of the ICT industry. We need to have an overarching government participation to facilitate the private sector to deliver, while having the regulations in place. Funds have never been a constraint for the ICT sector."

Throwing light on the government initiatives to increase bandwidth availability in the larger part of the country, MF Farooqui IAS, secretary - Department of Telecommunications, Government of India, said: "As far as bandwidth connectivity to the rural areas is concerned, the government of India has set this on its high priority. We have formulated a scheme now to provide connectivity up to the Village Panchayat level, thereby covering 250,000 village panchayats by optic fibre network."

Another policy initiative the government is looking at is in terms of sharing the entire active infrastructure in the telecom space and gradually ironing out the major limitations. Today those who want to make use of the bandwidth facility, there would be now increased facility in terms of infrastructure which has been laid out. These initiatives of government would certainly help the ICT industry to expand their operations in rural areas thereby contributing towards inclusive growth.

Broadbasing his industry view on making academics a viable option for professionals and availability of quality manpower, Lakshmi Narayanan, vice chairman, Cognizant Technology Solutions, said: "The education sector itself is undergoing major transformations demanding extensive technology application where formal teaching is going to be replaced by e-learning, massive online courseware and more interactive based learning. Hence, telecommunication infrastructure in terms of enhanced bandwidth plays a major role in taking our education, especially e-learning to remote corners of the country. This will lead to more innovation, talented and entrepreneurial workforce that will create more employment in the country. This should be one of the key tenets of the policy framework that we could look into."

Dr G Viswanathan, chancellor, VIT University, said: "The growth of ICT has been phenomenal in India. We are at a stage right now where cut throat competition is coming to the forefront. In order to produce a critical mass of human capital on par with the developed countries the education institutes must be given adequate autonomy to frame their own syllabus and update the curriculum that is internationally attuned, encourage industrial collaboration that would in return produce qualified workforce to serve the ICT industry."

S Mahalingam, past chairman, CII Southern Region and former executive director and CFO, Tata Consultancy Services, facilitated the deliberations among the industry and government officials and brought to the fore key take ways to be implanted moving forward to scale substantial growth frontiers in the ICT sector.

In an effort to acknowledge the excellent contribution made by successful entrepreneurs in the field of Information & Communication Technology, CII presented the 7th edition of the "CII Connect 2013 Entrepreneurs Awards" to honour the ICT Industry Leaders for their outstanding achievements.

P Thangamani, Hon'ble Minister for Industries, Government of Tamil, Nadu presented the Awards to the leaders of the ICT industry, under the following categories during the Valedictory Session.

* Venkat Viswanathan, founder and CEO, LatentView Analytics (Entrepreneur of the Year).
* TR Santhanakrishnan, founder and chairman, DataTracks Services Ltd (Entrepreneur of the Year).
* Girish Mathrubootham, founder and CEO, Freshdesk (Emerging Star of the Year).
* PN Vasudevan, MD, Equitas Micro Finance Pvt Ltd (Exemplary Application of IT).
* S Mahalingam, former executive director and CFO, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (Life Time Achievement).

In his address, Thangamani said: "The Government has sanctioned Rs 10 crore for setting up an e-Governance initiative fund and formation of an IT cadre to give focus to e-governance and to implement e-governance initiatives to fill gaps in IT Skilled resources in the government. For making all Government services accessible to the common man an additional 2280 common service centres would be setup in the state and Government has proposed to deliver e-Governance services through Mobile phones using SMS based service tracking."