Software, services exports register growth

NEW DELHI: The total software and ITES export from India is estimated at $23.4 billion during the year 2005-`06.

Software and services exports have grown at 32 per cent in dollar terms during the year 2005-06. The software and ITES exports from India grew from $12.9 billion in the year 2003-04 to $17.7 billion in 2004-`05, according to the Ministry of Communications and IT.

The Indian Software and ITES industry has grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28 per cent during the last five years. The industry’s contribution to the national GDP has risen from 1.2 per cent during the year 1999-2000 to a projected 4.8 per cent during 2005-`06.

The total number of IT and ITES-BPO professionals employed in India is estimated to have grown from 284,000 in 1999-2000 to 1,287,000 in 2005-`06, growing by over 230,000 in the last year alone.

In addition, Indian IT-ITES is estimated to have helped create an additional three million job opportunities through indirect and induced employment.

Indian companies are enhancing their global service delivery capabilities through a combination of green-field initiatives, cross-border mergers and acquisitions, partnerships and alliances with local players.

Global software product giants such as Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, etc., have established their captive development centres in India, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology said in a statement reviewing IT performance.

E-Governance projects

Department of Information Technology (DIT) has proposed to establish 100,000 Common Services Centres (CSCs) in rural areas, which will serve not only as the front-end for most government services, but also as a means to connect the citizens of rural India to the World Wide Web.

The primary objective of the CSCs is to provide e-government services at the doorstep of the citizen, by creating a physical service delivery infrastructure for accessing e-government services.

All CSCs would be broadband Internet-enabled and the scheme would be implemented through Public Private Partnership (PPP). The Government has approved the CSC scheme, costing Rs 5742 crore, in September 2006. Out of this project cost, the Central Government’s contribution is estimated at Rs 856 crore and the State Government contribution as Rs. 793 crore.

The balance would be invested by private sector. CSC proposals from 11 states have been approved for implementation and Rs 109.71 crore, which is 25 per cent of the approved outlay share of DIT, has been released to these states.

The DIT is also implementing the Project unique ID (UID) initiated by the Planning Commission. The purpose of UID is to create a central database of resident information and assign a Unique Identification number to each such resident in the country, as a basis for efficient delivery of social and welfare services.

During the year under review, DIT has also taken a major initiative to make available tools and fonts in various Indian languages freely to the general public. So far CDs containing such software tools for Hindi, Tamil and Telugu languages have been released in public domain.

Policy initiatives

As regards policy initiatives, keeping in line with the announcement made in the General Budget 2006-`07, DIT will announce its proactive Fab Policy very shortly, in favour of making India a preferred destination for the manufacturing of semi-conductors and other high technology IT products.

Similarly, a proposal for Electronics and IT Hardware Manufacturing Policy is also under consideration, which is aiming for rationalization of tariff structure on capital goods, and inputs, unification of manufacturing for domestic market and exports, registration of international patents, transfer of technology (TOT) and R&D.

As a result of the efforts taken by DIT, India has become a major destination for FDI investments in Information Communication Technology sector. World leaders in ICT like Intel, Cisco, SemIndia-AMD, Microsoft, Motorola, Ericsson, Nokia, Kyocera, Siemens, LG, Samsung, etc., have announced large investment plans for India in hardware manufacturing or chip design or R&D or to develop software products.

To strengthen the legislation pertaining to data protection and privacy, the IT Amendment Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha during winter session seeking to amend the IT Act, 2000.

The Bill proposes to amend some of the existing sections and insert new sections in the IT Act, the Indian Penal Code, the Indian Evidence Act and the Code of Criminal Procedure to address various issues.

The salient features of the proposed amendments are:

· A new Section is proposed to replace the technological term “Digital Signature” with generic term “Electronic Signature” in the Act.

  A new Section is proposed to authorize the service providers by the Central Government or the State Government for providing such services

· A new section is proposed to provide for prevention of theft of data.

· Extension of the ambit of provision in the Act pertaining to breach of confidentiality and privacy.

· The existing section pertaining to the liability of network service providers has been suitably re-phrased

· Examination of digital evidence requires a high level of skill and competence on part of the person doing so

· Proposes to empower the Central Government through proposed section to provide for one or more methods of encryption by rules, as Cryptography has emerged as one of the most secure and trusted technologies for protection of data.

· Provide legal framework for new forms of crimes like publishing of material containing sexually explicit act in electronic form, video voyeurism, e-commerce frauds through impersonation commonly known as “phishing” identity theft and offensive messages through communication service by proposing to insert new sections in the Information Technology Act, and in the Indian Penal Code and Code of Criminal Procedure.

· Rationalize the punishments in respect of criminal offences with respect to the Indian Penal Code, 1860 in line with the established norms of Indian legal system.

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