Microsoft launches genuine software initiative in India

Bangalore, May 31 (UNI) Microsoft Corporation India Pvt Ltd has taken up a Genuine Software Initiative in India to combat software piracy in the country, which stood at around 72 per cent last year.

The company, in a release here, said that under the initiative, Microsoft would make investments across three strategic areas -- Education, Engineering and Enforcement. As part of the initiative, Microsoft announced that it would introduce Windows Genuine Advantage Notifications - a new service that provided notifications to consumers using non-genuine Microsoft Windows XP. While most customers would experience no change, customers running a non-genuine copy of Windows would receive notifications directly to their desktop, informing them that the copy of Windows they were running was not genuine. The service would be activated in India from tomorrow.

The Business Software Alliance estimated that 35 per cent of all software used worldwide was counterfeit or illegal, and economic losses due to software piracy in 2005 amounted to US Dollar 34 billion. According to a NASSCOM study 'Information Technology in the Economy of India', a ten point decrease in the piracy level in India (from the existing 72 per cent), could result in a 13.4 per cent increase in GDP. This faster growth could help India generate 3,64,000 more jobs and add 30 billion Dollar a year to an already booming IT-enabled economy.

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