Microsoft launches Genuine Software Initiative in India

Mumbai, May 31 (UNI) Microsoft Corporation India today announced its Genuine Software Initiative in the country that will bring together the company's many activities and investments directed at combating software piracy in India into a single coordinated effort.

Under the initiative, Microsoft said it will make investments across three strategic areas: Education, Engineering and Enforcement. As part of this initiative, Microsoft also announced that it will introduce Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) Notifications - a new service that provides notifications to consumers using non-genuine Microsoft Windows XP, said a Microsoft press release here.

While most customers will experience no change, customers who are running a non-genuine copy of Windows will receive notifications directly to their desktop informing them that the copy of Windows they are running is not genuine. This service will be activated in India starting June 1st, 2006.

Piracy and counterfeit products are an important issue across the entire technology industry. The Business Software Alliance (BSA) estimates that 35 percent of all software used worldwide is counterfeit or otherwise illegal, and in 2005 economic losses due to software piracy amounted to billion.

According to the NASSCOM study on 'Information Technology in the Economy of India', a 10 point decrease in the piracy level in India (from the existing 72 percent), can result in a 13.4 per cent increase in GDP. This faster growth could help India generate 364,000 more jobs and add billion a year to an already booming IT-enabled economy.

Microsoft's Genuine Software Initiative attempts to address some of the pertinent issues that encourage the use of pirated software in the country.

Elaborating on these, Mr Doug Hauger, Head Business and Marketing Operations Microsoft Corporation India Pvt Ltd said,''A research we did in India last year indicated that almost 50 per cent of Indian consumers who use counterfeit software today, do so unknowingly. The research also made it clear that lack of ready access to and availability of genuine software is an issue that compounds the problem in India.'' UNI SN PM AG1608