'India welcomes China's competition in IT sector'

London, July 15: India welcomes competition from China in IT sector, as it is progressing into the more sophisticated sector of R&D, Minister for Communications and IT Thiru Dayanidhi Maran has said.

Speaking during an interactive session at the India House here, Mr Maran said, ''We are not afraid of challenges from countries like China. The pie is too big and we are going into more sophisticated R&D areas.'' Leading international IT companies had set up their Research and Development units in India and the IT industry as a whole had registered a 30 per cent growth last year, he informed.

He said the government had planned to concentrate on e-Governance in India. ''We are trying to have a common system ready by 2007,'' he said.

Although Bangalore is the Silicon Valley of India, Mr Maran said the city was struggling to cope up with the rapid growth, while cities like Chennai, Pune, Hyderabad and Noida, apart from cities in Haryana, Punjab and West Bengal were picking up.

UNI