It market to be worth USD 200 billion by 2010: Kalam
Kolkata, Dec 06 (UNI) India should reach the ambitious target of USD 200 billion by 2010, President A P J Abdul Kalam said here today.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of Infocom 2006, organised by NASCOM and the ABP Group, he said the IT industry and NASCOM should reach the USD 200 billion figure with competitive products and diversification of IT services.
"There are three dynamics of competitiveness--cost effectiveness, quality products and reaching the market in time. A nation can be competitive also by developing infrastructure and other facilities needed for such development," he said.
Speaking about the government endeavour in attaining this ambitious target, the President said, "We have taken up several innovative projects like the national e-governance project which will be completed by 2007, computerisation of 13,000 districts in the country, linking the village knowledge centres and popularising tele-medicines." The digital gap must be bridged with bandwidth reaching the rural population. The government has also introduced edusac-- V-sat facilities to link the remote areas, he said.
Talking about innovation in the IT sector, the President emphasised that software industry should move up the value chain to remain competitive.He urged the IT companies present on the occasion to start research and development in the areas like embedded software, networking software and infotech-biotech-nanotechnology software.
"India must graduate from Information Communication Technology (ICT) to knowledge community. Nano technology is knocking at our door and the industry in collaboration with academics and MNCs should work together to reach the addressable market," Kalam said.
He mentioned four strategies through which ICT sector could move up the value chain--- reach the tier-II and III cities to promote the BPO companies, strike joint ventures with countries like Korea and Phillipines and other SE Asian countries, participating in e-governance, telemdicine and e-business programmes and create level playing field for small IT companies.
"Innovate and integrate is today's catchword," he said as in innovation in the IT sector and converging the technology in travel and tourism, bank, insurance, health and other sectors would help the industry reach the target.
The IT sector should utilise the large pool of human resources available in India in the from of 540 million youths.
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