Post by talk2santosh on Jan 17, 2004 1:24:35 GMT -5
In infotech, we have a headstart so let’s not put up our feet
For the entire article
www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=38409
Ensuring IT remains in Indian territory
ARUN SHOURIE
JUST 600,000 persons working in our information technology sector today create $ 16 billion worth of wealth every year. IT exports are liable to touch $ 13 billion this year - that is, in spite of recessionary conditions in their principal markets, our IT professionals and firms will earn about Rs 60,000 crore for the country in foreign exchange. Those earnings will account for over one-fifth of our total exports.
Such figures represent phenomenal, spectacular growth: 15 years ago the activity was hardly known; just five/six years ago the figure was not $ 16 billion, it was $ 5 billion. Similarly, but for the successes of this small number of firms and personnel, our export performance would have looked very different from what it does today. And with that the level of foreign exchange reserves too would have been substantially lower.
More significant for the future,
• India and Indians have contributed significantly to the growth of this field - one-third of the start-ups in Silicon Valley were by Indians.
• We are today one of the principal knowledge-generators in this field - over 100 of the Fortune 500 companies have set up R&D centres in India. Among these are some of the world's cutting-edge IT firms - Intel, IBM, Microsoft, Motorola, Hewlett Packard, SAP, Sony, Samsung, Texas Instruments. Each of them relies on and seeks to avail of India's strengths in IT.
• We export IT and IT-enabled services to over 133 countries. Our firms are training people in IT in 55 countries. A single Indian firm - NIIT - today runs 100 training centres in, of all places, China. The government itself is setting up training centres for people in other countries.
The other day, the prime minister inaugurated the Kofi Annan Centre for Excellence in Accra, Ghana, for the people of west Africa; in March he will be inaugurating a Cyber City in Mauritius for the people of east Africa - a project that accounts for about half of a $ 100 million credit line to the country, the rest to be used to provide other IT-related services, like education.
• Our IT firms have become standards of excellence: today three-fourths of the world's CMM Quality level V companies are in India.
For the entire article
www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=38409
Ensuring IT remains in Indian territory
ARUN SHOURIE
JUST 600,000 persons working in our information technology sector today create $ 16 billion worth of wealth every year. IT exports are liable to touch $ 13 billion this year - that is, in spite of recessionary conditions in their principal markets, our IT professionals and firms will earn about Rs 60,000 crore for the country in foreign exchange. Those earnings will account for over one-fifth of our total exports.
Such figures represent phenomenal, spectacular growth: 15 years ago the activity was hardly known; just five/six years ago the figure was not $ 16 billion, it was $ 5 billion. Similarly, but for the successes of this small number of firms and personnel, our export performance would have looked very different from what it does today. And with that the level of foreign exchange reserves too would have been substantially lower.
More significant for the future,
• India and Indians have contributed significantly to the growth of this field - one-third of the start-ups in Silicon Valley were by Indians.
• We are today one of the principal knowledge-generators in this field - over 100 of the Fortune 500 companies have set up R&D centres in India. Among these are some of the world's cutting-edge IT firms - Intel, IBM, Microsoft, Motorola, Hewlett Packard, SAP, Sony, Samsung, Texas Instruments. Each of them relies on and seeks to avail of India's strengths in IT.
• We export IT and IT-enabled services to over 133 countries. Our firms are training people in IT in 55 countries. A single Indian firm - NIIT - today runs 100 training centres in, of all places, China. The government itself is setting up training centres for people in other countries.
The other day, the prime minister inaugurated the Kofi Annan Centre for Excellence in Accra, Ghana, for the people of west Africa; in March he will be inaugurating a Cyber City in Mauritius for the people of east Africa - a project that accounts for about half of a $ 100 million credit line to the country, the rest to be used to provide other IT-related services, like education.
• Our IT firms have become standards of excellence: today three-fourths of the world's CMM Quality level V companies are in India.