Happy birthday

India's first exclusive IT Ministry was born exactly a year ago. In one year, the newest baby of the Union Government has not done badly. The ministry can be proud of its two key achievements--piloting the IT Bill 2000 in the Parliament and the Semiconductor Layout Bill 2000. Also the IT Ministry has formulated the framework for enabling statutory recognition to digital transactions.

IT Minister Pramod Mahajan deserves a pat for this steering of the ministry. His major achievement has been dispelling the fear of the industry that such a close involvement of the government will in fact harm the sector. Nothing of that sort has happened so far. The IT industry has been a success story, as many industry hands admit, because the government's involvement, characterized by its hands-on approach, be it running hotels, mining companies, airlines, bread making or even manufacture of condoms, in this sector has been minimum. 

On the other hand, the IT Ministry has just taken the first concrete step to let go its flagship PSU, CMC Ltd. CMC was set up as a government company in the 1970 to take over maintenance operations of mainframes when IBM bowed out of the country.

Today, CMC is better off outside the government set up. Mahajan's task of privatizing CMC has been made easy by the fact that the company has evaded the radar of the anti-privatization segments of the trade union and industry segments. Similarly, the IT Ministry's decision to corporatize the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) is also a welcome step.

The IT Ministry has luckily turned its attention to matters other than software exports. Manpower shortage, strengthening the domestic hardware manufacturing industry, and bridging the 'digital divide' have started to get its attention. These are certainly the sectors where the ministry has the role to play as catalyst and enabler. With our country emerging as a major human resource base for the global IT industry, we have to quickly revamp our educational systems to grab the opportunities that have come our way. 

In the same way, a vibrant domestic market for both hardware and software will go a long way in strengthening the foundations of India's IT and economic prosperity. The export-oriented software segment should be provided with a strong domestic market so that it can weather any emerging uncertainties of the global market by looking inwards too. It is now the ministry's and Mahajan's challenge to ensure that the fruits of IT are tasted by every Indian citizen.