Hardware bus

With the software export markets showing signs of slowdown, the attention has turned towards the hardware segment. The emphasis came from a person no less than F C Kohli of TCS, considered to be the 'Father of Indian IT' and the brain behind the software powerhouse from the Tata stable.

Speaking at te Connect 2001 meet on IT, communications and Bioinformatics in Chennai, Kohli was emphatic that we should not miss the hardware bus now. In the 1970s, when the IT industry was in the nascent stage, India too could have got onto the bandwagon. But, Kohli, insists our national leadership, did not envisage the emerging role of the technology and just ignored it. According to him, India could create a world class IT manufacturing hub by taking a few right steps. His confidence stems from the fact that there is a national realization that computerization is inevitable. And computerization is taking place in a fast pace. To sustain the pace of computerization, large scale manufacturing is inevitable. Currently two-thirds of our nationwide hardware purchases are imported.

There are other strong supporters for Indian hardware industry. Leading economist Jeffrey Sachs insists that technology is changing our lives permanently. Sachs says the turmoil in the IT market is mainly due to financial reasons and the technology is on a strong footing. Sachs and other experts say that the new wave of computer applications being developed and that which are already in the market are putting enormous pressure on companies to upgrade their infrastructure. The wave is now sweeping areas such as supercomputing, healthcare, genomics , bioinformatics and digitized content. The IT infrastructure itself is complex but the cost of creating it is declining rapidly.

These trends reemphasize the fact that computers are entering more and more areas to facilitate government-public interface. Tamil Nadu and many other states have embakred on providing a smooth interface and as Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa indicated, the state is a leader and pioneer in many of these areas. She has reassured the industry that the thrust will continue.

The Tamil Nadu government can do a lot more to help the computerization process. Results from pilot projects in e-governance, land record computerization etc are available. Besides, state agencies have done extensive work in incorporating IT into the curricula at the school education level. It is time to transition these efforts into full scale projects so that the benefits can percolate faster to the citizens.

The industry association, CII, has urged the state government to set up special IT townships. This is one suggestion the state government should give more attention. Tamil Nadu has an advantage in terms of its is uniform urban spread, with a sprinkling of big potential cities such as Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchirappalli, Salem, Tirunelveli throughout the state. Many of these cities are emerging as vibrant IT centers. There is no need to create special IT townships. If the government concentrates on its primary role of providing the basis telecom and communication infrastructure, entrepreneurs will benefit immensely. " Islands of excellence" is an outmoded concept from the days of centrally controlled planning. The benefits of IT will not percolate very fast if the IT activities are confined to few urban pockets.

So the nation's and the state's role is clear. Provide good governance and the enabling economic and social environment for entrepreneurship to bloom. The talent is available and they will take care of the rest.