MITs Agenda

The IT Secretary to the Government of India, R Chandrashekhar, has perhaps
one of the most challenging jobs on his hand. Even if he succeeds in achieving
50 percent of that, he would have achieved a lot and would have given India a
whole new lever to harness the power of its 1.1 billion citizens and emerge as a
global leader.

At a recent meeting with him, Chandrashekhar very lucidly outlined the agenda
that the Government of India has entrusted on him and his Department of IT (DIT).
While the big IT players of India, by virtue of their size and brand, may
already have access to key government policy makers, I thought I will share my
notes of the meeting with him about the big channel partner and solution
provider community. Hopefully some of you will be able to synchronize your plans
with the Government's plans.

The government wants to once again take up the case of ICT hardware
manufacturing. Though the industry had almost given up on manufacturing, but
keeping in mind the recent China scare (Home Ministry of India wants to keep
track of all Chinese made telecom and networking equipment in the country) the
government has decided to once again push hardware manufacturing in India.
Therefore, there is also a huge and predictable domestic demand now. Government
believes that since India is very strong in R&D and Design, the next logical
step should be manufacturing. The secretary also hinted at the possibility of a
new initiative for hardware manufacturing to be announced soon.

According to me, the biggest challenge before Chandrashekhar is eGovernance
deployment. The good thing is that policy makers now truly believe that G2C
(government to citizen) eGovernance services are essential to ensure balanced
and inclusive growth of economy and society. To this effect the government is
also quite clear that it will also deploy eGovernance for G2B (government to
business) services so that industry gets a sense of trust and transparency.

The third thing on Governments' agenda is information security. DIT is
working on elaborate plans with other ministries on building and strengthening
information security systems (including that involved in homeland security).
Beyond this DIT will also work on ways and means to change the world's
perception that info security in India is a matter of concern.

Last but not the least, Chandrashekhar will also drive India's R&D strengths
in a new direction. The idea is to focus on innovations for developing countries
in the areas of security, language IT, and other development areas so that local
and cost effective solutions can be worked out.

The secretary has given out his agenda. It is up to the channels and solution
partners now to see where can they play a role. The government is very open now,
and believes that IT cannot be taken to masses without the help of local
players.

Ibrahim ahmad

ibrahima@cybermedia.co.in