Rural India calling

Addressing the inaugural session of NASSCOM 2005, IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran

and VilasRao Deshmukh, Chief Mini-ster of Maharashtra appealed to all IT

companies to make IT viable for masses especially to the rural masses. NASSCOM

2005-India Leadership Forum kick-started in Mumbai on Feb 8, 2005.

In his keynote, Maran said that there is need to invest in IT education at

grass root level. "Taking IT to the masses sho-uld bridge digital divide

and since India is a multi lingual country, software companies need to make

cost-effective applications in different Indian languages," he added.

"There are still a host of ar-eas that require our undi-vided attention,

major pieces in the ICT industry puzzle that need to fit in and a significant

num-ber of market segments where our industry still needs to stake a claim and

strengthen its credentials," he further added.

Speaking about Internet penetration in India, Maran said that Internet

penetration needs to grow by leaps and bounds. Currently, Internet growth in

India is limited by low PC penetration, which in turn is inhibited by the high

prices of computer hardware. The government is working closely with the industry

to ensure that PC costs come down rapidly and Internet access devices are within

the reach of ordinary citizen.

Deshmukh insisted that the state IT policy is being revised to give boost to

infrastructure and all the hotspots including airport would soon be well

equipped to cater needs to all the visitors coming and investing in Maharashtra.

Earlier addressing the gat-hering, Jerry Rao, Chairman, NASSCOM apart from

his wish list asked for better infra-structure that has always been a major

cause of concern for IT and ITES companies.

CyberMedia News


Mumbai