Mumbai:
Nasscom 2002, Indias largest international IT business
conference held in Mumbai for the third consecutive year, has
drawn to a close after reviewing the progress being made by the
Indian IT industry and evolving strategies to maintain a steady
growth.
 Nasscom
highlighted the need for India to develop a vibrant domestic
IT market and put in place a national strategy to enhance
Indias IT infrastructure in order to boost Internet access.
Over the last three days, Nasscom 2002 provided a platform
for international business leaders and visionaries to
share their knowledge and experiences; it attracted participation
from over 800 delegates and business visitors from India
and abroad.
Speaking on the success of the conference, Nasscom vice-chairman
Arun Kumar said: "Nasscom 2002 has served as a platform for
examining how global technology trends are impacting the Indian IT
industry and identifying opportunities for Indian companies by
geography, vertical segments and new and emerging technologies. I
believe the forum has been able to generate fresh ideas for the
Indian IT software and services industry to gear up to move into
the next stage of evolution and expansion."
Concluding the conference, Nasscom chairman Phiroz Vandrevala
said: "One of the key imperatives that emerged from the
debates and discussions over the last three days with
international business leaders, analysts and government officials
is that a vibrant domestic IT market holds significant potential
for the development of the Indian economy. Additionally,
international surveys show that the global spending on information
and communication technology is increasing at an astonishing rate
and thus India, in order to maintain its competitiveness globally,
must invest in building its telecom infrastructure and increase PC
and Internet penetration."
Nasscom president Kiran Karnik said: "We believe the Internet
holds a significant potential in the development of the Indian
economy, especially in the areas of telemedicine and distance
education. But there are some key constraints like high costs
of hardware and Internet access, and a lack of local language
content that stand in the way of aggressive proliferation.
Clearly, a national strategy has to be put in place to boost
Internet access. It is highly probable that unless a
well-articulated, aggressive policy to increase Internet
penetration is not implemented, India will lag behind most
countries, with significant losses in wealth and employment
creation."
At the conference, Nasscom also released the findings of its new
Internet survey and offered recommendations to the industry and
the government to improve Internet penetration in the country.
Results of the survey include:
- The Indian Internet
market grew steadily in terms of subscribers. The number of
active subscribers is projected to touch 1.5 million by March
2002. This represents a growth of 30 per cent, compared to the
1.1-million active subscriber-base in March 2001.
- The number of licensed
ISPs during 2001 was 470 and of this only 130 are operational.
- The total investments
made by all ISPs are estimated to be around Rs 5,500 crore in
2001. The industry revenues are likely to be around Rs 1,000
crore, which is a fifth of the investments made.
- A shakeout got
underway in 2001 with some players exiting the business
completely, or selling out to larger players.
- Most B2C dotcoms were
unable to sustain operations and most B2B initiatives went
unnoticed in the general gloom surrounding the dotcoms though
Internet usage in banking, financial and automotive sectors
witnessed an upswing.
The survey also forecasts
that the number of Internet subscribers in the year 2004-05 are
likely to reach 7.7 million, with the user base to grow over 50
million. The forecast assumes PC prices to decline by nearly 40
per cent and PC penetration is expected to be 13 per 1,000
persons. In order to increase Internet penetration, some crucial
drivers highlighted by the survey include:
- Local language,
personalised content such as alerts regarding commodity
prices, examination results, share prices and air/rail
reservation, should be made available and accessible.
- Set-top boxes, mobile
phone and hand-held devices should be available at prices not
exceeding Rs 3,000, and the monthly access
costs are less than Rs 500-750.
- The national Internet
backbone be fully implemented, concomitant
with a decline in tariffs.
- Lower tariffs on all
hardware.
- The cable television
industry undergoes regulatory changes with
the government specifying quality of service norms as were
implemented for the ISPs.
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