labels: Economy - general
IT industry urged to explore opportunities in rural India news
10 November 2008

A round table at Bangalore, IT.biz on 'Rural IT Policy', has called industry to explore new opportunities in rural areas.

At a session, moderated by B. Suryanarayanan, Intel's sales and marketing director for South Asia, Ashok Kumar Manoli, principal secretary, information tchnology of the Karnataka government, said the current global meltdown was an opportunity to "innovate, concentrate on cost reduction and explore business opportunities within the country."

While announcing new technology parks, Manoli said, ''Companies achieve a 30 per cent-35 per cent cost reduction in rural areas. Our mission is to take IT to the masses. We are soon launching technology parks in Shimoga, Mangalore, Mysore, Belgaum and Davangere. The policy is our road ahead and we are aiming at sustained growth in rural IT.''

While observing the growing inequalities between urban and rural areas, Arvind Jannu, managing director, Karnataka State Electronics Development Corporation (KEONICS) called for a "drastic change in the mindset of the government, industry and people." KEONICS has started over 250 computer education centres in rural Karnataka.

Echoing his views, Dr S K Agarwal, director, STPI and development commissioner, Maharashtra,  called for the formation of an apex body to analyse rural needs, he said policies cannot be pilot-based. Addressing the power problems of the industry, he urged his industry counterparts to explore new options for energy supply.

Stressing on the need for ICT in education, governance, healthcare and ITES was Shashi Kishore Patil, COO, COMAT Technologies, a social enterprise focused on providing easy access to essential information and transformational services in Rural areas.

"We need to create momentum, infrastructure and facilities. We must look at not rural IT but, rural ICT", said Patil.

Lauding the present Karnataka government on its proactive efforts "unlike other states", Patil expressed the need for rural India to be a part of the 'India growth story'. "Indeed it is rural India which is the true India and it is a matter of time before they become an indispensable part of the 'India Growth Story' " Patil emphasised.


 search domain-b
  go
 
IT industry urged to explore opportunities in rural India