IT offers immense scope for cooperation

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, JAN. 2. Information technology (IT) offers the largest scope for cooperation between India and the U.K., according to Lord Swraj Paul, Ambassador of British Business.

``India is second only to the U.S. in the world in software talent, while the U.K. ranks second in IT in the developed world. There is also shortage of IT personnel in Britain. It is for this reason that Britain relaxed visa norms for IT personnel last year,'' Lord Paul said.

Talking to presspersons, he said it was clear that in future every country/company should undertake manufacture of only those products in which it was competitive on a global scale. All attempts to resist globalisation would fail. In this context, India would be competitive, besides IT, in areas like textiles, or even automobiles, provided it attempted to make cars that met global standards and were not aimed at the domestic market.

He felt that apart from China, no other country would be competitive in steel manufacture in the near future, and there was no reason for India to expand its steel capacity merely on the ground of the availability of good quality iron ore.

Lord Paul said Britain earned a whopping $42 billion annually from ``cultural exports'', comprising music, art works and books, though it might have lost its export competitiveness in many other areas.

He attributed the resurgence of the British economy to the determined policy direction (``there is no free lunch'') set by the former Conservative Prime Minister, Mrs. Margaret Thatcher.

Much was being heard about levy of anti-dumping duties, in which the U.S. was a pioneer, but in reality proceedings in more than ninety per cent of the cases ended in a negative decision, he said.

Industries affected by import competition would naturally raise a hue and cry and press for protection in the name of combating dumping, but they would not succeed, except in cases where there was actual dumping, provided investigations were fair and transparent.

It was not foreign direct investment (FDI) but a policy environment which would enable the people of India to realise their full potential which would deliver the country from the malaise of backwardness, Lord Paul said.

Asked whether he himself as also the developed countries in general were not applying different yardsticks for democracy for their own people on one side and India on the other in approving the leadership of the present government in India, he said what counted were not statements of the Prime Minister, Mr. Atal Behari Vajpayee, as the leader of a party which had its own constituency but his actions as Prime Minister heading the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) with its proclaimed agenda.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Business
Previous : Invest in human capital - Swraj Paul
Next     : Rupee weakens on dollar demand