The Hindu : `Share development with backward regions'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Oct 29, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore

`Share development with backward regions'

By K. Satyamurty

The President, A.P.J.Kalam (centre), the Governor, T.N.Chaturvedi (right), the Chief Minister, S.M.Krishna (second from right), the Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, N.Chandrababu Naidu (to the President's right), the IT and Telecommunications Minister from Mauritius, Deelchand Jeeha (left), and e-Commerce and Competitiveness Minister from the U.K., Stephen Timms, at the venue of the Bangalore IT.Com on Monday. — Photo: K.Gopinathan.

BANGALORE OCT. 28. The President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who inaugurated Bangalore IT.com on Monday, chose the occasion to remind the "Knowledge Industry'' that development should be shared with the more backward regions of the country.

Dr. Kalam quoted a question posed to him by a 10th Standard girl student, in remote Kusama in Nagaland, which he visited during the weekend. The girl had asked: "Mr. President, I want to live in a peaceful and prosperous Nagaland. Please tell me how to make this possible.'' This was after he talked about the knowledge industry developing elsewhere. "After becoming independent, the country needed a second vision: to make progress and prosperity penetrate regions such as the North East, and Jharkand, and the IT industry should ponder this,'' Dr. Kalam said. "Economic strength comes from competitiveness which is driven by knowledge, pushed forward by technology and resulting in resources and investment,'' he said.

Even in the IT sector, software exports accounted for only 16 per cent of India's exports and this could grow 10 times by promoting the domestic market. Despite the post-September 11 setback, Indian IT industry continued to grow because it was more robust and less fragile and was not affected by incidents outside the country. The domestic market could not be grown by the Government alone, but by more use of IT in education and healthcare among other sectors. In an indirect reference to the river water dispute between Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, he said there should be a "network of rivers'' as the network of highways planned to link the different regions. The U.K. Minister for E-Commerce and Competitiveness, Stephen Timms, said 250 Indian ICTE companies now had a presence in the U.K. with 17 enterprises setting up base there this year. While work permit regulations were now modified because the U.K. no longer had a shortage of IT skills, Indian companies need not feel let down, as inter-organisation transfer of personnel would still be allowed. With 95 per cent of all British business having gone online, Indian firms could benefit from the e-commerce growth, he said.

The Chief Minister, S.M. Krishna, said with the President terming children his constituency, winds of change were sweeping the Rashtrapathi Bhavan and the country. There were two faces to the knowledge revolution. Several CMM Level 5 software development companies, 43 of the 52 with a presence in India, were based or had facilities in Bangalore.

The Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister, N. Chandrababu Naidu, referred to international surveys rating India in the 43rd place in regard to "e-readiness.'' The Karnataka Governor, T.N. Chaturvedi, the Minister of State for IT, D.B. Inamdar, and the IT Secretary, Vivek Kulkarni, spoke.

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