The Hindu : India already a total IT nation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jun 10, 2003

Business

Business

India already a total IT nation — Intel chief

By Anand Parthasarathy

Paul Otellini

MUMBAI JUNE 9. Echoing the prediction made by the late National Association of Software and Service Companies Nasscom chief, Dewang Mehta, the Intel's President and Chief Operating Officer, Paul Otellini, suggested today that what oil was to Saudi Arabia, information technology would shortly be to India, making this a $87 billion industry by 2008.

Addressing a gathering of chief executives, on his maiden visit here, the head of the world's largest chip maker explained why the world's leading corporations were making a beeline to India. The human resource in the form of highly trained IT professionals — slated to number 17 million within five years — was the key driver. But along with quantity, came quality, Mr. Otellini added: 15 of the world's 23 companies which had achieved "CMM Level 5'' the highest software quality certification, had a presence here. And an e-nlightened government policy towards IT rounded off the compulsive attractions of this country for high tech players like Intel. "This is why India is our largest non-manufacturing site outside the U.S., with a ten fold growth in numbers within three years to around 1100 engineers.'' This was further slated to grow to around 3,000 by 2005. "India is our mini Intel'' Mr. Otellini added, with activities here a microcosm of the parent company.

On the technology front, the Intel President suggested that wireless Internet access or WiFi represented a wave bigger even than the advent of the world wide web. "Over 27,000 new wireless access points were being deployed worldwide every day — one every three seconds. Indeed WiFi will change the way we compute just as mobile phones changed the way we communicate.'' Intel had helped establish the world's `coolest hotspot' for WiFi at the Mount Everest base camp. However, in this scenario of galloping growth, India had one of the lowest levels of wireless hotspot deployment in Asia Pacific — about 200, which was less than a tenth of the number found in China, Mr. Otellini said. However, he had no specific suggestions to change this situation — although Intel has announced a multi-million dollar budget to kickstart global usage of its Centrino technology to drive wireless portable computing.

Speaking later to The Hindu, Avtar Saini, who oversees Intel's Asia operations hinted that the company might look for local partners to help make WiFi more ubiquitous in India. Mr. Otellini had a parting suggestion for the assembled technologists: If your PCs were more than three years old — dump them: the cost of ownership would go up sharply after that period and it made sense to upgrade to newer systems. Not a comforting thought for Indians who have always believed in `old is gold.'

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Business