Some hard facts about software biz in India
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 05, 2005 11:40:55 PM ]
LUCKNOW: Software business in India is worth over 20 billion dollars per year. Sounds big. But try to see through the statistics. It's only 2 per cent of global market. And if you considered that the English-savvy Indian had an edge over the Chinese, think again. China has left us far behind in use of computers in the development process.
A number of IT-related myths were shattered as Padmabhusan FC Kohli, former deputy chairman of Tata Consultancy Services Limited and widely regarded as the father of Indian software industry, delved on the topic here on Saturday evening. His lecture on "The Role of IT in Enhancing The Quality of Life" had been organised by the Lucknow Management Association's CEO forum. But, it was no downgrading of the domestic industry on his part as he also presented a roadmap for the Indian IT industry.
Why do we need IT revolution?
Kohli said that IT had changed the way we think and computers could be used as a tool to plan our future. "In a poor country like India, computers can be used to generate employment, increase productivity of small scale sector, enhance services and improve quality of life," he said.
Comparison with China
"In 1990 India and China had same number of personal computers per thousand population, same amount of spending on information technology, same per capita income. But today China has five times more computer then India, six times telecommunication penetration and in comparison to seven dollars per head on IT spent by India, China spends 18 dollars per capita," he said.
The reason for China's growth
Chinese, he said, have used computers in every walk of life — in education, health, transportation. They have used computers for their own growth. They also export hardware worth 25-27 billion dollars every year. Instead of focussing on learning English and writing software in English as we do in India, Chinese write software in their own language. Not surprisingly, China is way ahead of India, he said.
Where do we stand
"Out of 20 billion dollars software business, 15.5 billion dollars is exported and we use 4.5 billion for domestic consumption. Further, out of 4.5 billion domestic consumption we import and resell 2 billion dollar worth software is imported and produce 2.5 billion in India for our own consumption," he said. The hardware business is still very low — 4 billion dollars per annum, out of which 2.5 billions are imports, he said adding clearly we failed to appreciate that IT is both software and hardware.
Where to go from here
"We missed the industrial revolutions for the reasons not in our control, but we cannot miss the IT revolution," he said.
The strategy
"We will have to write software in our own language and reduce the cost of personal computer so that more people can afford it and utilise for their growth," he said.
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