Challenge of IT

THE EXPLOSION IN information technology and the visible increase in the number of IT professionals in the younger age groups as well as the companies which have come up in this segment might have created the impression that the private sector in India has responded with dynamism to the new technologies. It is, therefore, disappointing to be told by Mr. Pramod Mahajan, Information Technology Minister, about the inadequate private sector investments made in IT. He has also drawn the attention of the private sector entrepreneurs to the importance of avoiding a mismatch between the disinvestment made by the Government and the investment made by the private sector to fill the breach. Actually, the IT sector seems to be conspicuous by its absence in the areas vacated by the public sector through disinvestment to the tune of about Rs. 10,000 crores so far. This could be because of the poor interest shown by the private sector in what the public at large regards as a highly inviting and promising field which would seem to have attracted only the smaller companies led by well-qualified and dedicated young professionals many of whom had thrown away jobs in which they should have been doing very well.

The inertia which has held back the captains of industry from making their presence felt in the IT sector could only strengthen the belief about their reluctance to blaze new trails and their preference to play safe by sticking to the beaten track. This will disillusion many who were hopeful that the shedding of state control through the policy of disinvestment initiated a decade ago would bring about a regeneration of the private sector which was seen to be groaning under a severely restrictive regime. If the explanation for the private sector not having emerged as a major player in IT is that it is waiting for the public sector to rig up the basic infrastructure before it arrives on the scene, it is a very poor reflection of its qualities of entrepreneurship. This could be attributed to the expanding state ownership India had witnessed during the preceding decades and its sapping of the dynamism of the private sector. This is, however, not wholly true since the Indian private sector had not really done badly for itself during the years of state regulation of the economy as a junior partner in economic development with the huge public sector units in steel, heavy engineering, petroleum - to mention just a few - farming out major assignments to them costing several crores of rupees.

The disappointment expressed by Mr. Mahajan over the lack of response with the investments required from the private sector after the scrapping of the monopoly of the VSNL will be shared by many who might have been filled with great expectations. The bandwiths so far provided by the VSNL range over quite a wide spectrum from kilobytes and megabytes. The scope for their enlargement is quite large and to which the global IT industry has been keenly alive. If this itself makes a heavy demand on the Indian private sector which it has either not been able or has been unwilling to meet, the prospects of its being able to live up to the country's expectations about qualitatively changing the lives of the poor through IT do not look very bright. This should recall the despair expressed in the mid-1960s by a former Union Finance Minister over the reluctance of the Indian corporate sector to take up projects where the outlook for profit was limited to 10 or 15 per cent of the capital invested - which itself would have been hard to achieve in competitive markets - since they had long been used to its being as high as 40 per cent. This biting commentary on the Indian corporate philosophy would still seem to be very valid. IT makes this not only an unethical but also unwise business policy in the era of globalisation.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Opinion
Previous : A new charter of renewal
Next     : India's security and China