Investors find IT enabled sector attractive

Our Corporate Bureau

CHENNAI, MAY 31. The two day conference - Nasscom's India IT enabled services 2001 - received good response from delegates and the event witnessed record participation from the industry, according to Mr. Arun Seth, Chairman Programme Committee.

Briefing presspersons here on Thursday, Mr. Seth said over 800 delegates registered for the event against the expectation of 200 and over 40 per cent of the participating delegates were from the North, West and East of India giving it a truly national flavour. Encouraged by the response, Nasscom had decided to have many more events in Chennai focusing on different aspects of the IT sector, he said.

Mr. Seth said, ``Even though the IT enabled sector has recorded its highest ever growth of 70 per cent, Nasscom projections indicate that it has the potential to emerge as the much required catalyst driving the growth of the Indian IT industry. It has already caught the attention of the international and domestic investment community as is reflected by the fact that we have received $300 million of investment in this sector and we are confident that this inflow will continue and reach $500 million in the next 12 months.''

10-point Action Plan

The National Association of Software and Services Companies today presented a ten point call for action by the Government and industry to help India emerge as a sustainable hub for IT enabled services. A panel of leading International and Indian experts drafted the action plan based on discussions at the Chennai meet. Mr. Seth said the association would present the Action Plan to the IT and telecom ministries next month in New Delhi.

The measures suggested in the call include:

Immediate dialogue between Government and industry to clearly define the parameters for each segment of the sector. This will remove ambiguity with regard to income tax exemption applicable to ITES units.

Applicability of international standards in telecom infrastructure including inter-connectivity of international call centres, setting up of international gateways for captive need in IT enabled services and permission to IT enabled industry to freely purchase bandwidth from international markets

Flexibility for call centres to merge domestic and international business in the same facility.

Setting up of IT enabled service training infrastructure and involvement of ITI's and polytechnics for call centre management and degree level courses for IT enabled services industry.

'One' industry standard as a tool to certify quality and global standards.

Establishment of a $100 million VC fund for the IT enabled services sector and

Commenting on the call for action, Mr. Arun Seth said that in order to build India as a globally competitive and sustainable destination for IT enabled services, it is going to be critical for the industry and government to work together to overcome the challenges in areas such as standards, infrastructure, quality and human resources.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Business
Previous : Controversy hits BSNL tender for cables
Next     : India seeks 'consultations' with Argentina over
           drug imports