(1888PressRelease)
July 25, 2007 - IT Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) will gain by tapping the huge domestic market. Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) has plans for promoting SME IT companies. Moreover rural based Small Cyber Enterprises can expand their businesses by partnering with the Local Government Institutions (LGIs) to strengthen their E-governance initiatives by taking up digitization works. In addition, Small Cyber Enterprises can help SME companies numbering 10. 5 million in India to apply Information and Communications Technology at enterprise level and also by providing information services and managing the information needs of SMEs. Also, Rural Small Cyber Enterprises need to be promoted and supported similarly as the State promoted rural industrialization through Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC). These were some of the voices heard in the Seminar on Small Cyber Enterprises: Market and Business Development for Sustainability, organized by World Association for Small and Medium Enterprises, WASME, on 20 July, 2007 in Noida, near New Delhi, India.
The Seminar was inaugurated by Dr. Sunil K Agrawal, Director, STPI. He called upon the SME IT industry to tap domestic market in a substantial way. Dr. Agrawal explained the problems of SME IT companies and the steps taken by STPI to address it. He said initiatives like TRADE NET by STPI would help SME players in other sectors as well by meeting their business intelligence needs. Mr. Gyan Prakash, Secretary General of WASME, earlier called for a level playing field for Small IT players. Four expert presentations were part of the Seminar. Those presentations were made by Mr.M.P Duby Jt. Director STPI, Mr. D.N Gupta, I.A.S, Fellow, Institute of Social Sciences(ISS), New Delhi, Mr. Deepak Kapoor, CEO, BPO News and Mr. Chetan Sharma of Datamation Foundation. Mr. V. N Prasad, Consultant, WASME while speaking at the seminar highlighted the issues that the policy level intervention can resolve. He pointed out the issues that SSI ministry should address to make IT SMEs in par with other players.
Moderating different presentations, Prof. M.R. Murthy, Ph.D, Institute for Studies in Industrial Development(ISID), New Delhi observed that Micro Enterprises are more relevant at village level and therefore focus should be on them. He called for creating enterprise-friendly regulatory environment for their smooth growth and development. All the speakers agreed that Rural BPOs are set be a hit in the Indian market and India has not yet tapped its domestic IT market unlike China. Domestic market has huge potentials in India and it can create several lakh of jobs in rural India. Mr. D.N Gupta, researching on E-governance at Local Government Institutions at ISS New Delhi, pointed out that E-governance at local government level will hit rural India with the setting up of Wide Area Network(WAN), connecting ‘Village Head Quarters’ with 2 Mbps data cable. He further added that US$ 10 billion would be spent on this E-governance initiative by the government in the next 5 years.
He called for Private – Public – Partnership (PPP) at Local Government to achieve this mammoth task. Mr. Gupta said there are 600 districts, 6,000 Block Panchayats and 2, 50,000 Gram Panchayats throughout India. Micro and Small ICT enterprises, including rural based Small Cyber Enterprises (CYBER CAFES), will have to partner with the State to make E-governance at Local Government level a reality. This would create several lakh of additional jobs. Mr. M. P Dubey explained the policy framework for Small and Micro IT Enterprises. He said SME IT companies contribute 25 % of India’s IT and ITES export. By providing appropriate support to SME IT companies, their contribution can go up to 50 % or more.
Mr. Deepak Kapoor, CEO of BPO News said IT moving to villages is not charity and it’s a sensible and highly profitable business proposition. It has nothing other than profit maximization. He said Think Business and Feel Social is the buzzword of Rural BPO movement. Mr. Chetan Sharma highlighted the need for demystifying the myths like English is the language of computers and called upon the need to pay attention to the development of Indian Regional Language content. And English language skill is not a pre-requisite for a successful IT/ITES career. Mr. Dubey and Mr. Kapoor both pointed out that BPOs have already started moving to tier 3, tier-4 cities and will move to tier 5 and 6 cities. Mr. Dubey also pointed out that outsourcing business is no more voice based alone and now it’s becoming e-mail based and housewives sitting at home can also be part of this revolution.
Mr. Satyaprakash, I.A.S, Assistant Development Commissioner, Gurgaon, Haryana, told the audience about how e-governance and outsourcing is happening in Harayana. Mr. R.L Gore, former Director of KVIC also spoke in the seminar and called for urgent action to promote rural Cyber Enterprises, as this would enable Gram Swaraj vision of Mahatma Gandhi a reality. More than 50 participants from NGOs, SMEs, Rural BPOs participated in the deliberations.
