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Bilateral cooperation needed to boost trade and investment in IT sector: US and Indian industry
Nov 19, 2014

“There is an inherent trust between the world’s oldest democracy and the world’s largest democracy, therefore the two countries can go a long way in working together. The USA is the 6th largest investor in India, I think it should be much higher and it can be, ” said Mr Charles H. Rivkin, Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and Business Affairs, US Department of State.

He was speaking at the panel session, ‘How to boost India-U.S. Partnership in Manufacturing, Trade & Investments in Information Technology Sector’, at the India-US Technology Summit, organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in partnership with the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India and the United States as the Partner Country, at Greater Noida today.

Echoing his views, Mr S Gopalakrishnan, Past President, CII, and Chairman, CII Innovation & Entrepreneurship Council, said that he wants the IT industry of the two countries to focus on research, innovation and entrepreneurship. “I want the venture capitalists (VCs) of both countries to have tie-ups to enable starts-up to take root,” Mr Gopalakrishnan said.

Elaborating on the emphasis laid by the Indian government on the development of the IT sector, Vipin Tyagi, ED, C-DoT, said that the country is in the communication as well as the broadband revolution. “Global communication will remain incomplete if Indian needs are not provided for because of the massive requirements of various information technology services.”

The two projects by the Government of India,  100 Smart Cities and Digital India—that sets a target of providing broadband connectivity to 2.5 lakh villages out of the 6.41 lakh villages and making and providing Wi-Fi to an equal number of schools by 2019—were a matter of much debate. The Digital India programme seeks to “transform India into digital empowered society and knowledge economy”.

Mr Joseph Alhadeff, Vice President for Global Public Policy and Chief Privacy Office, Oracle Corporation, said: “The concepts of 100 Smart Cities and Digital India provide opportunities to both Indian and US IT companies. These initiatives will also make India more competitive globally.”

Elaborating on the importance of a heightened Indian-US engagement in the IT sector and elaborating on how the two governments can facilitate partnerships, Dr BVR Mohan Reddy, Founder & Executive Chairman, Cyient Group, said that the US will have to ensure that it allows not just movement of goods but people also. He added that the movement of people has to be both ways, India to the US and vice versa. Dr Reddy said: “At the same time, the US companies can participate in Indian initiatives.”

In another session on information technology, ‘India at 2020: Delivering the Broadband Promise’, Mr Kiran Karnik, Chairman, CII National Committee on Telecom & Broadband, said that the information technology sector has moved away from being a sunrise sector to one that is integral to every sector. “In a short span of time, the telecom sector has transformed itself from a sunrise industry into being one of the integral pillars of the Indian economy enabling both sociological and economic development and bringing about a communications revolution, driven both by wireless telephony and data-driven services,” said Mr Karnik. Talking about the India-US Technology Summit, Mr Karnik said that this summit will have a tremendous impact on forging collaboration between the two countries.

This was a sentiment that Mr Josh Rice, Chief Technology Officer, Microsoft, agreed with. Mr Rice said: “I am here for two reasons. I am here to meet up with the government and to find out about their policies and what they want. The second reason I am here for is because there are opportunities for better investments and opportunities.”

Dr CS Rao, President, Reliance Communications Ltd, said that the telecom companies will have to scale up significantly if they have to meet the needs of the new subscribers. “Our capacity needs to be scaled up to be able to provide wireless broadband, mobile broadband, cable broadband and satellite broadband. In the same session, Dr Anand Agarwal, CEO, Sterlite Technologies Ltd, added that in times to come broadband will have to be provided as a utility and not a privileged service because of the demand it will generate.

His views were echoed by Mr Patrick M. French, Head of Business Development, Asia-Pacific Intelsat, who said that there is a massive scope for wireless connectivity. He said that 59 satellites provide connectivity in the US to a population of 355,000 million, while just 11 satellites cater to India with a population of over a billion. Talking about wireless connectivity, Pranav Roach, President, Hughes Network Systems India too emphasized on the fact that satellite technology will be the prime mover for providing wireless broadband to India.

Developing markets, specifically India, lie at the epicentre of growth especially as consumer demand for data services continues to grow, spurred by demand from rural India. The rapid growth of mobile-enabled services including banking, education, health and governance are ensuring that by 2020 close to 30% of mobile industry revenues will be data-driven.

The other speakers at the panel discussions included Mr Stephen Moret, Secretary, Louisiana Economic Development (LED); Mr Amit Sharma, President, Asia ATC, American Tower Corporation; Mr Vimal Wakhlu, Chairman & Managing Director, Telecommunications Consultants India Limited; and Pankaj Jalote, Director, Indian Institute of Information Technology, Delhi. 

November 18, 2014

Greater Noida

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