The Hindu : Build `India Inside' brand, entrepreneurs told

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jan 07, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore

Build `India Inside' brand, entrepreneurs told

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE Jan. 6. Build "India Inside" brand on the lines of "Intel Inside". Shift the focus from services to innovation through greater investments in R&D. These were the words of wisdom from N.Balakrishnan of Indian Institute of Science to the doyens of India's IT revolution.

"Create a CSIR-type lab for ICT and Nanotechnology. Build a funding model for this institution and create a greater research base than what is provided by the IIIT, Bangalore. What has happened to scientific computing? Why this focus on services alone?," Prof. Balakrishnan asked IT luminaries such as N.R.Narayana Murthy, Kiran Karnik, and Mahalingam.

Speaking at the plenary session on "Information Science and Technology for a knowledge society", at the 90th Indian Science Congress, Prof. Balakrishnan urged IT giants to lay more emphasis to R&D and innovation. "Exploit the talent available at space research organisations such as ISRO and DRDO. The marriage of biological sciences, nanotechnology, and computer sciences is a phenomenon that has already started. To explore this potential, more emphasis was on scientific computing is necessary. In this regard, Infosys's foray into scientific computing is commendable," he said.

Mr. Murthy, Chief Mentor of Infosys Technologies Ltd., recognised the role of knowledge in driving the Indian economy. India needed to leverage IT to alleviate poverty and bridge the digital divide. "Basic education and research are necessary to create a knowledge society. Higher education should have a free market environment. The Government has no business except to regulate education and subsidies given to education need to be stopped," Mr. Murthy said.

The Chief Mentor of Infosys also exhorted the Government to take steps for reducing the high cost of ownership and IT hardware.

With a PC density of 4.94 and tele-density of 36 fixed lines per 1,000, India needed to adopt more people-friendly measures such as information kiosks, cyber cafes, Ashok Junjunwallah's "Rural Access Services through Internet" experiment across the country.

E-governance projects implemented by Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu should spread across India. "Demsystifying IT and enabling the common man to use IT" should be the focus for future, Mr. Murthy said.

With the plenary session chaired by Jaithirth Rao, Chairman, MphasiS-BFL, other speakers included Mr. Karnik, President, Nasscom, Mahalingam, Executive Vice-President, TCS, Mohandas Pai, Director & CFO, Infosys, and R.Dhirendra, CEO, Eduquity Carreer Technologies Pvt. Ltd.

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