Government does IT, industry all smiles

The National Policy on Information Technology (IT) announced by telecom minister Kapil Sibal on Friday has generated enough buzz in the industry. The stalwarts are optimistic the initiatives will breathe new life into the industry.

“This policy can help create a conducive environment, encouraging industry to explore new markets beyond USA and continental Europe,” said TK Kurein, CEO, IT Business and Executive Director, Wipro Ltd.

The government aims to increase revenue of the sector from $88 billion to $300 billion by 2020, and increasing exports threefold to $200 billion. The focus is also on adding eight million skilled employees to the IT workforce over the next 10 years.

Experts believe the policy plays in well with the strategies already adopted by the IT firms. Karthik Ananth, director of Zinnov Management Consulting, says it has many plus points although its targets are “rather aspirational”.

“The government has hinted at continuance of tax sops, which is a big positive. Also, the non-tax trade barriers across the world will help companies do business globally with more ease,” said Siddharth A Pai, Partner and Managing Director, TPI.

Industry veterans have similar thoughts. MindTree CFO Rostow Ravanan believes that while the policy looks good on paper, the big question is how the government will implements these intentions.

“If they implement it in a time-bound way, there will be huge benefits to the industry,” he said, adding, “IT is not a polluting industry and has a relatively low drain on infrastructure. This industry creates a lot of high-paying jobs, and adding eight million more such jobs which will benefit India.”