For Indian Computer Industry China, Russia pose IT Investment Threat

[Azad RMS <rmsazad@yahoo.com>]

FYI. Azad


Andhra CM: China, Russia pose IT investment threat 

siliconindia Hyderabad Bureau 

Wednesday, January 10, 2001 

HYDERABAD – China’s and Russia’s “fast” progress in
information technology threatens to hog the IT
limelight — and foreign company investments — from
India, the chief minister of Andhra Pradesh said on
Wednesday.



“India should be alive to the threats posed by the
countries like China and Russia,” said Chief Minister
N. Chandrababu Naidu, “since China has 125 million
telephone connections compared to India, which has
only 30 million.”

In fact, China is also far ahead of India in mobile
phones, the CM said.

Naidu also expressed his concern over the bandwidth
crunch and poor IT infrastructure in India,
specifically in Andhra Pradesh. 

Speaking at a seminar, “The Big Picture: India and IT
Revolution,” organized as part of on-going “CII
Partnership Summit-2001” here, the CM made an open
request to the Indian government to say “goodbye” to
the monopoly of Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (VSNL),
India's leading Internet service provider.

“If you do not improve the infrastructure and ease
bandwidth, we can not think of making big in the
global market,” Naidu said. “However, the government
is addressing the issues relating to infrastructure
and planning to twin with the private sector in
IT-related areas.” 

He added, “Andhra will become another Silicon Valley
in India if proper IT-infrastructure is created by
providing adequate bandwidth to the needy.

“Why will entrepreneurs set up their companies in
Silicon Valley once we provide adequate bandwidth in
India? Easing bandwidth would be my first criterion
even by putting pressure on the Indian government to
solve the issue,” Naidu said.

The government has to work in unison with the private
sector to grow. It also has to be open to any
innovative idea to make India a superpower in IT, he
said. 

B. Ramalinga Raju, chairman of Satyam Computer
Services Ltd., said, “The last decade, the mantra of
every company was IT-enabled services. But now, IT out
sourcing and business process outsourcing would rule
the business and whoever understands this would reap
the harvest of wealth.”

“To make a call from India to US it costs Rs. 47 per
minute, but if you call from the US it only costs 57
cents. We would lose the benefits of IT if the
communication costs are not within the reach of the
common man,” Raju said. 

Ramesh Vangal, chairman of Singapore’s ATIndia LLC,
said India is no doubt making deep inroads into the
global IT, but what the Indian companies need to focus
is on quality and logistics. 

Firms should go an inch further in meeting the needs
of customers in what is called customer relationship
management (CRM). Indian companies should adopt CRM,
otherwise they would be out of the race, he added.



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Random Quotation: If you're too open minded, your
brains will fall out.
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