Focus on R&D in ICT to move up in value: Union Minister YS Chowdary

Hyderabad, February 13, 2017: The 17th Edition of Indiasoft 2017, the flagship IT event of Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC) kicked off here in city today at HICC.

Y S Chowdary, Union Minister of State for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Government of India inaugurated the two day show which is being attended 800 delegates including 400 foreign delegates from 75 countries such as Chile, Guatemala, Argentina, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Myanmar, Mongolia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Tanzania, South Africa, France, Italy, UAE, Oman, Lebanon, Iran and many other countries, 250 Indian exhibitors including 50 startups and some of the top incubators in the country like IIT Mumbai, T-Hub etc.

Billed as one of the largest shows in the ICT domain, Indiasoft is entering its 17th edition. This premier IT show, being held in different cities on an yearly basis, is supported by the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The show has several new facets keeping in view the focus laid by the government to usher in a digital revolution in the country.

Addressing the gathering immediately after the inauguration S Chowdary, Minister of State for Science& Technology and Earth Sciences underscored the need for greater interface among scientific community, academia and industry to take innovation ecosystem in the country to a higher pedestal.

“Technologists, industry and academia should not work in silos. They have to work in a collaborative spirit to move up in value chain and to disseminate fruits of innovation among the society so that every piece of added information and discoveries benefit all,” the minister said, exhorting that scientific community should look beyond publishing their research works in scientific journals.

Mentioning that the union government is taking various steps to promote innovation in the ICT sector, Mr. Chowdary said that state governments should be actively involved in the promotion of the segment. The state can actively engage startups, small and medium enterprises in a large manner. Also, tier 2,3 and 4 cities should be brought to the digital map and that is possible only by actively involving the state governments.

The minister observed that world over protectionist tendencies are cropping up in an unprecedented manner, particularly in developed markets. To create a buffer from external shocks, which we might face in the export of software and solutions, he said, capacities should be built within the country to help the IT units to market their products domestically. “The Government is aware of the situation and contemplating several steps to help industry to face the challenges. But industry also should take responsibilities for addressing them in a proper perspective. “Moving up in the value chain is the best way for Indian industry to be in the reckoning in the changing paradigm. Focus on competitive edge and efficiency, which can take the industry forward, should be the hallmark” he added.

YS Chowdary and Jayesh Ranjan have released ESC’s Inhouse magazine ELSOFTEX and ESC’s Statistical Year Book.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Jayesh Ranjan, IT Secretary, and Government of Telangana observed that exhibitions like Indiasoft should help the startups, small and medium companies to market their products in a cost effective manner besides helping them to find ways to fund their operations. Laying emphasis on moving away from the traditional ways of doing business, he exhorted industry to actively get involved in Internet of things, artificial intelligence, robotics etc.

Prasad Grapati, Chairman, ESC said that ESC with its membership base of 2500 companies of all hues and sizes, was best suited for addressing the challenges of the Indian ICT sector and assured that that the organization was taking timely measures for taking the challenges faced by the industry.

India has close to 5000 SME IT Units. They are different shapes and sizes. But, curious thing is that, despite their numbers, their contribution to exports is hardly 10-12 per cent. The rest is contributed by the biggies. Our effort is to enhance the export contribution of SMEs to a considerable level. There is a graduate uptake in the contribution, which, I am sure will pick up if policy support is given to this segment.

NalinKohli, Chairman, Indiasoft Committee of ESC has said that of the 250 Indian companies participating in the Indiasoft, 50 are startups selected from incubators run by prestigious organizations.

Participation of international delegates has increased many folds, he said. Products and solutions displayed by the Indian companies have not only gone up in number, but also the scale and range of their innovation. On an average 30 new products are launched at the event.

Speaking about India Soft efforts on marketing Indian products, Nalin Kohli said, we are primarily focused on the emerging and new markets. Which hold considerable focus in future. We are expanding to new geographies to build up new destination for our exports such as Latin America, Africa, Middle East, CIS, SAARC, Japan, China, South Korea etc where Indian foothold is very limited, so as to lessen our dependence on traditional markets like the US and Europe.

India’s share in the global IT trade is just over 7 per cent., which suggests that we have to go a long way to consolidate our position. Be it outsourcing or software development, our share is not as high as it has been perceived. In the case of Internet products, our share is particularly nil. There lies our challenge. There should be a second or third digital revolution, Kohli told.

D K Sareen, Executive Director ESC explained about the importance being given to the embedded technologies in the Indaisoft.

Indiasoft, seeks to improve the visibility of the Indian software industry especially, the SMEs and the start- up companies in the global IT market. The focus would be on business services, e security, finance, banking, Insurance, manufacturing, education & training, embedded software, animation, packaged software, and many more innovative technologies. Several IT entrepreneurs will use INDIA IT SHOW a platform to launch innovative IT products & services. “

To give a critical push to development of embedded technologies in India, we are holding simultaneously the software and hardware shows, which were held separately hitherto. We expect this experiment will help in bringing together software and hardware companies to come together and make forays into domains where India lags behind such as internet products, embedded technologies, robotics and a whole lot of devices where software has to blend with hardware,” says Mr. Kohli.