Indian IT industry revenues set to cross $100 billion (ET - Java Training Courses)

This achievement is better appreciated when one recalls that just 20 years ago, its size was only about half-a-billion dollars.

Now providing livelihood to about 10 million people (including 2.8 million directly employed), it is the largest recruiter in the organised private sector. It is also amongst the biggest foreign exchange earners for the country.

These figures convey the outstanding success of this sector; yet, its qualitative impact is, possibly, of even greater import. First, it has transformed the global image of India and Indians: today, both are seen as winners. Second, it has energised the country's higher education sector, especially in engineering and computer science.

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Third, it has contributed to social transformation by providing lucrative jobs to lakhs from small towns and even villages and gender equality, through its extensive employment of young women. Finally, and most importantly, it has brought hope to young people, who - thanks to the opportunities in this sector - view the future with optimism.

The IT industry has conveyed that success is driven by education and work, not by family background or 'connections'. In the context of what is happening in countries in our neighbourhood, the importance of such a message of inclusion and hope is obvious.

Looking ahead, it is clear that the Indian IT industry will face many serious challenges: technological, managerial and geopolitical. Competition from other countries will intensify, and supply-side constraints increase. Human resources, infrastructure and a comparatively adverse business environment - thanks mainly to unpredictable interpretation of tax laws by overzealous, collection-driven officials - will pose problems.

Yet, there are also growing opportunities: new areas of work, emerging markets, new technologies, innovation in product, process and business models. Amongst the most exciting of these are opportunities within India. Many of these have the potential of doing good while doing well, contributing to social benefit even as profits are made. Java Training Courses

In this area of societal applications of technology, the possibilities in India are immense and limited only by imagination - and sometimes by regulatory barriers. The national e-governance programme (NEGP) provides many examples of how technology could be used to bring greater efficiency, transparency and even accountability in government activities, especially those related to citizen services.

Birth and death certificates, land records, tax payments, passport issue and renewal, and a whole range of other services have been IT-enabled. Service delivery at doorsteps is facilitated through community computer centres in over 1,00,000 villages, and there is already action underway to roll out fibre-based broadband connectivity to 2,50,000 panchayats. More widespread access to citizen services will also be provided via mobile phones, whose availability will soon be near-universal.

Like the IT industry's $100-billion milestone, mobile telephony too will soon cross a landmark: of one billion cellphones. India's mobile telephony services have witnessed a gravity-defying trajectory, with Indians taking to mobiles as they have to nothing else before. Users have themselves contributed to inventing new ways of utilising the handset: from making it double up as atorch, to that unique Indian innovation of an intentional missed call. Java Training Courses