Affordable Computing Poised To Fuel IT Penetration

Affordable Computing Poised To Fuel IT Penetration

New Delhi February 4, 2006: As Indian IT seeks to move beyond the software exports and ITeS segments, penetration of the benefits of IT to the individual level, low-cost computing and extension of e-governance to local bodies, are encouraging corporates to redirect their business models. “Affordable Computing” is increasingly the major concern of business planners, government policy makers, academics and IT visionaries alike.

Currently there are just 14 million PCs in India and the domestic market is on the verge of a take-off. Industry analysts believe the that the domestic IT market will very soon witness a “hockey-stick” curve, similar to that seen in the television market some years ago, and the cellular phone segment recently. But the key driver for this growth will be affordability, which represents a challenge for the software community in terms of developing applications and local language support.

The industry is betting on Open Source and Linux community to lead the way. “Open Source solutions becoming the base for efficient delivery of e-government services, modernise education and empower more Indians with the power of IT – compelling economic, political and cultural reasons for a country that is on the threshold of making a mark in world economy,” says Alolita Sharma, CEO of the California-based Technetra, a technology consulting company that develops and promotes open source software and solutions for government, education, IT, telecom, banking and finance, and organises the annual LinuxAsia, the premier open source conference and expo in the Asian region.

She adds, “India and China represent the biggest future markets for the computing industry. Linux will be a very big player because it is free and it works well.” According to Ms. Sharma, the forthcoming LinuxAsia 2006 that begins on February 8 in New Delhi will bring together global IT majors as well as the leading Indian players to debate, discuss and demonstrate the value of Open Source as a means of reaching affordable IT to the masses.

Although adoption of Open Source Solutions in the India e-governance sector is primarily being looked at from a State Government perspective, significant support is being extended by the Central government as well. President Kalam, in a recent keynote expressed his view that “open source code software will have to come and stay in a big way for the benefit of our billion people.” IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran has gone on record to say that he believes open office suite and other applications based on open source are in every way the equal of non-free applications. Several state, notably the Maharashtra Government, have decided that as a policy, all new applications will be developed on Linux/OSS platforms.

Companies are quick to realise the potential opened up by the vast market, and are pulling together resources in localisation of their offerings. Localisation is the key to address the mass rural markets, which have been alienated from technology due to their lack of knowledge of English as a language. Leading open source Linux vendor RedHat has introduced its OS support for five languages – Hindi, Bangali, Gujarati, Punjabi and Tamil. Most important applications like word processing, spreadsheet, e-mail, internet browsing etc. have been localised, with plans to extend the number of languages very soon.

Global luminaries and leading lights from government and academic institutions are expected at the LinuxAsia 2006 convention. They will meet to deliberate on the imperatives for India in adoption of Open Source computing in an “IT for all” scenario. Speakers from Telecom, Government, Education, Small and Medium Enterprise, Financial Services, IT & ITES, and media will form the various discussion panels at the different sessions. IT products and services majors like Oracle, Dell, Intel, HP, IBM, RedHat, CDAC and several others will be showing their Linux-based solutions and service platforms.

About LinuxAsia 2006

Being held for the third consecutive year, LinuxAsia is the premier open source conference and expo in the region. It attracts the Linux community, serious users, government policy makers and industry across the board. The last edition of the event attracted over 2500 visitors.