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[Taha Mehmood]

http://www.cxotoday.com/India/News/CEOs_Respond_to_BJP_IT_Vision_Document/551-100108-912.html

CEOs Respond to BJP IT Vision Document
By Manu Sharma
Bangalore, Mar 17, 2009 1518 hrs IST

As most election manifestos go, BJP's IT Vision Document, recently put
up on its official website, promises a lot - ranging from generating
1.2 crore new IT-enabled jobs in rural areas, introducing IT in
education and healthcare services, to making available laptops at Rs
10,000 to 1 crore students and setting up Digital Security Agency.


Following are some of the reactions to the vision document from CIOs
and CEOs CXOtoday spoke to.


Vivek Kulkarni, former IT secretary of Karnataka, who is now the
chairman and CEO of BrickWork India, said, "The IT vision of BJP will
really come handy for creation of new job opportunities in the IT and
ITeS sector in India where we still have a large percentage of
unemployed graduates struggling to provide their services for the
growth of the country."

Sudhindra Mokhasi, founder & CEO of e-Sutra, sees the document as
overall a comprehensive and ambitious statement of intent, especially
the open source preference, e-governance thrust, wider last-mile
internet access, 100 million low-cost computers, education and
financing.


"In a few cases it's probably better to let the incremental approach
like converting post offices into e-service centers and creating
higher density of Internet kiosks to take root before attempting
ambitious plans like smart phones for bank access for all BPL
population," Mokhasi said.


Similarly more robust envisioning needs to be done to ensure that
providers of the solutions are predominantly Indian IT companies so
there is a full 360 degree of benefit to the Indian society," said
Mokhasi.


In all, however, most of these vision statements are significantly
focused on the infrastructure supply, education and empowerment side
of the divide," he said.


Terming the document a positive intent, Ramakrishna Voruganti,
managing director of Barracuda Networks (India), said, MNIC will help
traceability of transactions and will result in better tax
collections.


"Having an open standard and adaptation of open source will level the
playing field for enterprises. The cyber security initiative and the
establishment of DSA will provide enormous possibilities for Indian IT
security professionals while providing opportunities for organizations
like Barracuda Networks, who have been in the forefront of countering
cyber threats," Voruganti said.


Ajay Dhir, CIO of Jindal Steel, said the multipurpose national
identity card (MNIC) with unique citizen identification number for
every Indian citizen is a good initiative. "Besides, the other schemes
like IT-enabled jobs in rural areas, 1 crore students to get laptop
computers at Rs 10,000 are all good schemes. Overall, one can say that
it is a progressive vision."


The initiative to provide IT-enabled jobs was also welcomed by
Voruganti especially since the government is acting a catalyst rather
than as an agency.


"The linking of PHCs, schools and colleges, use of IT in agriculture,
rural development, SMEs, retail trade, informal and unorganised will
greatly impact at the grassroots, will improve the off-farm employment
in the villages, and prevent labour migration," he said.


Some of the measures are populist, but that is expected during the
polls, was the general sentiment about BJP's IT Vision Document.