SHRI PRAMOD
MAHAJAN TO INAUGURATE SMAU 2002 – ICT EXHIBITION AT MILAN ON 24TH
OCTOBER
VISIT
TO IDENTIFY KEY DELIVERABLES IN IT&TELECOM SECTOR
FOCUS
ON EXPLORING MARKET & INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITIES, COLLABORATIVE
VENTURES AND BUSINESS PARTNERSHIPS
In a major move to
position India’s IT&Telecom prowess in European markets and
the Mediterranean region, strategise business partnerships and
investment opportunities for Indian IT&Telecom, Union Minister
for Parliamentary Affairs, Communications and Information Technology,
Shri Pramod Mahajan is leading a high-level delegation to Italy
from October 24th-28th October, 2002. Showcasing
India as the "Gateway Hub for IT&Telecom opportunities"
, the visit will focus on highlighting India as a preferred location
for investment in IT&Telecom, highlighting the policy initiatives
undertaken by the Government to position India as a strategic
locale for collaboration, partnership and joint ventures in the
cutting edge technology areas of IT&Telecom. Shri Mahajan’s
visit will also identify growth opportunities for both countries
in the IT&Telecom sector to tap the market opportunities available
in third country markets.
A key objective of
the visit is to focus on the India Advantage aspect in
IT&Telecom. Shri Mahajan will be interacting with key principals
within the Government and the industry during his stay. One of
the major highlights of the visit will be the inauguration of
the ‘SMAU 2002’ International Exhibition on Information and Communications
Technology and Consumer Electronics by the Minister. The inaugural
will be held on 24th October at Milan. Shri Mahajan
will inaugurate the exhibition along with the Italian Minister
for Innovation and Technologies, Mr. Lucio Stanca. SMAU is the
second largest ICT Exhibition in the world and Italy’s premier
event on Information Communications Technology. For the first
time, India has been given the status of a guest country at SMAU.
During his stay,
Shri Mahajan will have extensive discussions with entrepreneurs
representing a wide section of the IT&Telecom industry in
Italy. For this purpose, a special conference is being hosted
on "Italy-India Business Opportunities". This meeting is being
considered extremely important as it will provide the opportunity
to Italian entrepreneurs to view and understand the IT&Telecom
roadmap and initiatives undertaken by the Indian Government in
the last three years. Some of the issues likely to be highlighted
include: the massive reduction in tariffs in the telecom sector,
opportunities in the Internet Telephony, market potential in the
cellular mobile services, the fiscal incentives given to investment
opportunities in the sector and policy initiatives to promote
India as a preferred destination for call centres. In the IT sector,
the issues that would be highlighted include: initiatives to tackle
the problem of ‘Digital Divide’, providing value-added accessible
connectivity to the people and the Government initiative to facilitate
a healthy business development in the IT sector. Indian software
and service exports to Italy increased from US$15 million to US$21
million in 2000-2001. It is being projected to increase to US$28
million in 2001-02.
During his interaction
with key government functionaries, the Minister will review the
working and progress of the Joint Working Group(JWG) on IT. The
JWG has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between
the two countries. Discussions are likely to focus on emerging
areas in IT such as software development, IT enabled services,
cyber education, tele-medicine, e-Commerce, e-Governance, information
security and cybercrime, wireless application, protocol and 3G
for promotion of internet, e-commerce and m-commerce, applications
for network appliances, data network technology for promotion
of internet, e-commerce and m-commerce. During the visit, discussions
are likely to identify deliverables to formulate long-term partnerships
with Italy in areas that are mutually beneficial for both the
countries. The visit also provides an opportunity to the Indian
corporates to study the market potential of one of the largest
ICT markets in the European region and hence, help them diversify
their market and investment strategies in the region.
Shri Mahajan is being
accompanied by a business delegation to SMAU 2002. The members
of the business delegation are: Mr. Ranjan Mittal, MD, Bharti
Group, Mr. Arun Kumar, Chairman, NASSCOM & President, Hughes
Software, Mr. Phiroz Vandrevala, Executive Vice-President, Tata
Consultancy Services, Mr. Anil Kekre, Head Europe Operations,
Satyam Computer Services, Ltd., Mr. Ashok Kumar, Chief Executive
Officer, Kedia Infotech Systems Ltd., Mr. Niraj Vedwa, Vice-President,
Nucleus Software Exports Ltd., Mr. Milind Joshi, VP- Persistent
Systems Pvt. Ltd., Mr. Vinamra Agarwal, VP, Prologix Software
Solutions Pvt. Ltd., Mr. K. Vinod, GM, Europe Operations, Servion
Global Solutions Ltd., Mr. R.K. Arora, Executive Director, C-DAC,
Mr. Vinay Deshpande and the Simputer team. At SMAU 2002, a number
of Indian companies are showcasing their products and services.
Some of the companies participating include: TCS, Satyam, Prologix
Software Solutions and UNISON Softech. Their participation has
been facilitated by NASSCOM.
