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India, Gates and the digital
decade
NEW DELHI - Bill Gates,
in his address to the Confederation of Indian Industry
(CII), introduced himself as an optimist on India and
its endeavors for better efficiency. He said that the
1990s was a great decade for PCs, with over 600 million
sold world wide, and since hardware was improving at an
exponential rate, software, too was also improving, the
Microsoft boss said.
He added that three
revolutions in the IT industry had the capacity to
triple every 18 months - computer hardware, availability
of bandwidth through optic fiber and storage systems.
PCs were an extension of an individual's creativity, and
hence remarkably different to the mainframe computer
culture of earlier days, where the objective was to
satisfy an organization's needs, he added.
According to Gates, India is currently in the
digital decade. Today, it is not only sufficient to
communicate through e-mails and prepare digital
documents, one has to go beyond the confines of an
office and communicate on the move. He emphasized that
mobile PCs connected to the Internet were today's
technology and were becoming a necessity for efficient
and instantaneous communication. He then demonstrated
with a laptop he was carrying, which was converted into
a writing pad and a communication device for connecting
to the Internet.
Gates emphasized that software
would play a key role in eliminating distance and how
educated people communicated. Some of the following
benefits that software promised, he said, were:
Reading: This will combine the natural use of
ink and voice, annotations, note taking and will be
powered by wireless communication.
Digital media: There is a growing need of
individuals to store and share photos, music and video.
Software will address issues of instant access,
organizing and editing easily, address rights management
and enable easy sharing.
Software. This promises trustworthy systems
that will always work, provide online support,
facilitate auto backup and synchronization and provide
features of self repairing.
Communications: It will be possible to
communicate from a single address, provide
notifications, integrate voice, video and screen calls,
facilitate scheduling and information management.
Meetings: Software will facilitate meetings
by providing features of planning, operating from remote
locations, enable followups and sharing and also provide
innovative ring cam features to view all participants in
the meeting, broadcast proceedings and provide record
and playback features.
As for future investments
in India, Gates was optimistic on localizing solutions,
ramping up the existing Microsoft Development Center,
focus on education and partner with various India
programs. He presented a snapshot of Microsoft's
successes at ICICI bank, e-governance initiatives in an
application called BHOOMI, presently operational in
Karnataka. He invited all CII members to partner
Microsoft.
Gates said that India was on course
to become a global hub for "mission critical activity"
in software as it was increasingly earning a reputation
for its quality work and on-time delivery. In the next
few years, he predicted firms in the US and Europe would
be sure to insist that Indian companies be considered
for doing all mission critical work.
Gates added
that he was optimistic that India would be able to
sustain its phenomenal growth in software and added that
he was deeply impressed by the quality of the education
system in the country and the investment being made in
the sector.
On Tuesday, Gates announced a US$400
million investment in India to expand the company's
operations and boost computer literacy. The three-year
initiative - part philanthropy, part business boost -
would seek to entrench the company's products in schools
as well as among India's stable of talented programmers.
"We are very optimistic as to what will happen
to information technology in this country," Gates said
of India, whose strength he said lay in its education
system, a fast-developing communications infrastructure
and its vast pool of skilled labor.
Microsoft
will invest about a quarter of the $400 million in its
software development center in the southern city of
Hyderabad - the company's only such facility outside the
United States. Gates said that the center's staff would
more than triple to 500 by 2005. Gates said that about
$20 million would go to training teachers and students
on computers and software at government-run schools.
Microsoft aims to reach 80,000 teachers and 3.5 million
students under "Project Shiksha", the Hindi word for
education.
To a question on the advantages of
investments in India and China, he replied that the two
countries had their own strengths. Whereas India had
strengths in education systems, undertaking complex
projects at competitive costs, he saw China as a leader
in world class manufacturing. He also expressed his
desire for Indian manufacturing to come up to the level
of Chinese manufacturing.
(Confederation of
Indian Industry)
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