XI. IT
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
1. General
Guidelines
i) Government
and Societies at the Union and State Government
levels would invite proposals from IT companies for
development of products applications of use to the
public, especially in public services and public
domain information retrieval. (Canada and Singapore
have such bodies and programs). The selected
applications would receive development funding (part
grant and part loan to be paid back as royalty to the
government) if the companies cannot fund the
development by themselves.
ii) Financial
incentives should be given to promote in-house
R&D. Creation of Computer Software Products and
Packages should get R&D Benefits under Section
35(2AB) of the Income Tax Act.
iii) Emerging
Information Technology Initiatives for the 21 st
Century
• US, Japan &
Europe initiatives analysed in terms of
Government initiatives in pre-competitive R&D
Programme abnormative action plan by Government
of India and State Governments.
• Identification,
formalization and promotion of Technology
initiatives, abinitio, which are niches for
India. e.g., Set-top-box, VSATs
(iv) So far,
India has been projected as a potential software
superpower. India should set its goal much further as
the IT superpower. It should aim to be The #1
Provider of IT products to the World. As a subset to
this vision and since software is already well
received, the focus is to Transform India into the
World's # 1 IT Design Centre by the year 2005.
Design today is the name of the
game in the IT world. It covers the entire range of the
IT industry-design of ICs, systems and peripherals,
embedded software etc. Setting the wheels in motion to
transform India into the IT design centre of the World
will encourage manufacture of hardware products, provide
employment at all levels and help balance and broaden the
depth of India's IT enterprise.
The following action points may
be considered:
For India to emerge as the #1
IT design Centre of the world, MAIT has made the
following outline proposal:
• Leverage
India's core competence: technically trained manpower
with accepted skills
• less
strain on infrastructure to start with
• Higher
Value Addition Meets Global Shortage of skills
• Local
success stories in hardware design- a precursor to
shape of things to come
3. Computer
Aided Design & Computer Integrated Manufacturing
The Department of Electronics
has proposed the following:
1.
Establishment of specialised knowledge centres in
specific chosen area of VLSI design and related
software.
2. Initiate
'India's Chip' programme with adequate 9th Plan
allocation to support Indian equipment designer
and system design houses which are designing VLSI
chips and modules into their systems. This
programme would include foundry support for small
and medium scale industries similar to the one
being provided by MOSIS programme in USA or CMP
Programme in France.
3. Create a
resource facility for IC prototyping and training
and establishment of an Indian Institute for
Semiconductors, with an adequate IX Plan
allocation for this activity, would be Rs.150
crores.
4. The
microelectronics industry in India has been
stagnating for the past few years. In order to
stimulate investment in this area a special
package for this sector of industry needs to be
prepared. In this regard, as it was recommended
that microelectronics industry should be viewed
as a strategic industry to attract major
investment, the following is proposed:
i) The entire
semiconductor manufacturing industry be
treated as 100% EOU without any
restriction on access to DTA and custom
bonding formalities.
ii) The custom duty
on all semiconductor devices be reduced
to zero
iii) Excise duty on
all semiconductor devices reduced to
zero.
5. For
optimal usage of meager R&D facilities and
expertise available in the country there is a
strong need to evolve a mechanism not only for
complementing each other's effort but also to be
able to initiate and undertake work in new
product areas. A coordinating agency under the
aegis of DOE with Members from R&D and user
organisations could set up to undertake
consolidation of the facilities already created
and work out programme in a consortium mode.
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