NATIONAL TASK FORCE ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

AND SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

(Constituted under the authority of the Office of the Prime Minister)

The enclosed Basic Background report (B-3) is a summary compilation, classification, reconciliation, integration and technical editing of various visions and suggestions arising from:

• Proactive initiatives of the Office of the Prime Minister including vision guidelines for formulating policies appropriate to the context of making India an IT super power by the year 2008.

• Vision guidelines given by the Chairperson of the National Task Force as well as the co-chairpersons.

• Reports of the Working Groups set up by the Chairperson of the National Task Force on IT and SD, serviced by the Task Force Secretariat at the National Informatics Centre:

• • Working Group on IT Research, Design and Development under the chairmanship of Professor M.G.K. Menon, Co-chairperson of the National Task Force on IT and SD.

• • Working Group on IT Human Resource Development under the chairmanship of Professor P.V. Indiresan, President, Indian National Academy of Engineering

• • Working Group on Citizen-IT Interface under the chairmanship of Shri P.P. Prabhu, Secretary, Ministry of Commerce

  • Working Group on Content Development and Content Industry under the chairmanship of Shri P.G. Mankad, Secretary, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

• Panel on Development, Manufacture and Export of Information Technology Hardware - Microelectronics under the chairmanship of Shri Ravindra Gupta, Secretary, Department of Electronics.

• Task Force Mission on a National High speed Inter-university Data Network, 'Sankhyavahini' prepared by a Task Force Special Committee chaired by Shri N. Chandrababu Naidu, Co-chairperson of the National Task Force with Professor Raj Reddy and Professor V.S. Arunachalam of Carnegie Mellon University, USA as resource specialist advisers.

• Strategic concept of National Technology Park (NTP) proposed by the Ministry of Defence.

• NASSCOM Report, 'The Software Industry in India - Strategic Review' as well as the papers presented in the NASSCOM '99 Conference held at Mumbai.

• Presentation made by Shri S. Ramachandran, special invitee of the Task Force, on recommendations for accelerating SW product Development and exports.

• Gazette Notification No. IT-TF/5/98 dated 25^th July 1998 containing 108 recommendations of the National Task Force on IT and SD approved by the Cabinet.

• Report of the Panel on Development, Manufacture and Export of IT Hardware.

• Suggestions from Members of the Virtual Advisory Forums of the IT Task Force who responded over the Task Force Web Site, http://it-taskforce.nic.in selected from out of more than 10,000 suggestions received on the Web Site of the Task Force Secretariat at the National Informatics Centre.

The Basic Background Report (BR-3) on Strategic Policies together with the IT Action Plan Part-I already approved by the Government and IT Action Plan Part-II which is under consideration of the Group of Ministers constituted by the Prime Minister, constitutes a paradigm shift from the earlier concepts and strategies adopted for growing IT industry in India. These policies are oriented towards the creation of appropriate investment climate and streamlining the procedures for minimising uncertainty, increasing velocity of business and growing a proactive enterprise with market aggressiveness and inventive resilience. Comments and suggestions on BR-3 are requested from RIs, NRIs and other well-wishers of India, preferably within a week, but positively before the end of this month. The Chairperson of the National Task Force on IT and SD has set up Working Groups and other Panels with the composition given in the Annexure -I to this background report.

The BR-3 will form the main focused agenda for the meetings of the National Task Force on IT and SD. The proceedings and final recommendations of the Task Force will be submitted to the Government for consideration of approval.

(N. Seshagiri)
Member-Convener,
National Task Force on IT & SD,
C/o. National Informatics Centre,
A-Block, CGO Complex,
Lodi Road, New Delhi-110 003
FAX: 91-11-4364873
E-mail: ittf@hub.nic.in
Website: http://it-taskforce.nic.in

New Delhi
10 March 1999

Contents

1.     Strategic Policy for the IT Industry

2.     IT Research, Design and Development

3.     IT Human Resource Development

4.     Citizen-IT Interface

5.     Content Creation and Content Industry

6.     Micro Electronics

7.     Project Sankhya Vahini

8.     Financing Information Technology

9.     Organisational Structure for IT

10.     Annexure