Modi blames UPA for damaging IT industry

Narendra Modi today charged the UPA Government with "damaging" the Information Technology industry and said various scams during its tenure have dented the country's reputation in the sector.
The BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate singled out the 2G scam and said it caused serious damage to India's reputation.
"People see 2G scam in terms of monetary damage it caused to exchequer. I see it in a different way. India was making its presence felt in cyber world at a very fast speed, but, it suffered a serious damage due to 2G scam, which challenged before us is how we recover from it," Modi said at a IT business award function here.

The first clip at which India was making a place for itself in the cyber world suffered a serious damage due to this, he added.
When Vajapyee Government was formed then there was a lot of emphasis on the IT industry. An IT ministry was made, a new act was passed and special task force was constituted, he said, adding that in the last one decade things have slowed down.
Modi also targeted Finance Minister P Chidambaram for curbing imports of gold to contain Current Account Deficit (CAD), and said his various moves to curb gold imports in his attempt to reduce CAD has resulted in a rise in smuggling of gold, which was common in 60's and 70's.

The Government should have instead focused on electronic goods industry, in which 65 per cent of demand is made by imports, he said.
The Gujarat Chief Minister emphasised on the importance of e-governance and said that India's capability in Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector will decide if the country would become super power.
"How many tanks you have or how big is your army would not decide whether we will become a super power. How capable we are ICT sector will decide it," he added.