Editorial: Poor ICT show

India's gross domestic product (GDP) is growing at around 8 per cent even during a global slowdown. Yet, the performance of its information and communications technology (ICT) sector is on the slide "" an ominous sign, since a good ICT environment helps GDP growth. The country slipped to the 50th rank among 127 countries that were recently evaluated by the World Economic Forum (WEF) for their "network readiness". Moreover, it ranked a very poor 109 when it came to the level of ICT penetration among individuals. That is not to say that the country did badly on all fronts; it scored well on the sophistication of its business environment. It has plenty of scientists and engineers, and therefore scored well on innovation too by coming in at No. 4 in the overall ranking. It is no wonder then that the IT-ITeS sectors are performing well and have registered a turnover of $41 billion in software exports and put India on the global map. On the communications front too, the subscriber base is expected to cross 300 million this month, which will make India the second largest wireless network in the world "" beating the US and coming second only to China. The country's tele-density has crossed the 25 per cent mark, and it is adding over 8 million subscribers every month, compared to 2-3 million in the US and 5-7 million in China.

Yet, despite all these positive developments, the report notes that the extremely low level of ICT penetration among individuals is a severe obstacle in the way of faster economic growth. The problem is not just with individuals; the speed of new business registration is poor too. And India's IT expenditure as a percentage of its GDP is just about 5 per cent. India's mobile subscriber figures, for that matter, are half that of China, with which India likes to compare itself. Besides, there are just 58 million wireless Internet subscribers (capable of accessing the Internet through mobile GSM/ CDMA handsets). And the number of broadband subscribers (with a download speed of 256 Kbps or more) is an abysmal 3 million. India also scores very low on PC availability (around 22 million) and power supply.

India's ICT sector also suffers from a low level of domestic technology development, inadequate availability of venture capital and a limited domestic market for knowledge-based technology and products. Besides, spectrum problems are slowing down telecom growth. On these and other fronts, the government must play a proactive role to better the situation, as has been done by China, which has moved up five places in the WEF rankings this year. This achievement is despite the fact that it has similar weaknesses like an underdeveloped infrastructure (rank 86) and poor individual usage (rank 80). However, in terms of government readiness, China occupies the 42nd position, as ICT penetration seems to be a vital issue on its government's agenda.

To give the government its due, the ICT strategy appears to have borne some fruit in the form of ICT promotion, the introduction of e-government services, and some improvement in the government's productivity and efficiency (rank 34 for government usage). And the IT policies spelt out in the Indian IT Bill (May 2000) should help create the legal framework to address some issues better. However, there are issues to be addressed, like the need to define cyber-crimes and data privacy issues. India also needs massive investment in high-speed data networks, improved infrastructure in general and sustained improvement in IT use in schools, universities and technical institutions.