Vision for IT Sector in India – the next step

By PANKAJ AGRAWALA Joint Secretary Govt. of India Department of Information Technology Min. of Communications and IT New Delhi

Vision

• India has the potential to become a significant player in Global knowledge economy. • Let us work to enhance Indian share in global markets from about 1% to 10% in the long-term.

• Key to success lies in long term research

Focus

• Identify specific steps and areas for action • The next step is to give the right impetus to R&D in IT • Telecom is another key areas for growth of knowledge economy • The stake holders could be DIT / DOT / MTNL / BSNL/C-DOT / ITI/Other related Academic/ research agencies

The next step

• Cyberspace is a New World • Exponential growth means constant radical change • This new world needs explorers, pioneers, and settlers • Pioneering research pays off in the long term

The next step……..Contd.

• Long-term research is a public good • The funding agencies to shift the focus to long-term research. • By making larger and longer-term grants, we hope that university researchers will be able to attack larger and more ambitious problems

Long Range Research Goals

• What makes a good long range research goal?

-understandable -challenging -useful -Testable -Incremental -scalability

Turing’s Vision of Machine Intelligence

Alan Turing had predicted in 1950, that computers would be intelligent in 50 years with capacities of the order of 10 to the power 9 as against human memory of the order of 10 to the power 12-15.

• This has happened and continues…………..

• Three more predictions - prosthetic hearing, - speech, - and vision

Bush’s Memex

• Personal Memex : Record everything a person sees and hears, and quickly retrieve any item on request • World Memex : Build a system that given a text corpus, can answer questions about the text and summarize the text as precisely and quickly as a human expert in that field. Do the same for music, images, art, and cinema

Telepresence

• Telepresence : Simulate being some other place retrospectively as an observer -(Tele Observer): hear and see as well as actually being there, and as well as a participant, and simulate being some other place as a participant -(Tele Present): interacting with others and with the environment as though you are actually there.

Future systems

• • • •

Trouble free systems

: Build a system used by millions of people each day and yet administered and managed by a single part-time person

Dependable Systems Secure System

: Assure that the trouble free system services authorized users and information cannot be stolen (and prove it.)

Always Up

: Assure that the system is unavailable for less than one second per hundred years i.e.99.999999 % or eight 9’s of availability (and prove it.)

Future systems(contd.)

• Automatic Programmer: Device a specification language or user interface that: (a) makes it easy for people to express designs (1,000x easier) (b) computer can compile, and (c) can describe all applications (design is complete)

The Indian R&D Landscape

• Research in National Laboratories (NPL, C DAC, CEERI, IISc., TIFR, ECIL, C-DoT, ISRO • Research in Academia (IITs, BITs, RECs, IISc) • Research in Private Sector (IBM, SUN, Microsoft, HP, Motorola, HFCL, HCL, SCL etc.

Objectives of R&D

• Timely development of replacement of products being phased out • Reduction of production cost to increase yield • Reduction in environmental effect • Reduction in energy consumption • Innovation to open up new markets • Innovation to increase market share • R&D to increase production flexibility • R&D to improve cycle time

Importance of R&D

• Most developed/ developing countries put 5-20% of profit margin in R&D. Their Govt. Spending in R&D is also about 5% of GDP • Most MNCs grow with focus on research. Cisco is the leader in research with R&D spending at 14 % of Revenues • Indian companies and govt. deptts. should follow suit.

Factors limiting R&D in India

• Lack of government support • Inadequate support services and proper infrastructure in place such as roads, railways, airports etc.

• Perceived risks too high • Political instability

Strengths and Primary Drivers of R&D in India

• Large pool of intellectual capital • Cheap availability of manpower • Global recognition of Indian brains and skills • Rapid approach to globalization • English as a medium of education • Fast growing middle class group • Quality at low cost

Opportunity Areas in IT

• Grid computing • Broadband proliferation • Converged/networked devices • Miniaturization and personalization • Offshore sourcing – India as R&D hub • RFID Tags for tracking and identification i.e. smart cards • Biometric devices to carry money or for identification • 3 dimensional image processing and holographic images • Develop affordable PCs and telephony

THANK YOU