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T H I R T Y
I
n any country, the domestic informatics market
is an important base for developing the expertise and experience needed to compete
in the international marketplace. Developing the software industry requires
absorbing new technologies for software production, monitoring and analyzing trends
in the industry and using software to solve domestic productivity problems. The
cost of developing such capabilities increases rapidly over time. Therefore, the lack
of a strong domestic base will hinder the growth of software exports, since exports
depend increasingly on a proven “track record” and experience in
developing large and complex systems in domestic projects.
In India, in recent years, several sectors such as energy, railways, water
management, power generation and electronics, many public enterprises, institutes
of higher education, and a few private firms have designed, developed, installed and
maintained either large computer-based information systems or software packages.
Some large companies are beginning to do R&D in software for plant control, process
design, and manufacturing automation. The focus however, on promoting software
exports for foreign exchange has eclipsed efforts to expand domestic software
development projects.
The domestic software industry in India has been growing slowly and has lagged
behind the growth of the export industry. Many experts feel that there has been an
over-emphasis on and preoccupation with software exports to the exclusion of
building a viable software industry in the country. Software exports is very much
dependent on the size of the internal market that exists for design, methodologies and
requirements for export of software and services.
In recent months, NASSCOM in association with the Department of Electronics has
mounted a renewed campaign to highlight the need for creating a strong domestic
software industry. This is being done through specific seminars with end-users in
the industry sectors of banking, hospitals and railways, among others.
The Observer October 12, 1993
Strengthening the Domestic
Software Base
