IT must work for rural India: Pitroda

Until now Indian IT professionals have been busy earning foreign exchange for India. Now the time has come to shift some of the talent in this field to work for India, especially to address the problems of the rural areas," Sam Pitroda, the man behind the telecom revolution in the country, said here on Wednesday.

Though the country's policy towards IT development is going in the right direction, a change in thinking is required to make IT work for rural India, Pitroda observed while addressing a media conference.

Pitroda was critical of the government priorities with regard to the 'fundamental requirements' of the nation. "It is not enough to feel good about the $100 billion forex reserves. Use a portion of it to address the basic requirements of the people. We need 10 million jobs a year. Use the investments to create employment through agriculture, food processing, housing and other sectors," he said. He termed the issues of water and environment as the biggest challenges that have to be addressed by the government.

Ridiculing the BJP's claim on development, he said that the seeds of development, including in the areas of IT, defence, space technology, biotechnology and other sectors were sown in the country's past by the Congress party and the founding fathers of the nation. "It's an insult to the Indian people to say that nothing was achieved during 50 years after independence," Sam Pitroda said.

On the BPO sanctions front, he said that the United States has to come to terms with the fact that the globalisation also has its own consequences. But studies have revealed that $3 worth of assets are being created out of every dollar being spent on outsourcing, he added.

C-Sam swelling Sam's walletc

C-Sam, the IT company floated by Sam Pitroda has begun filling the wallet of the inventor through its novel mobile e-wallet software.

The software is already operational in Japan through Sumitomo Bank and is expected to make an entry into the Scandinavian and the Middle East countries in the coming months, according to Sam Pitroda, who owns about 10 patents on similar e-wallet concepts in the US.

"The number of mobile phones is expected to reach 1.2 billion by the year end. At least 20 million of them will be smart phones which can avail of this advanced service. Even if our e-wallet software covers a fraction of them, the company will get money," he said.

The embedded software with security features will enable the customer to store all his cards "" credit cards, insurance cards, even driving licence "" electronically and handle the respective transactions through the mobile phones. Pitroda's C-Sam has already set up an office with 40-odd IT professionals at Baroda, mainly for maintenance operations. But, how much does a mobile e-wallet cost? It all depends on the price of the software, says Pitroda.

"Maybe $3 to $4 in the US and Rs 20-30 in India," he said. He did not see much business for his e-wallet software in the US where people prefer to sit before the internet than handling small gadgets as in Japan and elsewhere.