Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday said the role of IT sector, be it hardware or software, is crucial in order to promote e-governance for empowering citizens.
He said that the role of this sector is also important in promoting the inclusive and sustainable growth of the electronics, IT and ITeS industries and enhancing India's role in internet governance. The Finance Minister said that at a larger scale, the role of IT sector is crucial for boosting manufacturing sector in the country.
He said that reviving manufacturing, diversifying its base and equipping it for robust long run expansion is one of the major challenges of our economic management in the next five years.
The Finance Minister, who was making his opening remarks during the pre-budget consultative meeting with the IT (Hardware and Software) Groups here, further said that the government introduced 'Make in India' initiative in this context which refers to the production in India at a competitive price with global quality standards.
Jaitley said that the idea is that large scale production at competitive price in India for the global market will create gainful employment and will help India reap demographic dividend, increase their purchasing power faster, and finally, with rising incomes will generate a huge market within India.
Jaitley said that the overall rapid growth of the section in recent years, including exports earnings of about US$86 billion demonstrate sustained competitiveness and an ability of the sector to overcome structural deficiencies related to business and policy environment.
He further said that the portfolio and capabilities of Indian IT/ITeS industry have significantly expanded, and is perhaps the only country other than the USA, with the capability of providing end to end services in IT, BPM, Software Products and Engineering, Research and Development and more recently in Internet and e-Commerce.
Jaitley said the success of 'Digital India' initiative will necessarily rely on the IT/BPM sector for design, deployment and its continued success.
He said that modern manufacturing relies on IT for efficiencies and innovation leading to 'know-why' of products and processes. He further said that similar contribution from the IT sector can be made in healthcare, education and defence etc.
Jaitley said that the government's focus on financial inclusion will require enabling financial transactions on the mobile and internet for greater access.
Jaitley further said the government is, therefore, keen to leverage the inherent strength of the IT sector as it charges the growth map for the country and would certainly take further policy and regulatory initiatives based on the inputs from the participants in today's meeting.
The meeting was attended among others by Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha, , Finance Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, Revenue Secretary Shaktikanta Dass, Ratan P. Watal, Secretary (Expenditure), Secretary, Electronics, Dr. Arvind Subramanian, Chief Economic Adviser, and Snehlata Shrivastava, Additional Secretary (DFS).
The representatives of the IT (Hardware and Software) Groups present during the meeting included Vishal Sikka, CEO, Infosys, Suresh Senapathy, CFO, Wipro, Anil Chanana, CFO, HCL Technologies, Phiroz Vandrevala, Executive Vice President, TCS, R. Chandrasekaran, Chairman, NASSCOM, R. Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM, Sachin Bansal, CEO, Flipkart, Kunal Bahl, CEO, Snapdeal, Rostow Ravanan, ED, Mindtree, Naveen Tewari, CEO, InMobi, Vinod Nayyar,Tech Mahendra, Nitin Kunkolienkeer, Vice President, Manufacturer's Association for Information Technology, Sandeep Girotra, Head of Indian Region, Nokia, N.K. Goyal, President, Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association of India, Pankaj Mahendra, Cellular Ltd. and Subhash Goyal, President, ELCINA Electronic Industries Association of India among others.
This was for the first time that the Finance Minister held an exclusive pre-budget meeting with the representatives of IT industry.
