Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) need to adopt information and communication technology (ICT) to increase the efficiency and productivity of the sector, IT industry body Nasscom today said.

In a joint report with the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council (NMCC) titled, 'A Roadmap of ICT Adoption in the Indian Manufacturing Sector', Nasscom said ICT adoption can act as a catalyst for increasing the efficiency of the manufacturing sector in the country.

"Adoption of ICT among the firms surveyed was high for basic services like finance and accounting, but was limited for a higher level of solutions, like enterprise resource planning (ERP) and manufacturing processes," Nasscom President Som Mittal told reporters here.

He added that MSMEs in India spent about one per cent of their revenues on IT, while the global average stood at about 4.5 per cent.

The recommendations in the report include documenting existing business processes at the cluster level to ensure mass adoption of ICT, skill development, developing innovative commercial and delivery models of ICT procurement and implementation and developing an ecosystem of local IT service providers.

"ICT could be the transformational catalyst to accelerate growth and make the industry globally competitive. The report recommends shared responsibilities between the government, technology companies, associations, academia and manufacturing firms," NMCC Chairman V Krishnamurthy said.

The report said Indian manufacturing firms faced challenges like a lack of internal ICT expertise and affordable solutions, small ICT budgets and complexity of adoption.

High levels of piracy, high support costs and inverted duty structure were also important aspects posing a challenge to ICT adoption, it added.