Union Minister of State for IT and Telecom Sachin Pilot today asked IT companies to expand their businesses into the non-Western markets.

"Despite the slowdown in the US economy, that country accounts for nearly 60 per cent of our IT exports, I encourage our IT companies to diversify their portfolio and focus on markets such as Africa, Eastern Europe, China, and Russia among others," Pilot told reporters after the launch of C-DAC multi-lingual website here today.

He said IT companies need to explore the domestic market too. At present, over 85 per cent of the revenues of the domestic software exporters come from the US and Europe.

"Our IT market is still unexplored. Companies should also look inward apart from increasing their global portfolio. They should also focus on assisting our SMEs," he said.

Pointing out that even during the recent slowdown, IT companies were creating jobs in large numbers, the minister said, "At present, nearly 11 million are directly or indirectly employed by this sector and has been the largest employer during the slowdown."

"Perhaps, growth rate might not have been as strong as it was before the crisis, but IT continues to be a large employer," he added.

While around 2.5 million are directly employed by this sector, nearly 8.5 million are indirectly employed.

The UPA-led government has envisaged a plan to provide optical fibre cable connection to all panchayats as the last mile connectivity is the key for connectivity, he said.

"We are working on the broadband project, which will be taken up in two phases. We estimate the project to be in the range of Rs 25,000-30,000 crore," Pilot said.

He added, "Money can never be a constraint. If we require funds for development we will get it. We need to invest in R&D to develop new technologies and to be able to compete with other nations."

On the increase in number of cases of online frauds and cyber threat, he said, "We cannot take any chance with our internal security. We have to make our IT system more efficient to deal with such issues. The government is committed to providing a safe cyber space for our citizens and for corporates."