Clearing his stand on censor of social media, Union Telecom and Information Technology Minister,Kapil Sibal has said,“ the government will not censor social media but at the same time we must ensure that everybody obey laws of the country.” He was speaking at the 20th celebrations of NASSCOM India Leadership Forum.
“Global technology cannot pre-screen the content of social media. The media has enormous power and has pre-screened what I have never even said” Sibal said with a smile referring to his measures against social media organizations from hurting religious sentiments.
Speaking on growth of IT sector Sibal said that the IT sector has grown to 100 billion in two decades. Terming the sector as ‘ubiquitious’ he said IT sector will transform lives of people across the worlds as it services the services economy, even manufacturing and agriculture. As the backbone of any transformative economy, it will transform agricultural practices and even social relationships will change will change because of its enormous importance . IT will empower rural areas.”
He assured that the government is committed to create an environment of growth of the sector as it also leads to growth of entrepreneurship within the sector. “More than half of world’s population lies in this part of the world and the solutions too are going to come from this part of the world .We have to give a message to global investors that are our policies are going to be clear, without hiccups” Sibal said.
“By 2020, India will need 400 billion dollars worth electronic manufacturing goods and we need a policy framework for consumer goods to be manufactured in the country. After the cabinet clears the Electronic Service Delivery Bill in the next few weeks it will be formally announced by the government.”
Sibal said that 2018, every public service will be electronically delivered. He informed that 604 universities and 31000 colleges in the county will be connected through a national dedicated network in the next six months while 250 villages will be have fiber optic network connectivity in the next 2.5 years and added that only 17 percent GDP of the country is contributed by agriculture sector and 25-26% by manufacturing sector.
As per NASSCOM-KPMG report released at the inaugural session by the IT Minister, Indian IT-BPO sector revenue for the year 2011-12 is estimated to cross 100 billion US Dollars. Exports accounted for US Dollars 69 billion with 16.3 percent growth over the last fiscal year. As per the report the IT-BPO sector is one of the largest employers in the country employing 2.8 million professionals. It added 2,30,000 plus jobs in FY 2012. New business models, organization efficiencies, cloud, mobility, analytics, social media, flexible product portfolios and virtualized solutions contributed to India’s growth despite global market challenges. The report projects export revenues growth by 11-14 percent and domestic revenues growth by 13-16 percent in FY2013. The industry is expected to increase direct employment by 9 percent and will hire around 200,000 for FY 2013 of which 100,000 students have already received offer letters.
Speaking on the report Rajendra Pawar, Chairman, Nasscom, said "we have projected a growth of 11-14 per cent. We will revisit the same in October. Based on this as of now the hiring will be 200,000, but we think we will either hire similar number as FY12 or slightly higher."