Against the backdrop of rising computer penetration, curbing the menace of software piracy will not only boost India's overall economic output but also create thousands of new jobs, say experts.

"Increased spending in software fuels job creation and economic growth as software generates a lot of supporting business activity such as distribution, reselling, support, maintenance and training," Business Software Alliance (BSA) Director (India Operations) Lizum Mishra told PTI.

The annual commercial value of unlicensed software sold in India is estimated at a staggering USD 2.03 billion.

In 2009, software piracy worldwide caused a loss of about USD 51 billion.

Microsoft India's Director (Genuine Software Initiative) Anil Varghese said software piracy is an industry-wide problem that has significant impact on the economy, and affects legitimate businesses.

A recent BSA-IDC report said that reducing 65 per cent software piracy rate in India by 10 percentage points over four years would create over 59,728 high tech jobs, USD 4.6 billion in new economic activity and USD 512 million in new taxes by 2013.

Lack of awareness about Intellectual Property Rights (IPRs) and threats posed by pirated software as well as rapid growth of consumer PC markets such as India and China have resulted in increasing software piracy.

"It (software piracy) not only strains business' ability to innovate and generate jobs and harms local IT service firms but also reduces government tax revenues and increases risk of cybercrime and security problems," Anil Varghese noted.

Leading anti-virus software maker Symantec's Country Sales Manager for Consumer Products and Solutions (India & SAARC) Gaurav Kanwal said usage of pirated software not only harms product vendors but also has dangerous implications on consumers, government and industry bodies.

"Another trend in India, for example, is that awareness among enterprises is low on how to manage their software assets effectively," Lizum Mishra pointed out.

Moreover, pirated software could also have viruses or malicious codes that could cause identity theft of the computer user.

Striking an optimistic note, research firm Gartner's Principal Research Analyst Asheesh Raina said that more people have started using original software, especially with some products now coming at affordable prices.

Going by experts, all stakeholders including governments, and industry associations should collectively make efforts to tackle software piracy.