Spreading PCs in India

[vamsi@siliconcorp.com]

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BANGALORE 12 SEPTEMBER
THE Department of Electronics (DoE) hopes to increase
personal computer (PC) penetration in the country, under a broad
framework which its secretary, Ravindra Gupta, calls the
``IT-isation of Indian society.’’ To begin with, attempts will be
made to make parents of school children understand the role of
computers. ``We’ve to try and create an awareness among
parents of the use of PCs as opposed to their conventional
preference for consumer electronic goods,’’ Mr Gupta told The
Economic Times.
However, just how this awareness and preference is going to be
created is yet to be worked out. DoE expects the Centre to
rework the duty structure on PC components. The department
wants hardware to be exempted from customs duties altogether.
It also wants the government to place hardware in the lowest
excise duty slabs. Better still, it wants excise duty on the
components lifted altogether.
``There have been reductions in the past, but it is not enough.
We would like to see zero duties on the components. We are
trying to get the finance ministry officials see this point of view
and I hope that there will be something in the next Budget on
these lines,’’ he said.
Another proposal being considered is to make PCs available at
the lowest prices. Asked about Bharat Electronics’ reported
announcement that it would try to sell PCs for Rs 26,000-28,000,
Mr Gupta said it was a good move.
Even this is on the higher side as far as improving PC
penetration is concerned, he added.
DoE is in talks with manufacturers of processors to see if the
assurance of lifting big volumes will make them offer processors
at very low costs, he said.
DoE is also looking at upgrading around 10,000 PCs. While this
is just a drop in the ocean, it will aid in improving penetration, Mr
Gupta said.
He said the DoE is also pushing the ministry of human resource
development to conceptualise what the latter means by
`computer literacy’ to arrive at a cost structure for PCs. For
instance, it wants to know whether computer literacy involves
making software available in Indian languages through tie-ups
with institutions such as the Centre for Development of Advanced
Computing (C-DAC) and the like.
He said C-DAC is also working on an optical character
recognition (OCR) code for Indian languages. The DoE, on its
part, has signed a memorandum of understanding with Carnegie
Mellon University which has done work on language technology,
he added.
Developing content for educational purposes is also on the
agenda and the DoE has had meetings with officials of the
department in charge of education on the same. All these,
though seemingly unrelated, needed to be done in sync in order
to increase PC penetration, Mr Gupta added.

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Sincerely,
Vamsi M.



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