Monday, December 29, 2003		Feature

2003! India can look back with glee
Peeyush Agnihotri

ANTI-outsourcing din, glut of spam, wave of lay-offs, slew of virus attacks, series of product launches and amidst this, the resurgence of India as a major IT hotspot — that was the year 2003.

Globally, the IT juggernaut lumbered ahead. New products were launched and Microsoft, the software daddy, promised Longhorn, the new operating system whose beta version is to hit the market in the later half of the next year even as the open-source Linux loomed menacingly at Microsoft’s gates and windows. Linux got a big boost when Fujitsu and IBM Japan separately received orders for developing supercomputers that use the free, open-source, Linux operating system.

It may have been the Year of the Black Sheep as per the Chinese calendar but IT professionals view 2003 as the year of the virus. SQL Slammer, Yaha, Sapphire, Lovesan, Ganda, Sobig.F and Blaster were a few notorious ones that actually were a pain in the hard disk. Incidentally, Yaha was unleashed by Indian hackers during a cyber spat with Pakistani hackers. Talking about Indo-Pak cyber spat, more than 730 Indian Websites have been hacked so far.

Spammers got a boot on their posterior as the US Congress approved the first-ever US effort to stem the scourge of unwanted e-mails. The House approved what is known as the ‘Can Spam’ legislation, which would outlaw the shadiest techniques used by the Internet’s most prolific e-mailers.

The middle of the year witnessed brouhaha over the issue of outsourcing. Many US states and other developed nations introduced bills and legislations banning outsourcing, mainly to the Asia-Pacific region, and specifically India. The stated intention is of making more jobs available to the natives. Nasscom claimed that the US economy benefited to the tune of 16.8 billion last fiscal as India’s code writers exported $ 8.5 billion worth software and services to the country’s largest IT market. As far as Indian exports are concerned, the Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC) said there were clear indications of the emergence of alternative software markets in Europe, Japan, Middle-East and African countries. Hardware exports from India crossed $ 1 billion mark with European Union countries accounting for 26 per cent of the pie.

India! Aha

In the year that will be remembered more for Saddam hunting on the non-IT front, most of the IT events had India as their epicentre. Be that the anti-outsourcing bills of the US or the developing of terascale super-computing system (PARAM Padma) by the nodal Centre to Develop the Advanced Computing (C-DAC).

During his recent visit to India, Prince Charles said he was impressed by India’s performance in the IT sector. Though India ranks 45th in global IT report of World Economic Forum, yet MNCs are eyeing the land that ‘manpowers’ the Silicon Valley. Google, known for its search engine, is all ready to set up a research and development centre in Bangalore next year. So are General Motors and UK insurer, Aviva Plc. The latter plans to create 2,500 call-centre and back office jobs in India. Very recently, a subsidiary of the US-based Agilent Technologies Inc., opened second services centre in Gurgaon. It will house the software development team involved in the development of software products that are either embedded in or supplied with the company’s technology equipment in the areas of communication and electronics.

The acquisition of the year happened in December. Infosys Technologies acquired the Australia’s Expert Information Services Pty Ltd. for $22.9 million in an all-cash deal.

On the hardware side, the country’s PC sales surpassed expectations in July-September by jumping 24 per cent as the nation’s burgeoning middle-class took advantage of cheap finance schemes and companies chipped in with healthy purchases. Total PC shipment grew 17.6 per cent sequentially and 24 per cent annually to 7 lakh units, according to the IT research firm, IDC. Similarly, India’s electronic hardware and computer software services registered a growth of 35 per cent in dollar terms at $ 6.5 billion during the first half (April-Sept) period of the current fiscal. In rupee terms, the increase is 31.06 per cent during the six months period at Rs 30, 623 crore.

In a nutshell, India became an IT-happening place and Indians more IT-savvy. A study conducted by the international market information group, Taylor Nelson Sofres says the number of Indians using the Internet to access government services or products available online has increased during the last 12 months.

Things were, however, not so hunky-dory on the cellular front. The GSM-WLL spat kept Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on its toes for most of the year and Cellular Operators Association of India in a letter to telecom secretary submitted that accumulated losses for the industry till the end of last year were Rs 7,100 crore.

To sum up, the taste that 2003 has left on IT tongues is more-sweet-less-sour. As for 2004, India could well be a superpower. Amen!