‘Hardware policy can be expected in Union Budget’

Kolkata: The Manufacturers’ Association of Information Technology (MAIT) is hopeful that the Centre will announce a policy for the hardware sector in the forthcoming Union Budget, according to Mr Vinnie Mehta, Executive Director of MAIT.

Mr Mehta, who was here for the inauguration of COMPASS 2007, eastern India’s annual IT exhibition, said the proposed hardware policy was doing the rounds at the highest levels of the Union Government and it was hoped that it would be announced in the next Budget.

According to him, it would be imperative for the Government to “deregulate” the broadband arena to facilitate the proliferation of broadband in the country.

Broadband growth

At present, there are 2.5 million broadband connections in the country. By 2010, the number of Internet connections is expected to go up to 40 million.

Ideally, at least 50 per cent of that should be broadband connections.

The number of installed computers is expected to go up from 22 million at present to 65 million by 2010, he said.

IT usage

Mr Mehta said 18 per cent of the country’s IT consumption was accounted for by the eastern region, with West Bengal accounting for 75-80 per cent of that. In 2005-06, eastern India accounted for 14 per cent of the total IT consumption in the country.

“The growth in this part of the country is clearly visible. In such a scenario, it would be important for entrepreneurs to set up hardware manufacturing facilities in West Bengal. We need to make sure that they survive. We also need to spread the message around so that more people here turn entrepreneurs,” he said.