New Delhi: The government on Thursday said the
growth rate of the IT and IT-enabled services exports has
declined to 14.6 per cent in 2008-09 compared to 30 per cent
growth in the last few years.
"The Indian IT and ITeS sector has witnessed some
slowdown in comparison to its historical rate of growth. The
growth rate of the IT-ITeS exports has declined to 14.6 per
cent as compared to around 30 per cent in the last few years,"
Minister of State (MoS) for Communications and Information
Technology Sachin Pilot said in a written reply to the Rajya
Sabha.
The total export revenue of this sector is estimated at
USD 46.3 billion in 2008-09 as compared to USD 40.4 billion in
2007-08, he added.
Pilot said the revenue from the domestic market has grown
from USD 4.8 billion in 2004-05 to USD 12.4 billion in 2008-09
in 2008-09, a CAGR of 26.69 per cent.
The growth rate of the domestic market has dipped to
around six per cent in 2008-09, he said.
In reply to another question, Pilot said, "The government
of Manipur has launched a pilot project by engaging OLPC (one
laptop per child) for e-learning. The project includes supply
of 1,000 OLPC laptops along with pre-loaded software and costs
associated with training and demonstration."
Quoting media report, Pilot said the co-founder of Media
Labs at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Nicholas
Negroponte was in India to promote a USD 200 laptop, specially
designed and manufactured for children in rural areas.
He, however, said the Department of Information
Technology (DIT) had not received any proposal from Media Labs
for removal of duties and other taxes on these low-cost
laptops.
Replying to another question, MoS for Communications and
Information Technology Gurudas Kamat said state-run telco BSNL
has drawn a scheme for deployment of wireless broadband
technology for providing last mile connectivity in villages.
"The project envisages provision of 1,000 Base
Transceiver Stations (BTSs) in Phase-I and 6,863 BTSs in
Phase-II. The villages falling within a radius of about 5-10
kms from BTS will be covered with wireless broadband service,"
he said.
The BTS under Phase-I and Phase-II deployment have been
planned for completion by March 2010 and March 2011,
respectively, Kamat added.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, December 10, 2009, 23:22