The IT industry heavyweights including chairman of Infosys N R Narayana Murthy and Wipro chief Azim Premji would meet in New Delhi on January 15 to formulate an action plan for addressing hardware issues such as cost of finance, infrastructure, tariff structure and investment needs. The industry stalwarts who would meet under the aegis of it advisory committee would also chalk out a comprehensive strategy to meet the hardware export target of US $ 10 billion by 2008.

“There is a disturbing trend in the hardware sector as the production level has been declining from Rs 2,800 crore two years back to Rs 2000 crore at present. The advisory commitee would deliberate on various issues that have caused the downslide,” Vinay Kohli, IT secretary and member of the committee told PTI in New Delhi. The committee chaired by it minister Pramod Mahajan would also discuss a possible collaboration between the government and the industry for taking it to masses and identify ways of tapping the tremendous employment potential that the hardware sector offers.

During the discussions the committee would review the strategies to be undertaken to fulfill the total equipment requirement of US $ 160 billion in the hardware sector by 2008, envisaging an investment of 16 billion dollar. Bureau Report