THE
NEXT FIVE YEARS FOR BUSINESS (3)
SOFTWARE
Mind Our Language
Domestic sales will constitute half
the software industry’s revenues
When we started, the Indian software
industry was primarily focused on exports and 40 years later, it still
continues to be so. The domestic market accounts for only 15% of the software
industry's $100 billion annual turnover. The country has too few computers.
This is because there are no computers in Indian languages. China has computers
in mandarin, but India, for historical reasons, has stuck with English. The
computer is but a tool and Indians should be able to use this tool in their own
language. You express your ideas best that way. Innovative thinking comes in
your own language. After all these years of speaking in English, I still dream
in my own language.
Some people tell me everyone will eventually learn English, we should just wait. That will take 100 years. We need to solve this problem now and TCS is working on it, with our educational institutions and the Government. In 12 months, the Indian language computer should be out and it will drive domestic software development in the future. In five years, I estimate the Indian software industry will have a turnover of $300 billion and half of that will be from domestic sales.
Right now, India does not have a hardware industry. But we will have to develop one, once the computer reaches the masses. Using technology, I can go and make the small shopkeeper more efficient that a supermarket mall. A computer can handle a shop's supply chain management, from purchases to inventory control. It can bring down costs and collect customer data. In the USA, local shops don't necessarily close if Wal Mart comes to town. We need both.
Technology drives technical education and I believe we need to produce more micro-electronic engineers. We've got the IITs to move on this and last year, we produced 1,200. Now this has to be transferred to other colleges, so that the number grows. After all, IT is both software and hardware. I remember the early days in TCS, when we got projects from Burroughs, but didn't have a Burroughs computer to do the work on, because imports were difficult.
The Indian IT industry is still young and the growth process is not going to stop anytime soon. It will certainly become more sophisticated. There will be new players, niche players, specializing in different applications. We are still doing a lot of lowend work for the global market, though we are also into some high-level development. The domestic market will also throw up low-end work. If you can't find growth avenues despite all this, it is a managerial problem. I remember once telling the Tata Sons Board that TCS has been doubling its turnover every two years and it would continue to do so for the foreseeable future. The limit is your imagination.
By FC KOHLI the first CEO of TCS
(As told to Dibeyendu Ganguly) CDET130104
Some people tell me everyone will eventually learn English, we should just wait. That will take 100 years. We need to solve this problem now and TCS is working on it, with our educational institutions and the Government. In 12 months, the Indian language computer should be out and it will drive domestic software development in the future. In five years, I estimate the Indian software industry will have a turnover of $300 billion and half of that will be from domestic sales.
Right now, India does not have a hardware industry. But we will have to develop one, once the computer reaches the masses. Using technology, I can go and make the small shopkeeper more efficient that a supermarket mall. A computer can handle a shop's supply chain management, from purchases to inventory control. It can bring down costs and collect customer data. In the USA, local shops don't necessarily close if Wal Mart comes to town. We need both.
Technology drives technical education and I believe we need to produce more micro-electronic engineers. We've got the IITs to move on this and last year, we produced 1,200. Now this has to be transferred to other colleges, so that the number grows. After all, IT is both software and hardware. I remember the early days in TCS, when we got projects from Burroughs, but didn't have a Burroughs computer to do the work on, because imports were difficult.
The Indian IT industry is still young and the growth process is not going to stop anytime soon. It will certainly become more sophisticated. There will be new players, niche players, specializing in different applications. We are still doing a lot of lowend work for the global market, though we are also into some high-level development. The domestic market will also throw up low-end work. If you can't find growth avenues despite all this, it is a managerial problem. I remember once telling the Tata Sons Board that TCS has been doubling its turnover every two years and it would continue to do so for the foreseeable future. The limit is your imagination.
By FC KOHLI the first CEO of TCS
(As told to Dibeyendu Ganguly) CDET130104
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