Indic IT market to cross $64 million by 2005: study

["Frederick Noronha (FN)" <fred@bytesforall.org>]

India's vernacular IT market to cross $64 million by 2005: study

>From Indo-Asian News Service

New Delhi, May 8 (IANS) The vernacular IT applications market in India is
expected to touch $64 million by 2005, up from $11 million now, as
government agencies unveil a slew of e-governance projects, said a study
Thursday.

"The language technology industry is very nascent and highly fragmented,"
said the report of Manufacturers' Association for Information Technology
(MAIT), an umbrella group representing hardware and IT research and
development services.

"The market is currently driven by off-the-shelf applications for end users
such as the publishing industry and government sectors," it added.

"However, in the next two to three years the e-governance initiatives being
undertaken by various government bodies are expected to spur the growth in
the local language computing market in India."

The study revealed that current market size of the local language
applications had remained limited due to lack of universal standards for
scripts and fonts, and limited availability of vernacular software and
fonts.

According to MAIT, the key drivers of the local language application market
in the near future will be introduction and promotion of new technology
solutions and applications by the industry to cater to the growing needs of
citizens.

Initiatives revolving around the commercialisation of products and
applications being developed in the numerous research labs in India will
also fuel the growth in the sector, it added.

"The challenges that need to be tackled for improving computing in
vernacular include lack of formal IT-based language training amongst the
users and lack of awareness regarding e-governance computing applications at
the grassroots level."

It said low computer penetration across the country and insufficient or
delayed implementation of the initiatives taken by different government
bodies also put roadblocks in the way of growth.

The lobby group suggested that the government must create a web-based
repository of best practices for content, software and language-based
applications and this must be available in the public domain.

The state and central governments must be mandated to deploy local language
interface for citizens' services.

"The government needs to play the role of a catalyst and facilitator. It has
to handhold and ensure technology transfer to the public and vendors."

"There is a direct correlation between availability of IT Applications in
vernacular and the IT penetration in the country," said Vinnie Mehta,
executive director of MAIT.

"The latter can be accelerated by giving a thrust through increased
deployment of the former. The industry needs to work towards killer
applications, which will be of economic benefit to the SMEs and the common
man."

--Indo-Asian News Service