By H Ramakrishnan

Are Our products 'Made For India?'

While we have 'Made in India' products and solutions, are they 'Made for India?' This is a million dollar question posed by none other than the IT Secretary of the Government of Tamil nadu, Dr. C Chandramouly.

Chandramouly is a unique bureaucrat. Very pragmatic and down to the earth. The question that he posed is one which all stake holders including the government should ask themselves. He has a genuine grievance. He feels, and rightly so, that often Indian companies are doing only low-end work, designed and developed somewhere else. Aren't we continuing to work on labour arbitrage? Should we not move on to the next level of product development and innovate products, 'Made in India' and 'Made by India?' he asks.

In software product development, Tamil Nadu's share is just six per cent. All other work is of lower end. Chandramouly wants us to create an eco-system to do more of product innovation and generate more intellectual property.

A happy announcement he made at the Annual convention of the CSI is that five thousand internet enabled kiosks will be set up all over Tamil Nadu. There would be at least one kiosk for every three villages. Training infrastructure also will be established in every district.

When the whole world is moving towards internet, it is heartening that the State Government has, though belatedly, come forward to make even the rural people internet friendly.