IT Industry in India

Introduction
India is the world’s largest sourcing destination for the information technology (IT) industry,
accounting for approximately 67 per cent of the US$ 124-130 billion market. The industry
employs about a 10 million strong workforce. More importantly, the industry has led the
economic transformation of the country and altered the perception of India in the global
economy. India’s cost competitiveness in providing IT services, which is approximately 3-4
times cheaper than the US, continues to be the mainstay of its Unique Selling Proposition
(USP) in the global sourcing market. However, India is also gaining prominence in terms of
intellectual capital with several global IT firms setting up their innovation centres in India.
The IT industry has also created significant demand in the Indian education sector,
especially for engineering and computer science. The Indian IT and ITeS industry is divided
into four major segments – IT services, Business Process Management (BPM), software
products and engineering services, and hardware.

Evolution of Indian IT Industry

Early Phase
The genesis of the industry goes back to 1965, when the US Immigration and Naturalization
Act opened the doors to Asian immigrants, including a large number of Indian students. The
period from the late 1960s to the early 1980s saw several big companies entering the IT
space—Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, Infosys Ltd, Wipro Ltd, HCL Technologies Ltd and
Patni Computer Systems—gaining from the global personal computer and networking
revolutions.
India’s computer policy of 1984 and software policy of 1986 fired up the fledgling industry
by slashing import tariffs on hardware and software, de-licensing software exports,
encouraging foreign investment and making it easier for foreign companies to set up
offshore units. This, coupled with the large pool of English-speaking college graduates and
lower labour costs, helped put India on the global outsourcing map.
Nasscom, which was set up in 1988, lobbied successfully for tax-free export zones and
other facilities. The liberalization of the economy in 1991 and the Internet revolution of the
1990s triggered the establishment of software technology parks in cities such as Bangalore
and Pune. The industry, in turn, invested in training and development to build a pipeline of
talent as thousands of young graduates flocked to its modern campuses for higher salaries
and the lure of global opportunities.
It was still a struggle in the early years.
During the 1990s and 2000s
Fears related to the Y2K bug triggered another growth phase of the industry, as companies
around the world scrambled to update their systems. The focus continued to be largely on
“body shopping”, while global firms such as IBM set up and expanded their delivery centres
in India. The dot-com boom helped boost the industry, with Infosys and Wipro listing on the
Nasdaq.
The global financial crisis of 2007-08 also hurt the industry, with average growth slowing to
16-17% in 2009 (Nasscom estimates) as compared to about 30% in 2004-08. The Satyam
Computer debacle of 2009 led to a greater focus on corporate governance and a shake-up
in the industry, as mid-sized firms such as Tech Mahindra and iGate scaled up through
acquisitions. Indian IT firms also started focusing more on newer geographies such as
continental Europe and the Asia-Pacific to drive growth.
By 2013, Indian IT-BPO firms became multinational corporations, with 580 global delivery
centres spanning 75 countries, while also climbing up the value chain, as competition from
cheaper destinations such as the Philippines and eastern Europe increased. TCS took over
the India-based captive BPO arm of Citigroup, illustrating how Indian ITeS firms were
looking at non-traditional opportunities for growth in a slow market.

2013 onwards
Indian ITeS firms will have to face up to a vastly different market in the next five to seven
years. As chief information officers look to invest more in digitalizing their businesses, IT
services firms will need to adapt and create a second engine of growth, while continuing to
tap opportunities from applications, infrastructure, ERP and BPO.
This second engine of growth will include taking advantage of offerings in “everything as a
service”, cloud, big data, digitalization and Internet of Things. It will also involve selling to
stakeholders beyond the chief information officer; for instance, firms might approach the
chief marketing officer or the chief operating officer with business-oriented value
propositions. And ITeS players will have to cope with a different set of competitors. It is no
longer only IBM, TCS, Cognizant, Wipro and the other usual suspects; the new competitive
set today includes Amazon Web Services, Dropbox Enterprise and telcos.
Companies that keep innovating and don’t get constrained by an “incumbent” mindset are
probably the only ones that will do well in this phase—even if it means cannibalizing their
own revenues in the near term.

Electronics and IT Manufacturing in India

The electronics market of India is one of the largest in the world and is anticipated to reach
US$ 400 billion in 2022 from US$ 69.6 billion in 2012. The market is projected to grow at a
compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 24.4 per cent during 2012-2020.
The total production of electronics hardware goods in India is estimated to reach US$ 104
billion by 2020. The communication and broadcasting equipment segment constituted 31
per cent, which is the highest share of total production of electronic goods in India in FY13,
followed by consumer electronics at 23 per cent.
Electronic exports from India were expected to reach US$ 8.3 billion in FY13, a CAGR of
27.9 per cent during FY07–12. Technological improvements and competitively cost
effectiveness are main drivers for demand of Indian electronics products abroad.
The Government of India has set up Electronic Hardware Technology Parks (EHTPs),
Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and a brought about a favourable climate for foreign direct
investment (FDI). It has also increased liberalisation and relaxed tariffs to promote growth
in the sector. In addition, the government gave its green signal to the Modified Special
Incentive Package Scheme (MSIPS) under which the central government will be offering up
to US$ 1.7 billion in benefits to the electronics sector in next five years.
The growing customer base and the increased penetration in consumer durables segment
have provided enough scope for the growth of the Indian electronics sector. Also,
digitisation of cable could lead to increased broadband penetration in the country and open
up new avenues for companies in the electronics industry.

Computer Hardware Industry in India

The value of computer hardware produce increased from Rs. 8,800 crores in 2004-05 to
Rs.16, 500 crores in 2011-12. The percentage change over the previous year in production
of computer hardware registered positive growth during the study period except in 2008-09.
However there is decline in the annual growth during 2009 to 2011. Again in the year 2011-
12 there is a momentum in the production. Compound Annual growth rate of production of
Computer hardware recorded 7.6 per cent and significant is 1per cent level.
The Computer Hardware industry consists of companies engaged in assembling and
manufacturing computers, computer hardware and computer peripherals. The industry
includes storage devices, keyboards, printers, monitors, mouse and other pointing devices,
Webcams and PC cameras, as well as ATM machines.
The Computer Hardware industry excludes semiconductor computer components, such as
microprocessors and circuit boards. Exporting major items of computer hardware from
India are DVD Drives, Personal computers, Mother Boards, Monitor Scanner, Printer, Mouse,
Hard Disk Drives, Micro processors etc. The major export destinations include EU Countries,
South Asian Countries, North America, Middle East Countries and Latin America. The most
popular items of export are Hardware Components, Monitor, Mouse, Server & Work
Stations, Notebooks/Laptops, Peripherals, Scanner and Projectors

Role of Indian government in IT Sector

The Government of India recognises the importance of promoting growth in services
sectors and provides several incentives in wide variety of sectors such as health care,
tourism, education, engineering, communications, transportation, information technology,
banking, finance, management, among others.
India’s priority will be to work towards trade facilitation agreement (TFA) for services, which
is expected to help in the smooth movement of professionals. The Government of India has
adopted a few initiatives in the recent past.
The Indian service sector is expected to facilitate a knowledge based economy, and the
manufacturing sector will be dominated by services as a result of servicification of
manufacturing.
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has launched a services portal,
which aims to provide seamless access to government services related to education,
health, electricity, water and local services, justice and law, pensions and benefits, through a
single window.

IT Enabled Services
ITES is the acronym for the term “IT Enabled services”. The most important aspect is the
Value addition of IT enabled service. The value addition could be in the form of – Customer
relationship management, improved database, improved look and feel, etc. The outcome of
an IT enabled service is in the two forms; Direct Improved Service and Indirect Benefits.
Whereas direct benefits can be realised immediately, indirect benefits can accrue over a
period of time, and can be harnessed very effectively, if planned well upfront.
IT Enabled services (ITES) covers the entire gamut of operations which exploit Information
Technology for improving efficiency of an organization. These services provide a wide
range of career options that include opportunities in call Centres, medical transcription,
medical billing and coding, back office operations, revenue claims processing, legal
databases, content development, payrolls, logistics management ,GIS (Geographical
Information System), HR services, web services etc.
The combination of the correct technology and the communication channel brings about
very high degrees of improvement in the service quality.
The favored application areas are areas where there is huge amount of data that needs to
be processed and utilised for delivering the results, or the data is the outcome of the
service. In all cases, without use օf IT the task would otherwise be unmanageable. Some of
the most important areas where IT enabled services can be deployed are:
1. Telemarketing
2. Helpdesk
3. Customer Support Centres
4. Data Ware House
5. Transcription Centres
6. GIS Mapping for Transport tracking
7. Electronic Distribution.

India is referred to as the backoffice of the world owing mainly to the Information
Technology-enabled Services (ITeS) sector. The ITeS sector is not only responsible for
putting India on the global map but has also made significant contributions to the Indian
economy. According to the National Association of Software and Service Companies
(NASSCOM), the IT/ITeS industry’s contribution to the country’s gross domestic product
(GDP) has grown from 1.2 per cent in FY 1997-98 to an estimated 5.5 per cent in FY 2007-
08. The net value-added by this sector, to the economy, is estimated at 3.3-3.9 per cent for
FY 2007-08.
The Indian IT-ITeS sector (including hardware) grew by 33 per cent in FY 2007-08 to reach
US$ 64 billion in aggregate revenue. Of this, the ITeS/BPO sector contributed US$ 12.5
billion as against US$ 9.5 billion in FY 2006-07, an increase of 31 per cent.
ITeS, which started with basic data entry tasks over a decade ago, is witnessing an
expansion in its scope of services to include increasingly complex processes involving rule-
based decision making and even research services requiring informed individual judgment.
It now offers services such as knowledge process outsourcing (KPO), legal process
outsourcing (LPO), games process outsourcing (GPO) and design outsourcing among
others.
The number of patent filings from Indian R&D centres has been growing over the years.
More and more cutting-edge products are being developed in India. While outsourcing lower
level technical jobs to India has been a practice of multinational technology firms, the
increasing reliance on Indian R&D operations is a growing trend. Aviation majors like Boeing
and Lockheed Martin are looking at setting up captive IT-related technological R&D centres
in India.
India has emerged as the largest developer location for companies such as Sun
Microsystems and Nokia. Sun Microsystems has 760,000 developers in India – the largest
such community in the world for the firm. Besides, several companies are expanding their
base in India. For instance, SCIOinspire, a US-based KPO focused on the healthcare space,
plans to expand its offshore operations in Chennai, as the city has a strong base of
healthcare specialists, making sourcing of talent easier.
India with its natural competitive advantage is likely to play a huge role in various segments
of the ITeS industry.
India is fast becoming a hot destination for outsourced e-publishing work. As per a
Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) report, the industry is growing at an annual rate of 35
per cent and India’s outsourcing opportunities in the value-added and core services such as
copy editing, project management, indexing, media services and content deployment will
help make the publishing BPO industry worth US$ 1.46 billion by 2010.
A recent CRISIL research study on the outsourcing industry has concluded that engineering
services outsourcing (ESO) is poised to be the next big opportunity in the Indian
outsourcing services industry. The ESO sector is likely to grow at a compounded rate of 26
per cent and post revenues aggregating around US$ 7.5 billion by 2012.
A recent study by NASSCOM and Everest India on the Indian BPO sector, —’Roadmap 2012
– Capitalizing on the Expanding BPO Landscape’ — evaluates the country’s current standing
in this sector and its roadmap until 2012 states that India, is at the forefront of the rapidly
evolving BPO market, having established itself as a “destination of choice.” The sector has
grown manifold in size and has matured in terms of service delivery capability and
geographical locations over the past decade.
According to the study, the Indian BPO sector has been growing at more than 35 per cent.
The sector has achieved nearly US$ 11 billion in export revenues and accounts for more
than 35 per cent of the worldwide BPO market. It employs 700,000 people across 25
countries. Within India, there are 1,200 companies, spread across 30 locations, including
metros and second and third-tier cities.
The global meltdown has of course, taken its effect on the Indian IT-BPO sector as well.
However, companies are seeing an opportunity in these adverse times. Industry players
believe that the ability to grow up the value chain – and also the emergence of some new
businesses – will see Indian companies emerging stronger in 2009, despite uncertainties in
the markets that bring most of their revenues. Of course, in order to face the challenge of a
global recession, the companies will have to focus on expanding market coverage in terms
of verticals, geographies and services. They will also have to cope with a fluctuating rupee.
India’s ITes industry still holds a cost advantage, banking on low wage and salary cost.
India has the second lowest ITes/BPO salary base of about US$ 7,500-US$ 8,500, just little
above China’s base of US$ 7,000-US$ 8,000. The other positive for India is that the country
is one of the largest producers of English-speaking graduates, including engineers and
management graduates. A high number of such graduates means that companies can offer
higher value-added services to clients.
Although for exports, the US (61 per cent) and UK (18 per cent) continue to be the largest
markets, the share of Europe has been increasing steadily. Exports to Continental Europe
have grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of more than 55 per cent over FY
2004-07. The ITeS sector is also working towards reducing its dependence on the US
market and is exploring new and emerging markets such as those in Australia and the
Middle East.

Global Model
Most Indian IT companies are spreading their services delivery infrastructure within India by
moving into tier-II and tier-III cities to maintain their cost-effectiveness and to deal with
competition from countries such as Taiwan and Vietnam. They are making inroads into
China and setting up near shore centres in Eastern Europe, Latin America and Canada. They
have adopted unconventional business models to gain market share and establish a global
footprint and a global brand presence.

BPOs and BTOs

In business process outsourcing (BPO) often a discrete function within an overall business
process is outsourced, the BPO vendor maintains the discrete business function for their
client company, there is little or no value added by the BPO vendor. On the other hand the
BTO vendor will own the entire business process of their client’s company and adds
strategic value by bringing process and business efficiency to the entire company. For
example in the accounting business process BPO vendors will mange accounting functions
like bookkeeping, Accounts Payable, and Accounts Receivable. On the other hand the BTO
vendors will manage and transform the entire accounting and financial processes of their
client’s company.
Often time BPO vendors have generic skills in managing the entire business processes or
some functions within the overall business process. BTO vendors will have deep vertical
business expertise in particular businesses like Accounting, Legal, and HR. Even within
Accounting they will have strong expertise in particular industry like retail, manufacturing,
and hospitality. By working with several vertical industries BTO vendors will bring in industry
best practices and procedures to their client organizations. BTO vendors have the vision for
changing business landscape and work closely with their clients to change the entire
business process according the events like competition, government policy changes and
business mergers.

Software technology parks of India

India has earned itself a reputation of an Information Technology superpower. Software
Technology Parks of India has played a seminal role in accomplishing this status. Today,
Software Technology Parks of India across over the country are synonymous with excellent
Infrastructure and Statutory support aimed at furthering growth of Information Technology
in the country.
Software Technology Parks of India, is an Autonomous Society set up by the Ministry of
Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India in 1991, with the
objective of encouraging, promoting and boosting the Software Exports from India.
Software Technology Parks of India maintains internal engineering resources to provide
consulting, training and implementation services. Services cover Network Design, System
Integration, Installation, Operations and maintenance of application networks and facilities
in varied areas.
Process development is based on the Quality Management System. Software Technology
Parks of India centre also adhere to ISO 9001 certification. Software Technology Parks of
India broadly provides services specially tailored for Software exporters in the region. Over
a decade experience of providing world class services ensures total satisfaction.
The objectives of the Software Technology Parks of India are:
1. To promote the development and export of software and software services including
Information Technology (I.T.) Enabled Services/ Bio-IT.
2. To provide statutory and other promotional services to the exporters by implementing
Software Technology Park/ Electronics and Hardware Technology Park Schemes and other
such schemes which may be formulated and entrusted by the Government from time to
time.
3. To provide data communication services including value added services to IT / IT
Enabled Services related industries.
4. To promote micro, small and medium entrepreneurs by creating conducive environment
for entrepreneurship in the field of IT / IT Enabled Services.

Functions of Software Technology Parks of India

The Software Technology Parks of India performs all functions necessary to fulfill its
objectives and include the following:-
(1) To establish Software Technology Parks / centers at various locations in the country;
(a) to perform all functions in the capacity of the successor to the erstwhile Software
Technology Park Complex which were taken over by the Software Technology Parks of
India
(b) to establish and manage the infrastructural resources such as integrated infrastructure
including International communication / Data center / Incubating facilities etc. for 100%
export oriented units and to render similar services to the users other than exporters.
(c) to undertake other export promotional activities such as technology assessments,
market analysis, market segmentation as also to organize
workshops/exhibitions/seminars/conferences etc.
(d) to facilitate specialized training in the niche areas to meet the above objectives.
(e) to work closely with respective State Government and act as an interface between
Industry and Government.
(f) to promote secondary and tertiary locations by establishing Software Technology Parks
of India presence to promote Software Technology Park / Electronics Hardware Technology
Park Scheme, and promotional schemes announced by Government.
(g) to promote entrepreneurship through incubation programmes / seed funds / IP
development and other awareness programmes.
(h) to assist State Governments in formulating IT policies and liaison for promoting the IT
industries in respective states to achieve an exponential growth of exports.
(i) to promote quality and security standards in the I.T industries.
(j) to work jointly with venture capitalists for providing financial assistance to the IT
industries.
(k) to provide Project Management and Consultancy services both at national and
international level in the areas of expertise of Software Technology Parks of India

(2) To perform financial management functions which comprise of the following activities;
(a) to obtain or accept grants, subscription, donations, gifts, bequests from Government,
Corporations, Trusts, Organizations or any person for fulfilling the objectives of the
Software Technology Parks of India
(b) to maintain a fund to which shall be credited :
-all money provided by the Central Government, State Governments, Corporations,
Universities etc.,
-all fees and other charges received by the Software Technology Parks of India
-all money received by the Software Technology Parks of India by way of grants, gifts,
donations, benefactions, bequests or transfers; and
-all money received by the Software Technology Parks of India in any other manner or from
any other source.
Quality Objective
1. Strive for the upgradation of the technology to meet customer requirements in ever
changing market
2. Upgradation of the technical knowledge of Software Technology Parks of India personnel
through seminars/conferences/trainings
3. State-of-Art data communication services as per acceptable international standards
4. Comprehensive service including project approvals, import attestation, software export
certification etc., in a time bound manner
5. Achieving customer satisfaction through the combined efforts of planning and execution
of the projects through dedicated workforce
India’s advantage for IT and ITeS
Since the Government of India liberalized the IT and telecommunications sector in the late
1990s, it has provided the right impetus to companies working in this sector. India can
emerge as the clear industrial leader in the near future, if it maintains due diligence
Today India has one of the most robust and fastest growing economies. The recent
recession witnessed in the developed nation, and the Dubai economic crisis have had very
little effect on its growth in the IT and the industrial sectors. India offers high quality IT and
IT-enabled Services at low cost, using state-of-the-art technology. Convergence has led to
lowering of tariffs, plentiful availability of bandwidth at increasingly lower cost, competition
and growth in technology, especially fiber optics and wireless technology. India’s
Information and Communications Technology (ICT) organizations are counted among the
best known and most reputed ICT solutions and services providers worldwide.
Scores of global ICT leaders have invested in India, making the country their hub for
software development, offshore outsourcing and R&D. India has an investor friendly
environment. To encourage the growth of the IT sector in India, the government too has
lowered the entry barriers. FDI can be made in most sectors through the automatic route.
India has a proven track record as a world-class software development centre. IT
companies in India generate about 75 per cent of their total revenue from offshore
development
The Advantages India Offers for IT Companies are:
1. Benefits of Outsourcing to India
2. Skilled and inexpensive IT resources
3. A thriving software industry, backed by government initiatives
4. Helpful initiatives like rationalization of taxes, IT friendly budgets aimed at promoting
investment
5. Availability of English speaking workforce
6. Concrete steps to upgrade the IT infrastructure of India
7. The role played by academic institutes that promotes research and innovation
8. A stable democracy based on the parliamentary system of governance.
9. An independent Judiciary and a free Press.
10. Highly developed banking network and financial services.
11. Apart from the above, some other advantages India offers is market driven economy,
huge forex reserves, no legal tangles, Re/dollar parity, continued economic policies,
conducive business climate and good ROIs.

Problems in the software industry of India

The biggest problem with Indian IT industry is that it values Quantity over Quality. They have
turned the whole software development business into a volume based/ Head count
business. It is all about billing as many people as possible to the customer.
An excellent developer can be up to 10 times more productive than an average developer.
This is the nature of software development. However Indian IT industry does not recognize
this and makes no difference between them and gives both the same salary and charges
the same amount to the customer. Due to this the Indian IT sector is filled with a lot of
people with low skills.
As a result, projects get delayed, softwares are full of bugs, customers are always
complaining, companies lose projects, profits get reduced, and people get laid off.

Conclusion
India is the topmost offshoring destination for IT companies across the world. Having
proven its capabilities in delivering both on-shore and off-shore services to global clients,
emerging technologies now offer an entire new gamut of opportunities for top IT firms in
India.
Social, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) are collectively expected to offer a US$ 1
trillion opportunity. Cloud represents the largest opportunity under SMAC, increasing at a
CAGR of approximately 30 per cent to around US$ 650-700 billion by 2020. The social
media is the second most lucrative segment for IT firms, offering a US$ 250 billion market
opportunity by 2020. The Indian e-commerce segment is US$ 12 billion in size and is
witnessing strong growth and thereby offers another attractive avenue for IT companies to
develop products and services to cater to the high growth consumer segment.

Government Initiatives in IT Sector

Government Initiatives in IT Sector

1. Digital India Program

The Digital India programme has been launched with an aim of transforming the country into a
digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. The Digital India would ensure that
Government services are available to citizens electronically. It would also bring in public
accountability through mandated delivery of government’s services electronically.

Key Projects of Digital India programme:

Key Projects of Digital India programme:
a) Digital Locker System aims to minimize the usage of physical documents and enable sharing of
e-documents across agencies. The sharing of the e-documents will be done through registered
repositories thereby ensuring the authenticity of the documents online.

b) MyGov.in has been implemented as a platform for citizen engagement in governance, through a

“Discuss”, “Do” and “Disseminate” approach. The mobile App for MyGov would bring these features
to users on a mobile phone.

c) Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) Mobile app would be used by people and Government
organizations for achieving the goals of Swachh Bharat Mission.

d) eSign framework would allow citizens to digitally sign a document online using Aadhaar
authentication.

e) The Online Registration System (ORS) under the eHospital application has been introduced. This
application provides important services such as online  registration, payment of fees and
appointment, online diagnostic reports, enquiring availability of blood online etc.

f) National Scholarships Portal is a one stop solution for end to end scholarship process right from
submission of student application, verification, sanction and disbursal to end beneficiary for all the
scholarships provided by the Government of India.

g) DeitY has undertaken an initiative namely Digitize India Platform (DIP) for large scale digitization
of records in the country that would facilitate efficient delivery of services to the citizens.

h) The Government of India has undertaken an initiative namely Bharat Net, a high speed digital
highway to connect all 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats of country. This would be the world’s largest rural
broadband connectivity project using optical fibre.
i) BSNL has introduced Next Generation Network (NGN), to replace 30 year old exchanges, which is
an IP based technology to manage all types of services like voice, data, multimedia/ video and other
types of packet switched communication services.

j) BSNL has undertaken large scale deployment of Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the country. The user
can latch on the BSNL Wi-Fi network through their mobile devices.

k) To deliver citizen services electronically and improve the way citizens and authorities transact
with each other, it is imperative to have ubiquitous connectivity. The government also realises this
need as reflected by including ‘broadband highways’ as one of the pillars of Digital India.  While
connectivity is one criterion, enabling and providing technologies to facilitate delivery of services to
citizens forms the other.

2. Meghraj Initiative Computing

Meghraj is the name given to the initiative of Government of India for its new program which is going
to take advantage of the Cloud Computing. Meghraj is just a name coined for the purpose
(Megh=Cloud, Raj=Rule i.e. Rule of Cloud Computing). As much absurd the name seems, but the
advantages the Indians will get from this technology are immense. Another name for Meghraj is the
GI Cloud Initiative. It will enable the government to leverage cloud computing for effective delivery of
e-services.

Advantages of GI Cloud
• Optimum Utilization of Existing infrastructure
• Rapid Deployment and Reusability: Any software made available by any government of department
in India can be made available to other departments as well without additional costs.
• Manageability and Maintainability: It provides single point for maintaining Information &
Communication Technology (ICT) infrastructure in India.
• Scalability: According to the demands from the citizens of India, infrastructure of the government
can be increased accordingly.
• Efficient Service Delivery
• Security: A security framework for the entire GI Cloud will lead to less environmental complexity
and less potential vulnerability
• Increased User Mobility
• Reduced Effort in Managing Technology
• Standardization: GI Cloud shall prescribe the standards around interoperability, integration,
security, data security and portability etc.
3. Code Free for India
• This initiative is started by International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS).
• The initiative invites free software development community to develop solutions to address local
and global needs.
• Programmers would be invited to develop tools and desktop applications, internet applications,
mobile applications and enhance the cloud and internet of things technology.
• It will also encourage the use of local language computing tools and contemporary free software
technology while keeping in mind bandwidth and device limitations.

4. e-Kranti : NeGP 2.0

• e-Kranti is an important pillar of the Digital India program.
• Vision of e-Kranti is “Transforming e-Governance for Transforming Governance”.
• The Mission of e-Kranti is to ensure a Government wide transformation by delivering all
Government services electronically to citizens through integrated and interoperable systems via
multiple modes, while ensuring efficiency, transparency and reliability of such services at affordable
costs.

The objectives of ‘e-Kranti’ are as follows:

• To redefine National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) with transformational and outcome oriented e-
Governance initiatives.
• To enhance the portfolio of citizen centric services.
• To ensure optimum usage of core Information & Communication Technology (ICT).
• To promote rapid replication and integration of e-Governance applications.
• To leverage emerging technologies.
• To make use of more agile implementation models.

The key principles of e-Kranti are as follows:

• Transformation and not Translation.
• Integrated Services and not Individual Services.
• Government Process Reengineering (GPR) to be mandatory in every Mission Mode Project (MMP).
• Information Communication Technology (ICT) Infrastructure on Demand.
• Cloud by Default.
• Mobile First.
• Fast Tracking Approvals.
• Mandating Standards and Protocols.
• Language Localization.
• National GIS (Geo-Spatial Information System).
• Security and Electronic Data Preservation

5. Use of IT in financial inclusion

• Financial inclusion or inclusive financing is the delivery of financial services at affordable costs to
sections of disadvantaged and low-income segments of society, in contrast to financial
exclusion where those services are not available or affordable. According to the Rangarajan
Committee Report, 2008, financial inclusion is, “The process of ensuring access to financial services
and timely and adequate credit where needed by vulnerable groups such as weaker sections and low
income groups at an affordable cost”
Some of the commonly promoted distribution technologies for financial inclusion in India include
the following:

1) IT-enabled Kiosks for Financial Inclusion (They are small and self-operated IT-enabled centers
that provide the customers with banking features such as cheque or cash deposit, internet banking,
non-cash ATM transaction and teller enquiries.)

2) Mobile phone based financial services: Mobile banking (m-banking) and Mobile payments (m-
payments)

3) Automated Teller Machines (ATM): Biometric ATM, Mobile ATM and Micro ATM.

4) Biometric handheld device

5) Smart cards and POS (point-of-service)

6. Li-fi Technology and its Application

• Light Fidelity (Li-Fi)-a revolutionary new technology that transmits high-speed data using lights.It is
touted asbeing nearly 100 times faster than the traditional Wi-Fi technology based on transmission
of radio waves.

• Li-Fi, or light fidelity, invented by German physicist and professor Harald Haas, is a wireless
technology that makes use of visible light in place of radio waves to transmit data at terabits per
second speeds-more than 100 times the speed of Wi-Fi.

• A simple Visible Light Communication (VLC) system has two qualifying components: 1) At least
one device with a photodiode able to receive light signals 2) A light source equipped with a signal
processing unit.

• A VLC light source could comprise of a fluorescent or Light Emitting Diode (LED) bulb. Since a
robust Li-Fi system requires extremely high rates of light output, LED bulbs are most ideal for
implementing Li-Fi. LED is a semiconductor light source, which implies that LED light bulbs can
amplify light intensity and switch rapidly. Therefore, LED cells can modulate thousands of signals
without the human eye ever noticing. In turn, the changes in light intensity from the LED light source
are interpreted and converted as electrical current by the receiving photodiode device. Once the
electronic signal is demodulated, it is converted into a continuous stream of binary data comprising
of audio, video, web, and application information to be consumed by any Internet-enabled device.

• Li-Fi offers great promise to overcome the existing limitations of Wi-Fi by providing for data-heavy
communication in short ranges. Since it does not pollute, it can be called a green technology for
device-to-device communication in the Internet of Things (IoT).

Applications
• Smart Lighting: Any private or public lighting including street lamps can be used to provide Li-Fi
hotspots and the same communications and sensor infrastructure can be used to monitor and
control lighting and data.

• Mobile Connectivity: Laptops, smart phones, tablets and other mobile devices can interconnect
directly using Li-Fi. Short range links give very high data rates and also provides security.

• Hazardous Environments: Li-Fi provides a safe alternative to electromagnetic interference from

radio frequency communications in environments such as mines and petrochemical plants.

• Hospital & Healthcare: Li-Fi emits no electromagnetic interference and so does not interfere with
medical instruments, nor is it interfered with by MRI scanners.
• Aviation: Li-Fi can be used to reduce weight and cabling and add flexibility to seating layouts in
aircraft passenger cabins where LED lights are already deployed. In-Flight Entertainment (IFE)
systems can also be supported and integrated with passengers’ own mobile devices.

• Underwater Communications: Due to strong signal absorption in water, RF use is impractical.

Acoustic waves have extremely low bandwidth and disturb marine life. Li-Fi provides a solution for
short-range communications.

• Vehicles & Transportation: LED headlights and tail-lights are being introduced. Street lamps,
signage and traffic signals are also moving to LED. This can be used for vehicle-to-vehicle and
vehicle-to-roadside communications. This can be applied for road safety and traffic management.

• Location Based Services (LBS): Highly accurate location-specific information services such as

advertising and navigation that enables the recipient to receive appropriate, pertinent information in
a timely manner and location.

7. Internet of things (IOT)

• The internet of things (IoT) is the network of physical devices, vehicles, buildings and other items
embedded with electronics, software, sensors, actuators, and network connectivity that enable these
objects to collect and exchange data. It is also known as “the infrastructure of the information
society.”

• British entrepreneur Kevin Ashton coined the term in 1999, referring to a global network of objects

connected to radio-frequency identification, or RFID).

• “Things,” in the IoT sense, can refer to a wide variety of devices such as heart monitoring
implants, biochip transponders on farm animals, electric clams in coastal waters, automobiles with
built-in sensors, DNA analysis devices for environmental/food/pathogen monitoring or field
operation devices that assist firefighters in search and rescueoperations. Legal scholars suggest to
look at “Things” as an “inextricable mixture of hardware, software, data and service”.

• Benefits of IoT

– Environmental monitoring:
– Infrastructure management
– Manufacturing
– Energy management
– Medical and healthcare systems
– Building and home automation
– Transportation

8. Big Data Initiative

• Big Data – is data whose scale, diversity, and complexity require new architecture, techniques,
algorithms, and analytics to manage it and extract value and hidden knowledge from it.  In other
words, big data is characterized by volume, variety (structured and unstructured data) velocity (high
rate of changing) and veracity (uncertainty and incompleteness).

• The Indian government has launched a Big Data Initiative ̧with the following aims:

– Promoting and fostering big data science, technology and applications in India and developing
core generic technologies, tools and algorithms for wider applications in the government.
– Understanding the present status of the industry in terms of market size, different players
providing services across sectors/ functions, opportunities, SWOT of industry, policy framework (if
any), present skill levels available etc.
– Carrying out market landscape surveys to assess the future opportunities and demand for skill
levels in next 10 years.
– Carrying out gap analysis in terms of skills levels and policy framework.
– Evolving a strategic road map and action plan clearly defining of roles of various stakeholders –
government, industry, academia, industry associations and others with clear timelines and outcome
for the next 10 years.
– Recently Government has initiated steps for collecting big data under following schemes:
– Aadhar People belonging to marginalized sections of society in India often do not have a valid
proof of identity. As a result, they miss out on availing social benefits provided by the
government. To overcome this Indian government launched a scheme to issue a unique 12-digit
number, termed ‘Aadhaar’ (meaning ‘foundation’ or ‘support’) to every resident of India. It is an
identification that a person can carry for a life time and potentially use with any service
provider. Aadhaar is the world’s largest ID platform.
– Digilocker – DigiLocker provides a personal storage space in the cloud to Indian citizens.
Organizations that are registered with DigiLocker can push electronic copies of documents and
certificates (e.g. driving license, Voter ID, School certificates) directly into citizens’ lockers.

9. Google Project loon

• To improve the broadband services in the rural areas Google has initiated Project Loon.
• Google defines Project Loon as a “network of balloons travelling on the edge of space, designed to
connect people in rural and remote areas, help fill coverage gaps, and bring people back online after
disasters”.

• Project Loon balloons will travel in the stratosphere, approximately 20 km above the Earth’s
surface, latching on to layers of wind as directed by software algorithms to determine where they
need to go.

• In the end, they will form one large communications network. Each balloon can provide connectivity
to a ground area about 40 km in diameter using wireless communication Long Team Evolution (LTE)
or 4G.

• Project Loon partners with telecom companies to share cellular spectrum.

• It has already tested this technology in New Zealand, California and Brazil. To use LTE or 4G,
Project Loon partners with telecom companies to share cellular spectrum so that people will be able
to access the Internet everywhere directly from their phones and other LTE-enabled devices.

• Google uses solar panel and wind to power electronic equipment in the balloon throughout the day.

10. UPI / BHIM / USSD / AADHAR PAY

• UPI – Unified Payment Interface (UPI) allows you to make payments using your mobile phone as
the primary device for transactions, through the creation of a ‘virtual payment address’, which is an
alias for your bank account. UPI was launched by the National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI).

• BHIM App – The Bharat Interface for Money (BHIM) in an initiative by the Govt to enable
fast,secure and reliable cashless payments through mobile phones. BHIM is Aadhaar-enabled, inter-
operable with other Unified Payment Interface (UPI) applications and bank accounts, and has been
developed by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). This seals the government’s push
towards digital payments after the demonetization that resulted in the scrapping of high-value Rs
1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes.

• Aadhar Pay – There are lots of payment apps in the market. These are the UPI apps, SBI Pay,
Paytm, Phonepe, Freecharge, mobile wallets etc. But, the AAdhaar Payment App is special as you
can pay through the Adhaar Payment App without phone. It is possible because you the customer
does not require the app. The merchant or a person, who want money, have to arrange a
smartphone, app, etc. The payer don’t require anything. This app is made for the merchants and
shopkeepers. Customer would only enjoy its benefits. The Adhaar Payment Appuses your
fingerprints for the authentication. On the basis of this authentication, the money ispaid from your
Aadhaar linked account.

• IMPS – Immediate Payment Service (IMPS) is an instant interbank electronic fund transfer service
through mobile phones. It is also being extended through other channels such as ATM, Internet
Banking, etc.

• POS terminals – A point-of- sale (POS) terminal is a computerized replacement for a cash register.
Much more complex than the cash registers of even just a few years ago, the POS system can
include the ability to record and track customer orders, process credit and debit cards, connect to
other systems in a network, and manage inventory. Generally, a POS terminal has as its core a
personal computer, which is provided with application-specific programs and I/O devices for the
particular environment in which it will serve.

• USSD – USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) is a Global System for Mobile(GSM)
Communication technology that is used to send text between a mobile phone and an application
program in the network. Applications may include prepaid roaming or mobile chatting.

11. BHARAT NET PROJECT

• The Government of India has undertaken an initiative namely Bharat Net, a high speed digital
highway to connect all 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats of country. This would be the world’s largest rural
broadband connectivity project using optical fibre.

• Vision – BharatNet shall be a project of national importance to establish, by 2017, a highly scalable
network infrastructure accessible on a non-discriminatory basis, to provide on demand, affordable
broadband connectivity of 2 Mbps to 20 Mbps for all households and on demand capacity to all
institutions, to realise the vision of Digital India, in partnership with States and the private sector.

• The entire project is being funded by Universal service Obligation Fund (USOF), which was set up
for improving telecom services in rural and remote areas of the country. The objective is to facilitate
the delivery of e-governance, e-health, e-education, e-banking, Internet and other services to the rural
India

• Implementation – The project is a Center-State collaborative project, with the States contributing
free Rights of Way for establishing the Optical Fiber Network. The three-phase implementation of the
BharatNet project is as follows

• The first phase envisages providing one lakh gram panchayats with broadband connectivity by
laying underground optic fibre cable (OFC) lines by March 2017.
12. WHITE SPACE
• Microsoft India is ready with a plan to provide free last-mile internet connectivity across the
country. It proposes to use the “white space” – the unused spectrum between two TV channels – to
provide free connectivity to large sections of the Indian population.

• Wifi has a range of only about 100 metres, whereas the 200-300 MHz spectrum band available in
the white space can reach up to 10 km. This spectrum belongs mainly to Doordarshan and the
government and is not used at all. Pilot project is planned in two districts. If the pilots are
successful, the project can be quickly rolled out across the country and could give a huge boost to
GovtsDigital India initiative, which proposes to use technology to deliver governance to every citizen
of India, even in remote areas.

• The challenge is the lack of digital infrastructure across India. This initiative addresses this
challenge in a cost-effective manner and creates an eco-system that will benefit everyone, including
manufacturers of routers and other technology devices, other technology companies, besides
Microsoft.

• Microsoft’s initiative also take forward the PM’s slogan of “IT + IT = IT”, which is Indian talent plus
information technology equals India tomorrow and also give a push to the ‘Make in India’ campaign
by encouraging the manufacture of equipment locally.

13. WEB PORTALS GOVERNMENT

• epashuhaat – Govt launched e-pashuhaat portal on the occasion of National Milk Day. Under the
scheme National Mission on Bovine Productivity ‘e-pashuhaat’ portal has been developed for
connecting breeders and farmers regarding availability of bovine germplasm. Through the portal
breeders/farmers can sell and purchase breeding stock, information on all forms of germplasm
including semen, embryos and live animals with all the agencies and stakeholders in the country has
been uploaded on the portal. Through this portal, farmers will be aware about the availability of
quality disease free bovine germplasm with different agencies in the country. The portal will lead to
propagation of high genetic merit germplasm.

• e-Pathshala – E-Pathshala has been developed by NCERT for showcasing and disseminating all
educational e-resources including textbooks, audio, video, periodicals and a variety of other print and
non-print materials through website and mobile app. The platform addresses the dual challenge of
reaching out to a diverse clientele and bridging the digital divide (geographical, socio-cultural and
linguistic), offering comparable quality of e-contents and ensuring its free access at every time and
every place.
• NAM – National Agriculture Market (NAM) is a pan-India electronic trading portal which networks
the existing APMC mandis to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities. The
NAM Portal provides a single window service for all APMC related information and services. This
includes commodity arrivals & prices, buy & sell trade offers, provision to respond to trade offers,
among other services. While material flows (agriculture produce) continue to happen through
mandis, an online market reduces transaction costs and information asymmetry.

• ‘ShaGun’ – Govt launched a dedicated web portal ‘ShaGun’ for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. ‘ShaGun’
aims to capture and showcase innovations and progress in Elementary Education sector of India by
continuous monitoring of the flagship scheme – Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA).

• AirSewa Portal : To provide a hassle-free and comfortable air travel experience to people, it is
necessary to recognize the pattern of problems that people face, and make suitable systemic
improvements in our working. So the Government launched the AirSewa portal to offer people a
convenient and hassle-free air travel experience. It will be operated through an interactive web portal
as well as through a mobile app for both android and iOS platforms. The portal will include a
mechanism for grievance redressal, back office operations for grievance handling, flight
status/schedule information, airport Information and FAQs.