Annual Report 2007 - Observer Research Foundation

Dr. S. Narayan, former Advisor to Prime Minister,
cautioned that the move by China to set up
software station in Bangalore is a cause for
concern for the Indian IT industry.
EMAJOR
EVENTS
To give further fillip to the indusry, the Minister said the Government proposed to encourage larger
private sector and foreign participation in ship-building to maintain world class practices and technologies.
He also said government has plans to add a hub port each along the sides of our coasts to
provide necessary connectivity to the deep inland.
Echoing the warnings sounded by the Minister, Naval Chief Admiral Sureesh Mehta said that
security forces stumbling upon some arms in sea-bound containers at the Kochi port recently proved
that sea lane security had to be further tightened. He said with the ratification of the container security
initiative, Navy, Coastguard and Customs would have to be extra vigilant.
Mr. Mehta said under the new security system installed at various ports and container stations,
now almost 96 per cent of the cargo was being screened, both in-bound and out-bound. The naval
chief also called for the setting up of National Maritime Association to oversee all civil sea farings of
the country.
INDIA’S SILICON VALLEY: DREAMS, REALITY AND CHALLENGES AHEAD
Observer Research Foundation and Nasscom came together to take forward the ORF report on India’s
Silicon Valley: Dreams, Reality and Challenges ahead. Nasscom, with the assistance of ORF,
organised a seminar in Delhi on November 17, 2006, based on the report, written by well-known IT
journalist, Mr. Murli Menon. The Nasscom President, Mr. Kiran Karnik, inaugurated the conference,
titled “Innovation & Market Realities”. Mr. Karnik told a packed hall of IT professionals and
specialists that innovation is the key to next stage in the development of the industry. He said if the
industry did not take innovation seriously, at stake would be the additional business of 10-15 billion
in the next few years. He said the industry should see that “great ideas do not die young.”
Giving the keynote address, Dr. S. Narayan, former Advisor to Prime Minister of India and now
Advisor to ORF Chairman, cautioned that the move by China to set up software station in Bangalore is
a cause for concern for the Indian IT industry. He pointed out that so far India dominated the software
market, while China accounted for bulk of hardware market. He also drew the Indian IT Industry’s
attention to the worrisome aspect of European countries becoming a major threat to Indian software
companies in the near future. Dr. Narayan said eastern and western European countries have already
started giving competition to Indian IT industry in software sector. In this connection, he singled out
the example of Bulgaria which has developed a booming software market. He said “unless we give due
importance to this aspect, in five years time, European countries will surge ahead of us”.
Asking the IT industry not to become complacent against competition, Dr. Narayan also stressed
on the need to strictly implement the laws we have enacted to tackle legal issues. “Good laws themselves
are not sufficient. Implementation of them is equally important. Sometimes good implementation
of not so good laws are better than bad implementation of good laws,” he said.
32 Observer Research Foundation ◆ Annual Report 2007