A PC for Every Indian

One out of every fifty Indian owns a PC: a very dramatic

statement; a potential headline for newspapers and magazines.

The jubilation, however, was short-lived. At a time when we are

trying to position India as a competitor to China on the IT front, especially in

software, services, and BPO, the 22 mn installed PC base of India is a number

that should not have headlines. In fact, it should be a secret we should all

shudder at the thought of becoming public.

My jaws dropped when somebody mentioned that in China about 30

mn PCs are being sold every year. And, this number is going to increase rapidly,

because market trackers predict that by 2010 China would have added another 178

mn PCs.

Actually, at a global level also, the numbers being discussed

are gigantic. From the current 600 mn PCs in the world, the number will more

than double by 2010 to about 1.3 bn PCs. And, we as Indians, being happy at

reaching a total installed base of 22 mn PCs, needs second thoughts.

Agreed that PC numbers might not be the only thing in the world,

but I believe that in the coming years it will be. Countries with a very high PC

penetration will have so many advantages.

A huge domestic hardware market in China, where about 40 plus

million PCs will sell every year, means that China-based IT related

manufacturing will beat all calculations of economies of scale. And,

manufacturing PCs and all the components in any other country besides China

might not make any sense at all. This could be bad news for India, at a time

when IT and telecom manufacturing is gathering some steam here.

The impact of a huge PC base in China will go far beyond making

that country and its neighbors the global manufacturing hub. Just imagine a

situation if there are 300 mn or more PC owners in China, with some knowledge of

English and IT, or any other technical skills, that can be connected over high

quality telecom networks. They could substantially change Chinas strength in

the IT services, BPO or KPO space. The ecosystem will have thousands of software

developers, application builders, systems integrators, content aggregators, and

other service providers ranging from managed services to facility management to

maintenance units. This will give not just a big boost to the domestic IT

industry, but to the overall economy of the country.

Ever since the merging of the IT and telecom ministry, one hoped

that both will grow on each others strengths, and therefore get equal impetus

from the government. However, what we have witnessed is something different. The

erstwhile IT and communications minister was actually more of a telecom

minister. One hopes and urges the new minister to give a lot of focus to IT too,

and perhaps PC targets for the country, just as there are cell phone targets and

broadband targets.

The author is Group Editor of Dataquest.



ibrahima@cybermedia.co.in