I have become a cricket fan-but for a different reason. Besides all the
wastefulness that the game brings in terms of time, money, space and so on, it
is doing one good thing. Cricket is allowing people of India and Pakistan to
break the big walls that stand between them, and separate them. All credit must
go to cricket that so many people-including many opinion leaders-have
traveled across the boundaries and interacted. And got to know each other
better. I think, just like cricket, IT can and will play a big role in bringing
the two hostile nations together. It will not just promote peace, but create
lots of mutually beneficial opportunities.
Lets talk of the opportunities. India should now start seeing the entire
subcontinent as one market, even if politically it cannot call it a domestic
market. Similarly, for Pakistan also the entire subcontinent should be a single
market. If this happens, suddenly Pakistan will have a huge market available
right next door. For India, Pakistan will be more of an incremental market. But
more than that, it will be a big credibility boost. India will be seen as a
country, which is capable of handling mature business even with countries with
which relations have been strained for a long time.
This should pave way for business opportunities with other close neighbors
also like Bangladesh, which is again not a small market. In all these places
banking and finance, insurance, e-governance, retail, consumer goods,
pharmaceutical are some of the happening areas.
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I will not be surprised if a joint Indo-Pak team would be able to better
crack business opportunities in the entire Arab and Middle East region. These
countries are emerging as one of the biggest investors in IT these days. In the
past American and European companies had a better grip over this market with the
help of Pakistani partnerships. In fact, joint Indo-Pak teams would be more
effective in attacking markets in Africa and the new Muslim states of former
Soviet Russia. Therefore, suddenly, India would be able to target many other
emerging economies-and not just the US and Europe.
Countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, have also a fair amount
of somewhat educated English speaking youth, the foundation for call center and
BPO services. These countries therefore offer good expansion ground for Indian
BPO players. Obviously, these countries will also greatly benefit, in terms of
employment and skills development.
Besides the newer markets that will open up for both India and Pakistan,
there would be also a possibility of exchange of talent between these countries.
While Indian engineers and techies have already made a mark across the globe, if
one visits the US for instance, you will also see a lot of young and bright
people from Pakistan and Bangladesh coming out of the universities, and joining
the IT industry. A lot of these people could as well be powering Indian software
companies.
All this is not day dreaming. Everybody knows that IT industry across the
world, and therefore in India and Pakistan too, is all about the youth. It is
made of people who are driven more by passion for technology and business. They
do not carry the burden of partition, and are much more interested in peace,
progress and growth.
Furthermore, unlike other areas where trade and business between two
countries would first require opening up of roads, rail, and air traffic,
customs processes, and visa policies, it is not in case of IT. Teleconferencing,
communications links, and IT tools can be used for getting business started.
Later, as relationship between India and Pakistan develops, and as business
expands, barriers in the way of free movement of people and goods will
automatically go away.
The author is Editor of Dataquest Ibrahim
Ahmed