NEW DELHI: India's software exports to Italy has increased from $21 million in 2000-01 to $28 million in the fiscal year that ended in March, said a National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) statement here. According to the lobby group, there was a need to boost cooperation between small and medium software enterprises in India and Italy through joint product development and alliances to boost IT trade between the two countries. Indian industry would also have to spread awareness among large manufacturing and engineering firms in Italy about India's expertise in the areas of project management, enterprise resource planning and supply chain management, it said. "Traditionally India has been tapping English speaking nations in Europe but under-penetrated non-English speaking countries in Europe offer the Indian IT industry over $2.6 billion in export potential," said Arun Kumar, chairman of Nasscom. "The Italian ICT market, despite the slowdown, has been growing at eight percent, four times higher than the world average of 1.8 percent and the highest in Europe. "Our aim is to raise Europe's share in Indian exports from 23 percent as of 2001-02 to 30 percent by end of 2005." Nasscom said the emerging opportunities in areas such as e-business, telecom solutions, supply chain management, software development and maintenance, embedded software and IT enabled services can boost IT trade between India and Italy. "Indian companies can build strategic alliances, enter into joint ventures, conduct joint product development or fulfil outsourcing requirements of Italian IT companies in these areas," Kumar said. Nasscom is currently leading a high-level delegation of Indian technology companies to participate in SMAU 2002, Italy's premier and world's second-largest IT and communications industry exhibition. Indian Minister for IT and Communications Pramod Mahajan launched Simputer, India's indigenously developed low-cost handheld personal computer, for the European market at the exhibition on the inaugural day. Simputer - short for simple, inexpensive and multilingual hand-held computer - has been developed by a team of scientists at the prestigious Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. The Indian delegation at the five-day SMAU 2002, which started Thursday, includes blue-chip companies such as Tata Consultancy Services, Hyderabad-based Satyam Computer Services, Nucleus Software and Servion Global Solutions.
Source: IANS