Vernacular IT market to cross $64 M by 2005: study

Friday, 09 May 2003, 19:30 IST
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NEW DELHI: The vernacular IT applications market in India is expected to touch $64 million by 2005, up from $11 million now, as government agencies unveil a slew of e-governance projects, said a study Thursday. "The language technology industry is very nascent and highly fragmented," said the report of Manufacturers' Association for Information Technology (MAIT), an umbrella group representing hardware and IT research and development services. "The market is currently driven by off-the-shelf applications for end users such as the publishing industry and government sectors," it added. "However, in the next two to three years the e-governance initiatives being undertaken by various government bodies are expected to spur the growth in the local language computing market in India." The study revealed that current market size of the local language applications had remained limited due to lack of universal standards for scripts and fonts, and limited availability of vernacular software and fonts. According to MAIT, the key drivers of the local language application market in the near future will be introduction and promotion of new technology solutions and applications by the industry to cater to the growing needs of citizens. Initiatives revolving around the commercialisation of products and applications being developed in the numerous research labs in India will also fuel the growth in the sector, it added. "The challenges that need to be tackled for improving computing in vernacular include lack of formal IT-based language training amongst the users and lack of awareness regarding e-governance computing applications at the grassroots level." It said low computer penetration across the country and insufficient or delayed implementation of the initiatives taken by different government bodies also put roadblocks in the way of growth. The lobby group suggested that the government must create a web-based repository of best practices for content, software and language-based applications and this must be available in the public domain. The state and central governments must be mandated to deploy local language interface for citizens' services. "The government needs to play the role of a catalyst and facilitator. It has to handhold and ensure technology transfer to the public and vendors." "There is a direct correlation between availability of IT Applications in vernacular and the IT penetration in the country," said Vinnie Mehta, executive director of MAIT. "The latter can be accelerated by giving a thrust through increased deployment of the former. The industry needs to work towards killer applications, which will be of economic benefit to the SMEs and the common man."
Source: IANS
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