point
The Smart Techie was renamed Siliconindia India Edition starting Feb 2012 to continue the nearly two decade track record of excellence of our US edition.

Low piracy rate to create more jobs in India

si Team
Thursday, October 5, 2006
si Team
The Indian software industry has a reason to smile. According to a joint study by International Data Corporation (IDC) and Business Software Alliance (BSA), the PC software piracy rate in India has declined by 2 points to 72 percent.

India is one of the four countries in the Asia Pacific region to see piracy rates decline. While the average Asia piracy rate increased by 1 point to 54 percent this year, the piracy rates in six Asian economies declined. China led the way with a 4-point drop, followed by India, Singapore and Vietnam with 2-point reductions.

In spite of the progress, there is no time to relax. As per BSA, the efforts are still not enough and India needs to get more proactive to combat software piracy. Robert Holleyman, president and CEO, BSA said, “China and India have high piracy rates of 86 percent and 72 percent respectively, but if you check records of these countries during the last 18 months, China has fared better.” “Piracy challenges are not new to India, and by using the best practices from across the world the levels can be decreased,” he adds.

As per the earlier IDC-BSA study, if piracy is reduced from the current 72 to 64 percent by 2009, India will see some 115,000 new IT jobs, an additional $5.9 billion pumped into its economy and increased tax revenues of $386 million.

Holleyman is talking to the government and corporates in India. He feels that one strategic step in combating the piracy menace is to build public-private partnerships. BSA plans to embark on new educational and enforcement programs encouraging partnerships in India in the next one year, with a view to educate people on skills of managing software assets and knowledge of risk of using pirated software.
Share on Twitter
Share on LinkedIn
Share on facebook