India will gain nearly $6-billion in information technology investment over the next few years from just three United States companies, according to a report on the Science and Development Network website, SciDev.Net.
But critics claim the computer world is drawing the country’s scientific talent away from other areas of research.
Microsoft is to double its Indian workforce to 7Â 000 and increase research and development investment by $1,7-billion. Intel is putting in $1-billion, and Advanced Micro Devices will invest $3-billion.
According to the New Delhi-based National Association of Software and Service Companies, India is attracting this level of foreign investment because of low labour costs, a well-educated, English-speaking workforce and its location in a convenient time zone.
But some Indian leaders, according to an article in Science that is available via links on SciDev.Net, are accusing the boom of luring talent away from universities. Information technology entrants are tempted with salaries three times higher than those for entry-level scientists.
Others see this attitude as envy, and claim that such battles for talent, if they lead to a stronger economy, will benefit both commercial and basic research.
Taking the internet to the poor
Meanwhile, last year a group of Indian organisations set up a national alliance to ensure that the rural poor are not excluded from the internet. The National Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies for Basic Human Needs was launched at the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai.
It aims to take knowledge-based services to all of India’s villages by 2007, when the country celebrates its 60th year of independence.
“This is the first time that a national level task force on information and communication technologies, led by civil societies, has been formed,” says Basheerhamad Shadrach, director of OneWorld South Asia. Previous initiatives have come from the government or industry.
Several researchers have argued that providing broadband connectivity to rural homes at affordable costs could be the key to helping the poor benefit.
They advocate converting information kiosks into multipurpose community centres providing multiple telephone and communication services to the village, including outlets for banking, financial and insurance services, and trading.
There may also be a greater role for computers in preparing for and managing disasters. Shadrach said the Indian government “should liberate the vast amount of spatial data” available through its remote sensing satellites for use by grassroots civil society organisations. But such data is only made available to district administrative officials, and is too technical in its current format for lay people to comprehend. — SciDev.Net